{"id":354586,"date":"2025-12-17T18:32:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T18:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/354586\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T18:32:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T18:32:06","slug":"grammys-2026-5-burning-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/354586\/","title":{"rendered":"Grammys 2026: 5 Burning Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe table is set. As the final round of voting for the 2026 Grammy Awards<\/a> opened Dec. 12, Music\u2019s Biggest Night is now in the Academy\u2019s hands before the big winners will finally be revealed Feb. 1.<\/p>\n

\n\tBarring any left-field surprises \u2014 which are always a possibility with the Grammys<\/a> \u2014 the general field is starting to look like a three-way race, with Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga picking up much of the chatter across the album, record and song of the year categories since the nominations were revealed in November. Check out THR\u2019s cheat sheet on the big questions and storylines to follow as the votes come in.<\/p>\n

\n\tCan Bad Bunny Make History With Album of the Year?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was a historic 2022 for Bad Bunny when his landmark Un Verano Sin Ti became the first Spanish-language album to earn a Grammy nomination for album of the year. Three years later, the global superstar once again has a shot at the record books as Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos vies to take home the gold this time. Benito\u2019s sixth album was both critically lauded and an absolute commercial smash, spending a month atop Billboard\u2018s albums chart. Buzz around the project has only grown since Bad Bunny was announced as the 2026 Super Bowl headliner. A loss for Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos this year begs the question: What else would it take for a foreign-language album to ever win here?<\/p>\n

\n\tWill Kendrick Lamar Go Back-to-Back?<\/p>\n

\n\tLamar comes into this year hoping to leverage the momentum of last year\u2019s \u201cNot Like Us\u201d record and song of the year wins to finally take home an album of the year after previously scoring nominations in the category for all of his records since 2011\u2019s To Pimp a Butterfly. GNX was a victory lap for Lamar over the past year and represents his strongest shot at album of the year since Damn.<\/p>\n

\n\tOutside of the album race, Lamar seems most competitive in record of the year. Major hits like KPop Demon Hunters\u2018 smash \u201cGolden\u201d and Alex Warren\u2019s \u201cOrdinary\u201d were excluded from the record category this year, which could very much narrow the field in favor of Lamar and SZA\u2019s \u201cLuther.\u201d That song was the biggest record in the U.S. among this year\u2019s nominees, with just over three consecutive months atop the Hot 100 this spring. If Lamar wins in record of the year, he\u2019d be the first to take the category in back-to-back years since Billie Eilish did it in 2020 and 2021.<\/p>\n

\n\tWill Lady Gaga Finally Win a Big Four Award?<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever improbably, through 14 wins on 45 nominations since 2009, Lady Gaga has never won a Grammy in any of the major four categories. With Mayhem and \u201cAbracadabra\u201d contending for album, record and song, she\u2019s now up to five all-time nominations for album of the year and six in both record and song of the year. Neither the album nor the single had the commercial juice Bad Bunny and Lamar had this year, but her lauded Mayhem Ball arena tour turned the music into a cultural moment itself. If there\u2019s a year when Gaga could finally end her drought, it could be now, as for once she isn\u2019t competing against fellow pop legends like Taylor Swift, Beyonc\u00e9 or Adele.<\/p>\n

\n\tIs This Finally K-pop\u2019s Year? <\/p>\n

\n\tWith \u201cAPT\u201d and \u201cGolden\u201d in the running for song of the year, 2025 could be the year that K-pop breaks into the Grammy mainstream. \u201cGolden\u201d very well might come out on top, but Ros\u00e9\u2019s collaboration with Grammy darling Bruno Mars stands a good chance to throw a fun plot twist into the season\u2019s storyline. However, \u201cAbracadabra,\u201d Bad Bunny\u2019s \u201cDTMF\u201d and \u201cLuther\u201d shouldn\u2019t be underestimated. Lady Gaga\u2019s return to form is Gaga at her peak \u2014 a reminder of why she became a massive pop star in the first place. Lamar and SZA\u2019s \u201cLuther\u201d was a true hit. \u201cDTMF\u201d was a true cultural moment worthy of praise, and it\u2019s a damn catchy song to top it all off.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid the Best New Artist Race Just Completely Change? <\/p>\n

\n\tWhen the Grammy nominations were announced, best new artist seemed like Leon Thomas\u2019 race to lose. Over the past month, Olivia Dean\u2019s star has risen to new heights, making this category a bit more interesting. Despite solid years from all nominees, there\u2019s little chance the race comes down to any artist but Thomas and Dean \u2014though any could snag a surprise win and still be worthy.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story appeared in the Dec. 17 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The table is set. As the final round of voting for the 2026 Grammy Awards opened Dec. 12,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[10546,88,40286,65662,113063,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-354586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-awards","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-grammy-awards","11":"tag-grammys","12":"tag-grammys-2026","13":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}