Kendrick Lamar Leads the Grammy Nominations and K-Pop Gets Its Recognition
All the surprises, snubs and celebrations from the 68th Grammy Award nominations.
Surprises, snubs and big celebrations, the 68th Grammy Award nominees are out ahead of the 2026 ceremony, which will take place in Los Angeles on February 1. Here’s who’s up for awards in the main categories.
Kendrick Lamar, who previously won Song and Record of the Year in 2025 with “Not Like Us,” has once again proved that his loyal fans are rewarding him. This year, he is poised to make even more of a sweep, leading the pack of 2026 nominees with a whopping nine nods. The hip-hop superstar received nominations for the top three categories with Song, Album and Record of the Year. While commercially, it was a bit of a low year for hip-hop, that didn’t show up in the Grammy nominations with Lamar’s major nods alongside Doechii and Tyler, the Creator receiving five nominations each.
Lady Gaga’s fanbase will also be cheering on as she received seven nominations, topping her previous record of six back in 2010. The singer is tied for the second-most nominations, with producers Jack Antonoff and Cirkut also taking seven. The surprise of the night was rising star Leon Thomas, who received substantially more attention than expected with an impressive six nods, putting him in a tie with Sabrina Carpenter, Bad Bunny and audio engineer Serban Ghenea.
The six nominations for Bad Bunny were good news for anyone worried that Latin music would miss out on the big categories and be left to the Latin Grammys, which has happened for the artist for the last few years. This time, his voters didn’t allow that with Bad Bunny up for all three of the top categories of Album, Record and Song of the Year.
K-pop also made its mark, a genre that has previously been ignored. With BTS being the only K-pop artists to previously get a nod, this year saw two K-pop tracks in contention for best song: “Golden,” the lead track from phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters and “APT,” the hit by former Blackpink member Rosé alongside Bruno Mars. Rosé also got nods in four other categories, and KPop Demon Hunters got three.
In perhaps another final surprise, Timothée Chalamet got his first Grammy nod for his role in the Oscar-nominated movie A Complete Unknown, where he played Bob Dylan. With plenty of firsts this time around, we can’t wait to tune in for the winners of the 68th Grammy Awards in February.
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