The Recording Academy has unveiled its up to date rulebook for the 2026 Grammy Awards. Key adjustments embody the division of the Finest Nation Album class into two awards: The unique class is now known as Finest Modern 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 music “Daddy Classes” was controversially rejected by the nation music committee in 2016.
A shakeup within the packaging subject 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—by which Jeff Mangum was a surprise 2024 nominee—with Finest Recording Bundle. Albums offered on to followers will even qualify for packaging Grammys any more.
Elsewhere, Finest New Artist eligibility has expanded. Previously, contributors to data nominated for Album of the Yr could be ineligible for Finest New Artist sooner or later. That is still the case, with some exceptions. In 2023, the Recording Academy tightened its Album of the Yr eligibility standards to exclude contributors who characteristic on lower than 20 % of the album. In case your prior Album of the Yr nomination would not have been eligible underneath the brand new, tighter parameters, you at the moment are, 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 right this moment’s music.” The subsequent Grammy Awards happen on Sunday, February 1, 2026. Nominees are introduced on Friday, November 7, 2025.
