68th Annual Grammy Awards

The 68th Annual Grammy Awards honored the best recordings, compositions, and artists from August 31, 2024, to August 30, 2025, as chosen by the members of the Recording Academy, on February 1, 2026. In its 23rd year at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and for the last time since 1973, the ceremony was broadcast on CBS and available to stream on Paramount+. On October 30, 2024, the Recording Academy announced that the Grammys would return to ABC and stream on Hulu and Disney+ beginning in 2027, under a ten-year deal. South African comedian Trevor Noah hosted the ceremony for the sixth consecutive and final time.

Kendrick Lamar was the night's biggest winner for the second consecutive year with five wins, including a second consecutive Record of the Year win with "Luther" and a sweep in the Rap categories, winning Best Rap Album for GNX. His fourth five-win Grammy night in his career, Lamar surpassed Jay-Z to become the most-awarded hip-hop artist in Grammy Awards history. Bad Bunny followed him with three wins, including Album of the Year for Debí Tirar Más Fotos, becoming the first Spanish-language album and third Latino artist to receive the honor. Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas won Song of the Year for "Wildflower", becoming the most-awarded artists in the category in Grammy Awards history with three wins each. Their win also tied them with Adele, Bruno Mars, Paul Simon for the most wins in the General Field, with seven each. Olivia Dean won Best New Artist, the ninth woman in a row to win the award and the first British winner since Dua Lipa in 2019, while Tyler, The Creator's Chromakopia and Zach Top's Ain't in It for My Health took home the inaugural Best Album Cover and Best Traditional Country Album awards. "Golden" from KPop Demon Hunters won Best Song Written For Visual Media, becoming the first K-pop song to win a Grammy award in any category.

Steven Spielberg won Best Music Film for his role in producing Music by John Williams. This win made him the 22nd person to achieve EGOT status. Although he is not credited in Tony Award records as a winning producer of the musical A Strange Loop (which previously made Jennifer Hudson the 17th EGOT winner, and also counted towards the non-competitive EGOT of Amblin Entertainment co-founder Frank Marshall) at the 75th Tony Awards, he nonetheless received a Tony statuette in that capacity, and he is listed as a producer of A Strange Loop in the Internet Broadway Database. Lamar led the Grammy Awards with nine nominations, while Jack Antonoff, Cirkut, and Lady Gaga followed with seven nominations each.

Background

On June 12, 2025, the Recording Academy announced several changes for different categories and updates on eligibility rules for the 2026 ceremony.

Category changes

• Two new categories – Best Traditional Country Album and Best Album Cover, for 95 categories total.
• Best Country Album was renamed Best Contemporary Country Album.
• Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package was merged back into the Best Recording Package category.

Criteria amendments

• Artists who were previously featured on a record nominated for Album of the Year were eligible to be nominated for Best New Artist if their contributions to the album were 20 percent or less.
• Composers and lyricists/librettists were eligible for Grammy recognition in selected categories in the Classical Field (Best Orchestral Performance, Best Choral Performance, Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance, Best Classical Instrumental Solo, and Best Classical Solo Vocal Album). Previously, only the album's artist/s, producers, and engineers would receive recognition.
• The maximum number of principal vocalist(s) who may be awarded in the Best Musical Theater Album category was increased from four to six.
• The physical product eligibility requirement for Best Recording Package, Best Album Notes, and Best Historical Album was expanded to be more representative of the current marketplace to ensure that physical album packages sold directly to fans through an artist's or label's website were eligible for Grammy consideration.
• The Craft Committee serving the Package, Notes & Historical field switched from a regional to a national model.
• Minor description updates to the Best Regional Roots Music Album, Best Progressive R&B Album, Best Dance Pop Recording, Best American Roots Performance, and Best American Roots Song categories.

Membership amendments

• 3,800 new music creators and professionals were invited to join the Recording Academy. Of these, 50% were age 39 or younger, 58% were people of color, and 35% identified as women.
• On November 4, 2025, it was announced that, for the first time in Grammy history, members who vote for the Latin Grammy Awards were invited to join the Recording Academy. As a result, 28% of all new members in 2025 identified as Hispanic or Latino.

Process amendments

• The 2026 Grammy ballots will be presented in a randomized order for the first time, rather than in alphabetical order. Of the change, chief awards and global industry officer for the Recording Academy, Ruby Marchand, stated, "This ballot update brings our process in line with standard voting best practices ... and further ensures the process is fair and equitable for all entries." It was speculated that the change was implemented to encourage voters to familiarize themselves with the entire ballot rather than defaulting to favorite artists/work, and to prevent artists who are listed first alphabetically from having an unfair advantage.

Performers

Premiere ceremony

Premiere ceremony performers were announced on January 28, 2026.

Main ceremony

Sabrina Carpenter was announced as the first performer on January 20, 2026. On January 21, all eight nominees for Best New Artist were announced as performers. Clipse and Pharrell Williams were announced on January 22. Justin Bieber and the In Memoriam performers were announced on January 28. Lady Gaga, Rosé and Tyler, the Creator were announced the following day. Bruno Mars was announced on January 30.

Additionally, Noah Kahan's "The Great Divide" music video, sponsored by Mastercard, premiered during a commercial break after Justin Bieber's performance of "Yukon".

Presenters

Darren Criss was announced as the host of the Premiere Ceremony at the Peacock Theater on February 1, 2026, alongside the list of other presenters and performers. Doechii and Harry Styles were announced as the first set of presenters for the main ceremony. The rest of the presenters were announced on January 29, 2026.

Winners and nominees

First round voting took place from October 3 to 15, 2025. The nominees were announced by Angélique Kidjo, Brandi Carlile, CeCe Winans, Chappell Roan, David Foster, Doechii, Dr. Chelsey Green, Gayle King, Jon Batiste, Karol G, Little Big Town, Lizzo, Masaki Koike, Mumford & Sons, Nicole Scherzinger, Sabrina Carpenter, and Sam Smith on November 7 in a livestream on the official Grammy YouTube channel. Final round voting took place from December 12, 2025, to January 5, 2026. Winners were revealed during the Grammy Premiere Ceremony and telecast on February 1. The New York Times reported that the awards ceremony was "the most politicized Grammy ceremony in years", with multiple winners using "fiery speeches" and profanity to criticize United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics.

Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold.