Maria Sherman, Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The 68th Annual Grammy Awards will be held Sunday and will be broadcast live on CBS and Paramount+ from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. What can viewers expect?
According to the Recording Academy, some are new, some are old, and we’re very excited. Executive producers Raj Kapoor, Ben Winston and Jesse Collins return with a different show from last year, when the event was completely changed to help those affected by the devastating Los Angeles area wildfires.
Here are four big questions and answers ahead of the event.
What’s the latest on the 2026 Grammy Awards?
a lot! The Best Album Jacket category is back for the first time in 53 years. Best Country Album has been renamed to Best Contemporary Country Album and a Best Traditional Country Album category has been added.
“In this case, we received a proposal asking for an additional country category. It went through a proposal process, was voted on again by the members, was rated by the members, submitted by the members, and ultimately voted on by my members. And we will deploy what the members asked for,” said Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason Jr. he told the Associated Press.
When the change was announced, some saw it as a reaction to Beyoncé’s 2025 win for Best Country Album. “That’s not accurate,” Mason Jr. says. “It’s something we’ve been talking about for years.”
The Grammy Awards has also made a concerted effort to diversify its electorate in recent years. Last year, all voting members of the Latin Grammy Awards were invited to the Recording Academy.
“The idea was to make sure the Academy and the Grammys were representative of what was going on in the music world,” Mason Jr. says. “Making sure our membership was diverse in genre and geography was all really important to us. We realized that Latin music is huge and ubiquitous in the industry at this point.”
What can I expect from the performance?
Surprise and variety, says Mason Jr. “This up-and-coming group is really great. The legends and icons are so special to have around. And we also have some superstars on our stage, and I think that combination makes for a really fun show.”
Winston gets a little more specific. “18” or 19″ performance is 3 1/2 hours.” Yes, I’m stuck with that. …We’re trying to keep it tight and sharp and not have a lot of other elements in the show this year so we can enjoy the music a little bit more. ”
“We strive to maximize the musical performance on the show,” adds Kapur. “That’s what we challenge our team to do every year.”
And with an abbreviated timeline. Rehearsals begin Thursday for Sunday’s live event. “Thursday afternoon, Friday all day, Saturday all day, that’s it,” Kapur continues. “Everything you see, those 19 performances, all take place between Thursday afternoon and Saturday evening. And it’s one of the most amazing processes you’ll ever see, and it’s just incredible how much work we get done and how collaborative the artists are.”
Artists confirmed to perform so far include Clipse, Pharrell Williams, Sabrina Carpenter, and all of the Best New Artist nominees: Katsy, Olivia Dean, Leon Thomas, Addison Rae, Sombre, Laura Young, The Marias, and Alex Warren.
Who will make history at the 2026 Grammy Awards?
There are so many people. Kendrick Lamar leads the way with nine nominations, including Album of the Year. If he wins for “GNX,” or if Tyler, The Creator’s “Chromacopia” or Clipse’s “Let Got Sort ‘Em Out” win, it would be the third time a rap album has won the top prize, following Outkast’s “Speakerbox/The Love Below” in 2004 and Lauryn Hill’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” in 1999.
If Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos wins Album of the Year, it will be the first album to be entirely in Spanish. This is the second time an all-Spanish album has been nominated for the top prize. The first one was also released in 2023 with Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti”. This year, Harry Styles’ “Harry’s House” won.
No K-pop artist has ever won a Grammy, but that may change. Rosé and Bruno Mars’ “APT” and KPop Demon Hunters’ song “Golden” were both nominated for song of the year, making them the first K-pop artists to do so. “Apt” was also selected as this year’s Record of the Record, which is also the first time for a K-Pop artist.
There are many attractive first-time nominees. Timothée Chalamet selects “A Completely Unknown” as Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and His Holiness the Dalai Lama will participate in audiobooks, narrations, and spoken word recordings. Director Steven Spielberg was also nominated in the Best Music Film category for “Music by John Williams.”
“Overall, history could be made,” Winston says.
That competitiveness and excitement is reflected in the production of the show.
“This year we’re just going to enjoy great performances, great music, and close racing,” he continued. “We’re focused on making these musical performances great, and we’re also pushing the boundaries of how live shows can be filmed.”
How will the Grammys change after the 2025 wildfires?
“We lived in a hotel,” Winston recalls of the 2025 Grammy Awards. “In this office, we were literally looking out the window at the fire on the hill… There was no confusion because we didn’t know what was going to happen. So this is a very different year for us.”
Logistically, he says, this year the team was able to “really appreciate our ability to refine our performance.”
Kapur said the fire taught his team “how flexible we can be.”
“And…we needed to shine a spotlight on what else the Recording Academy does, because a lot of their work actually helps people,” he added.
Relief efforts were the focus of the program, including a special feature on small and medium-sized businesses affected by wildfires.
“Last year’s fires presented some incredible challenges, but they were also a great opportunity for us to think about how we can expand our work and mission,” Mason Jr. said. Said. “It’s about serving people, serving the music community, and serving the world.”
MusiCares, the philanthropic arm of the Recording Academy that supports music professionals in need of financial, personal, and medical assistance, announced that it has allocated more than $15 million to fire relief efforts.
“The good thing about our current organization is we don’t really have a business-as-usual mentality,” Mason Jr. said. I would add. “Every year, everything is looked at and improved.”
