The music industry will hand out its highest honours on Sunday (Feb 1) at the Grammy Awards, where Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga will battle for the most coveted album of the year prize and a chance to make history.

Trevor Noah is returning to host for a sixth time, which he says will be his last Grammys gig. 

Any of the three artists could take home the album accolade during the ceremony in Los Angeles, awards experts say. None of the musicians has ever won the honour, which last year went to Beyonce for Cowboy Carter.

A ‘SUPER TIGHT’ THREE-WAY RACE

“It’s going to be super tight,” Paul Grein, awards editor at Billboard, said of the album category.

Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican rapper who is scheduled to headline next month’s Super Bowl halftime show, is in the running for Debi Tirar Más Fotos. It would be the first Spanish-language album to win in the category since the Grammys began 68 years ago.

If Lamar wins for GNX, he would be the first solo male rapper to win the award. Only two hip-hop musicians have been honoured in the category – female artist Lauryn Hill and the duo Outkast.

For pop singer Lady Gaga, the album prize would be the first of her celebrated career. She has never won any of the top four Grammy prizes despite more than two decades in the music business. This year, she is competing with the album Mayhem.

Grein predicted the trophy would go to Lamar, who won five Grammys a year ago for the single Not Like Us.

Current events may boost support for Bad Bunny, Grein said.

BAD BUNNY SKIPPED US SHOWS FOR FEAR OF FEDERAL RAIDS

The singer skipped the continental United States on his recent concert tour, saying he feared federal agents carrying out US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown would show up to arrest his fans.

His selection for the coming Super Bowl halftime show on Feb 8 also drew objections from critics who argued the National Football League championship game’s entertainment should be performed in English.

“I think the culture wars work in his favour,” Grein said. “There are people who will vote for him in part – not only for this reason, but in part – as a rebuke to President Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.”

Lamar and Gaga are represented by Universal Music Group. Bad Bunny is signed by Puerto Rican label Rimas Entertainment.

Grammy winners will be chosen by the roughly 15,000 voting members of the Recording Academy – industry peers including artists, songwriters, producers and engineers – whose ranks have been revamped over the past seven years to increase diversity. About 1,000 Latin Grammys voters became eligible to vote this year, and 73 per cent of members have joined since 2019.

Recording Academy Chief Executive Harvey Mason Jr said the changes reflect the growing popularity of different types of music such as KPop and Afrobeats that now have fans around the world.

“For us, the academy, we had to keep up with that,” he said. “We have to make sure we are responsible and we’re honouring music regardless of where it comes from.”