Not like us? More like him! Roommates, Kendrick Lamar is leading the 2026 Grammy Award nominations. The reveal came on Friday (November 7) as the Recording Academy announced its highly anticipated list.
Only recordings commercially released in the U.S. between Aug. 31, 2024 through Aug. 30, 2025 were eligible for nominations. The final round of Grammy voting, which determines its winners, will take place Dec. 12 through Jan. 5. The 2026 Grammy Awards will air Feb. 1 live on CBS and Paramount+ from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
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The Shade Room Previews THESE Categories
The Shade Room got first dibs on a few notable categories, including ‘Best R&B Performance,’ ‘Best R&B Album,’ ‘Best Rap Performance,’ ‘Best Rap Album, ‘Best African Music Performance,’ and ‘Best Global Music Album.” We’ll take you through those below, and more, as excitement builds for the show scheduled for February.
Kendrick Lamar Takes Over 2026 Grammy Nominations
The rapper is up for nine trophies at February’s ceremony: record, song and album of the year. This marks the third time Lamar has had simultaneous nominations in those big categories. He’s also competing for pop duo/group performance, melodic rap performance, rap song and rap album. Additionally, Kung Fu Kenny is also nominated twice in the rap performance category.
Lamar, who is riding the success of last year’s blockbuster ‘GNX’ album, has 22 Grammy career wins and 66 nominations. ‘GNX’ is his fifth consecutive studio album to be nominated for album of the year, something no other artist has ever done. If it wins, it will be his first win in the category. And it will be only the third rap album to win the top prize, following Outkast in 2004 for ‘Speakerboxxx/The Love Below’ and Lauryn Hill in 1999 for ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.’
Other Big Steppers On The Nomination List
Lady Gaga, Jack Antonoff and Canadian record producer/songwriter Cirkut follow Kendrick Lamar with seven nominations each. Gaga is up for song, record and album of the year. This is her first time receiving nominations in all three categories simultaneously. She could also score potential wins in the pop solo performance, pop vocal album, dance pop recording and traditional pop vocal album categories.
Antonoff is nominated in the record, album and song of the year categories twice, for his work with Lamar and Sabrina Carpenter. He’s also nominated for rap song for the first time. That’s for ‘tv off’ with Lamar, featuring Lefty Gunplay.
Antonoff and Cirkut will face off in the producer of the year, non-Classical category. If Antonoff wins, he will tie Babyface’s record of most career wins in the category, with four.
That’s not all. Cirkut is up for both record and song of the year, twice — for Lady Gaga’s ‘Abracadabra’ and Rosé and Bruno Mars’ ‘APT.’ — as well as album of the year and best dance pop recording.
