The Recording Academy has unveiled its up to date rulebook for the 2026 Grammys. Key adjustments embrace the division of the Finest Nation Album class into two awards: The unique class is now known as Finest Up to date Nation Album, and a brand new one, Finest Conventional Nation Album, has been added. Notably, Beyoncé won the 2025 Finest Nation Album Grammy in her first yr of nomination within the class; her Lemonade tune “Daddy Classes” was controversially rejected by the nation music committee in 2016.
A shakeup within the packaging area has led to the creation of a brand new class, Finest Album Cowl, in addition to the merging of the Finest Boxed or Particular Restricted Version Bundle class—through which Jeff Mangum was a surprise 2024 nominee—with Finest Recording Bundle. Albums offered on to followers can even qualify for packaging Grammys any more.
Elsewhere, Finest New Artist eligibility has expanded. Up to now, contributors to data nominated for Album of the 12 months can be ineligible for Finest New Artist sooner or later. That continues to be the case, with some exceptions. In 2023, the Recording Academy tightened its Album of the 12 months eligibility standards to exclude contributors who characteristic on lower than 20 % of the album. In case your prior Album of the 12 months nomination would not have been eligible underneath the brand new, tighter parameters, you are actually, as soon as once more, eligible for Finest New Artist.
The general adjustments, mentioned Harvey Mason, Jr., in a press launch, are the results of “listening rigorously to [Recording Academy] members to verify our guidelines and pointers replicate immediately’s music.” The subsequent Grammys happen on February 1, 2026. Nominees are introduced on November 7.
