Grammy voters spread the wealth this year, with different winners in the general and most of the CU-relevant genre categories. Here’s who won at the 2026 Grammy Awards.
General Field
Album of the Year*
Chromakopia, Tyler, The Creator
DeBí TiRAR MáS FOToS, Bad Bunny
GNX, Kendrick Lamar
Let God Sort Em Out, Clipse, Pusha T, & Malice
Man’s Best Friend, Sabrina Carpenter
Mayhem, Lady Gaga
MUTT, Leon Thomas
SWAG, Justin Bieber
Record of the Year
“Abracadabra,” Lady Gaga
“Anxiety,” Doechii
“APT.,” ROSÉ feat. Bruno Mars
“DtMF,” Bad Bunny
“luther,” Kendrick Lamar with SZA
“Manchild,” Sabrina Carpenter
“The Subway,” Chappell Roan
“WILDFLOWER,” Billie Eilish
Song of the Year
“Abracadabra,” Lady Gaga, Henry Walter, & Andrew Watt
“Anxiety,” Jaylah Hickmon
“APT.,” Amy Allen, Christopher Brody Brown, Rogét Chahayed,Omer Fedi, Philip Lawrence, Bruno Mars, Chae Young Park, Theron Thomas & Henry Walter
“DtMF,” Marco Daniel Borrero, Scott Dittrich, Benjamin Falik, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, Hugo René Sención Sanabria, Tyler Spry & Roberto José Rosado Torres
“Golden,” EJAE, Park Hong Jun, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seo & Mark Sonnenblick
“luther,” Jack Antonoff, Roshwita Larisha Bacha, Matthew Bernard, Scott Bridgeway, Sam Dew, Ink, Kendrick Lamar, Solána Rowe, Mark Anthony Spears & Kamasi Washington – Should Win
“Manchild,” Amy Allen, Jack Antonoff & Sabrina Carpenter
“WILDFLOWER,” Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas O’Connell
Best New Artist
Olivia Dean
KATSEYE
The Mariàs
Addison Rae
sombr
Leon Thomas
Alex Warren
Lola Young
Producer of the Year, Non-Classical
Dan Auerbach
Cirkut
Dijon
Blake Mills
Sounwave
Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical
Amy Allen
Edgar Barrera
Jessie Jo Dillon
Tobias Jesso, Jr
Laura Veltz
Country & American Roots Music Field
Best Country Solo Performance
Tyler Childers, “Nose On The Grindstone”
Shaboozey, “Good News”
Chris Stapleton, “Bad As I Used To Be”
Zach Top, “I Never Lie”
Lainey Wilson, “Somewhere Over Laredo”
Best Country Duo / Group Performance*
Miranda Lambert & Chris Stapleton, “A Song to Sing”
Reba McEntire, Miranda Lambert, & Lainey Wilson, “Trailblazer”
Margo Price & Tyler Childers, “Love Me Like You Used To”
Shaboozey & Jelly Roll, “Amen”
George Strait & Chris Stapleton, “Honky Tonk Hall Of Fame”
Best Country Song*
“Bitin’ List,” Tyler Childers
“Good News,” Sean Cook, Collins Obinna Chibueze, Michael Ross Pollack, Sam Elliot Roman, Nevin Sastry, & Jacob Torrey
“I Never Lie,” Carson Chamberlain, Tim Nichols, & Zach Top
“Somewhere Over Laredo,” Andy Albert, Trannie Anderson, Dallas Wilson, & Lainey Wilson
“A Song To Sing,” Jenee Fleenor, Jesse Frasure, Miranda Lambert, & Chris Stapleton
Best Contemporary Country Album
Beautifully Broken, Jelly Roll
Evangeline vs The Machine, Eric Church
PATTERNS, Kelsea Ballerini
Postcards From Texas, Miranda Lambert
Snipe Hunter, Tyler Childers
Best Traditional Country Album*
Ain’t In It For My Health, Zach Top
American Romance, Lukas Nelson
Dollar A Day, Charley Crockett
Hard Headed Woman, Margo Price
Oh, What A Beautiful World, Willie Nelson
Best American Roots Performance
Jon Batiste feat. Randy Newman, “LONELY AVENUE”
I’m With Her, “Ancient Light”
Jason Isbell, “Crimson And Clay”
Alison Krauss & Union Station, “Richmond On The James”
Mavis Staples, “Beautiful Strangers”
Best Americana Performance
Sierra Hull, “Boom”
Maggie Rose & Grace Potter, “Poison In My Well”
Mavis Staples, “Godspeed”
Molly Tuttle, “That’s Gonna Leave A Mark”
Jesse Welles, “Horses”
Best American Roots Song
“Ancient Light,” Sarah Jarosz, Aofie O’Donovan, & Sara Watkins
“BIG MONEY,” Jon Batiste, Mike Elizondo, & Steve McEwan
“Foxes In The Snow,” Jason Isbell
“Middle,” Jesse Welles
“Spitfire,” Sierra Hull
Best Americana Album
BIG MONEY, Jon Batiste
Bloom, Larkin Poe
Last Leaf On The Tree, Willie Nelson
Middle, Jesse Welles
So Long Little Miss Sunshine, Molly Tuttle
Best Bluegrass Album
Arcadia, Alison Krauss & Union Station
Carter & Cleveland, Michael Cleveland & Jason Carter
Highway Prayers, Billy Strings
Outrun, The SteelDrivers
A Tip Toe High Wire, Sierra Hull
Best Contemporary Blues Album*
Breakthrough, Joe Bonamassa
Family, Southern Avenue
Paper Doll, Samantha Fish
Preacher’s Kids, Robert Randolph
A Tribute to LJK, Eric Gales
Best Traditional Blues Album
Ain’t Done With The Blues, Buddy Guy
Look Out Highway, Charlie Musselwhite
One Hour Mama: The Blues Of Victoria Spivey, Maria Muldaur
Room On The Porch, Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’
Young Fashioned Ways, Kenny Wayne Shepherd & Bobby Rush
Best Folk Album
Crown Of Roses, Patty Griffin
Foxes In The Snow, Jason Isbell
What Did The Blackbird Say To The Crow, Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson
Wild And Clear And Blue, I’m With Her
Underneath The Powerlines: April 24 – September 24, Jesse Welles
Not a great year here on the predictions front (categories with an * above are the ones we called correctly), but this was a year when pundits underperformed across the board. Like I wrote in my Preamble for our 2025 Best Of, it was a year without a clear narrative, and that showed up in a slate of Grammy winners without any overwhelming favorites.
Among the country winners, only Jelly Roll’s award for Best Contemporary Country Album sticks out as truly egregious, given its own poor quality and the generally strong efforts by the majority of the other nominees in the category. He immediately and predictably launched into his ridiculous Suburban Megachurch Pastor cosplay routine in his acceptance speech, and how people aren’t exhausted of his obvious and pandering shtick by now is beyond me. In contrast, his duet partner, Shaboozey, used his pre-show acceptance speech for their shared award not to center his own narrative but to uplift immigrants.
As for the show itself, host Trevor Noah and the interstitial announcers could not stop mentioning that Reba was performing for the very first time on the Grammys. While the new rendition of “Trailblazer” she performed with Brandy Clark (!!) and Lukas Nelson for the In Memoriam segment was lovely and superior to the nominated version with Lambert and Wilson, it was also the only country performance on this year’s broadcast. It stands to reason that omitting rising and current stars– Tyler Childers would’ve been the obvious pick this year among the nominees– from the line-up is exactly how the Grammys end up with a 70 year-old icon performing on the show for the first time ever.
I was taken aback when I read on another site that this was the first time Reba had ever performed at the Grammys. Considering they’ve only bothered to “reward” her with “just” three Grammys over the course of forty some odd years, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
It does seem weird in general, but when you look at her Grammys history she was pretty much always just nominated for 1 award in the years she was nominated.
I am surprised she was never part of a tribute performance or something. She could have done a duet with Vince Gill or someone at one point. Of course she may have been asked but declined.
I guess 3 wins seems small for her career, but if you look at her specific losses in Female Country they were to KT Oslin (twice), Kathy Mattea, and Mary Chapin Carpenter (three times). I can’t really argue against any of them, except maybe one of the losses to MCC.
I adore MCC’s nineties era(not much since then), but her only female vocal Grammy win I love is for Passionate Kisses; Reba (’92), Pam Tillis (’93) and either Patty Loveless or Martina McBride (’95) would’ve been my picks in the other respective years. I guess I can’t argue much with the Oslin and Mattea wins (though I personally prefer The Last One To Know to ’80s Ladies, I know, sacrilege).
Looking at what Reba was actually nominated for, up against the other nominees, I’d find it hard to vote for her in any of the years she didn’t win except maybe– and only maybe– Mary Chapin’s win for “I Feel Lucky.” My favorite Reba singles and performances– “One Promise Too Late,” “Fancy,” “If I Had Only Known,” “The Fear of Being Alone,” “Just Like Them Horses”– aren’t among her nominations.
The competition during her prime era was just so fierce, whereas I’d have given her a win for “I Can’t” over any of the 5 Solo Performance nominees this year in a heartbeat.
I think it was the For My Broken Heart album as a whole that was up against “Down at the Twist & Shout” so, in a way, if it had won, “If I Had Only Known” would have been honored. Weird quirk at the time that mixed albums and singles in the same category.
Good to see the uber-traditional trio I’m With Her (to wit, Sara Watkins, Aoife O’Donovan, Sarah Jarosz) winning.
And although this isn’t really related to anything in the country sphere of the Grammys, it should be noted that another person nabbed the coveted EGOT (Emmy; Grammy; Oscar; Tony), and that was the most successful film director in the history of the form. Having won four Emmys as a producer (including Band Of Brothers), one Tony in 2022 for producing the Broadway musical :i>A Strange Loop, and three Oscars (two for Schindler’s List in 1993, and one in 1998 for Saving Private Ryan), Steven Spielberg won his first Grammy as a co-producer of the music documentary Music By John Williams, which won for Best Music Film.
That’s definitely a good catch about Spielberg: I’d missed that he completed his EGOT this year!
And not mad at all about the wins for I’m With Her. They weren’t my first choice in any of their categories, but I’m still fully on board with those wins.
…having been my first grammy broadcast in full – usually they only show short bits in the news over here where i come from – i rather enjoyed it, musically and visually. that pink jacket pharrell williams wore was outstanding tailoring and it wasn’t the only one that night. the color though, you got to be born for pulling that one off, i’d say. ms. carpenter was a pleasure every time the camera caught her – like a kid in a toy store at christmas. moreover, her moves on stage were testimony that her life as a showgirl could sport seriously impressive results. reminding country-radio executives what they missed passing by brandy clark was wonderfully subversive. i wish reba had been invited earlier when her voice could compete at the absolute highest level (around the last one to know period). also loved the hot cousin of asgard’s heimdal there on the right hand side of the stage, staging a hairdo that would have made the late roberta flack real proud. and what a timeless beauty “killing me softly” still is. tyler the creator wearing that freaky maduro-hat of late – he should have gone for the shower slippers too, the fool (diffy might have added) – also showed a lovely sense of black humor – or drama. bad bunny was funny and proved mr. wallen, or zach bryan for that matter, to be right dim lights not aspiring to be part of that gathering of plenty of seriously gifted people of their profession. the forrest gump quote on intelligence applies.
then again, perhaps one day country music may figure out how to behave and present itself up to the occasion. doin’ hillbilly doesn’t require to behave like one – or worse.
Carpenter’s performance was definitely a highlight. She’s such a consummate showperson and pro’s pro. A lifetime ago, she’d have been given a weekly prime time variety hour, and she’d have killed at that. I didn’t necessarily think she deserved to win in any of the categories she was nominated in, but I remain fully on board with her as one of the “Main Pop Girls” of the moment.
The “killing me softly” performance was another highlight, yes. Given their history, that Wyclef joined Hill for their Fugees cover of that song was a surprise, and there was just such genuine joy– and such genuinely great singing– throughout the tributes to D’Angelo and Roberta Flack.
Talent-wise, I think Wallen and, to a lesser extent, Bryan would both be out of their depth with many of the artists highlighted by the Grammys this year, Jelly Roll notwithstanding. As I’ve said many times, Wallen’s popularity is its own reward, and he doesn’t deserve more than that. If he wants to be a petulant child and pull a “take my ball and go home” routine vis-a-vis the Grammys, it’s at least fully on brand for him.