The Golden Globes hosted their awards ceremony on the 11th of January, presenting awards to many amazing actors, directors, and other film and TV artists. With that, the awards season continues, shifting its focus to the music industry. The next major entertainment awards ceremony is the Grammy Awards, which recognizes the musical achievements of producers, musicians, songwriters and other industry professionals. The 2026 GRAMMYS are scheduled for Sunday, the 1st of February, making it the 68th ceremony since its conception in 1959. However, the Grammys have significantly grown since then.
May 4th of 1959 was the date of the first-ever Grammy Awards ceremony, recognizing musical achievements of 1958. Hosted by Mort Sahl, a Canadian-American actor and comedian, the ceremony was held simultaneously at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles and the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City. The ceremony presented 28 total awards. The first-ever Record of the Year award was presented to “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare)” by Domenico Modugno, an Italian singer, actor and later politician. He also won the Song of the Year award. The Album of the Year Award went to ‘The Music from Peter Gunn’ by Henry Mancini, composer, conductor and musician. There was, however, no Best New Artist award at the 1st Grammy Awards; the award was introduced to the GRAMMYS the following year in 1960 and presented to Walden Robert Cassotto, known as Bobby Darin. Additional accomplishments include Frank Sinatra’s six nominations, his Grammy for art direction and the Best Album Cover award for ‘Only the Lonely’. Eliza Fitzgerald is another notable artist who won awards for Best Female Vocal Performance and Best Individual Jazz Performance.
Over time, the awards have changed their ceremonial dates from late spring to the month of February. After 2004, the awards have been consistently held around early February (excluding the 2021 and 2022 ceremonies, which were postponed due to COVID safety concerns). Multiple locations were used for the Grammy Awards until 2000, when the Crypto.com Arena (formerly the Staples Center) in Los Angeles was designated the official venue for the GRAMMYS. The awards have been hosted very rarely anywhere else since.
This year’s GRAMMYS will present 95 awards, including two new categories: The Best Traditional Country Album and Best Album Cover. There was also a merger of two categories, The Best Recording Package and Best Boxed or Special Limited-Edition package, resulting in a net total change of one award. There are 11 total fields this year, each representing a group of related genres:
Pop & Dance/Electronic
Rock, Metal & Alternative Music
R&B, Rap & Spoken Word Poetry
Jazz, Traditional Pop, Contemporary Instrumental & Musical Theater
Country & American Roots Music
Gospel & Contemporary Christian Music
Latin, Global, Reggae & New Age, Ambient, or Chant
Children’s, Comedy, Audio Books, Visual Media & Music Video/Film
Package, Notes & Historical
Production, Engineering, Composition & Arrangement
Classical
The Big Four awards that most people look forward to are Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist. This year, the nominees are as follows:
Record of the Year:
“DtMF” – Bad Bunny
“Manchild” – Sabrina Carpenter
“Anxiety” – Doechii
“WILDFLOWER” – Billie Eilish
“Abracadabra” – Lady Gaga
“luther” – Kendrick Lamar with SZA
“The Subway” – Chappell Roan
“APT.” – ROSÉ, Bruno Mars
Album of the Year:
‘DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS’ – Bad Bunny
‘SWAG’ – Justin Bieber
‘Man’s Best Friend’ – Sabrina Carpenter
‘Let God Sort Em Out’ – Clipse, Pusha T & Malice
‘MAYHEM’ – Lady Gaga
‘GNX’ – Kendrick Lamar
‘MUTT’ – Leon Thomas
‘CHROMAKOPIA’ – Tyler, The Creator
Song of the Year:
“Abracadabra” – Lady Gaga
“Anxiety” – Doechii
“APT.” – ROSÉ, Bruno Mars
“DtMF” – Bad Bunny
“Golden” – HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna, REI AMI
“Luther” – Kendrick Lamar with SZA
“Manchild” – Sabrina Carpenter
“WILDFLOWER” – Billie Eilish
Best New Artist:
Olivia Dean
KATSEYE
The Marias
Addison Rae
sombr
Leon Thomas
Alex Warren
Lola Young
This year’s Grammys will be hosted by comedian, actor and writer Trevor Noah, making it his sixth consecutive year hosting the ceremony. The GRAMMYS will be hosted at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Viewers can watch the broadcast live on the CBS network or stream on demand with Paramount+ at 8:00 Eastern Standard Time (5:00 PM for Pacific Standard Time).