On November 7th, 2025 the Recording Academy released the Nominees for the 2026 Grammy’s said to take place on February 1st, 2026. The following category nominees are Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga – For Record, Album, and Song of The Year–, KATSEYE, Sombr, The Marias, Lola Young, Addison Rae – All up for Best New Artist –, Doechii – Record and Song of the Year–, Sabrina Carpenter – Record, Song, and Album of The Year –, Tyler the Creator – Album of the Year –, Billie Eillish , and Chappell Roan – For Record of The Year–. Do these artists deserve the award? Should they be placed in a different category then what they were originally placed in?
Students at ERHS are anticipating this event once the 2026 season begins due to their favorite artists getting nominated and possibly winning an award they’ve worked endlessly for.
In an article from the AP News notes how Pop Star Lady Gaga and Rap artist Kendrick Lamar will be going head to head for the most prestigious prize that the Recording Academy holds, “She could also score potential wins in the pop solo performance, pop vocal album, dance pop recording and traditional pop vocal album categories.” Maria Sherman of AP News states.
There is no doubt that Gaga doesn’t deserve this nomination, Anthony Simpson, A senior at ERHS, agrees with Sherman’s assessment, stating, “She’s a great artist and her work is very influential so I definitely think she deserves her nomination.”
Following behind Lamar and Gaga are the nominees for Best New Artist which consist of Leon Thomas III, global girl group KATSEYE, Lola Young, The Marias, Addison Rae, Sombr, Olivia Dean, and Alex Warren, revealed by writer Isabella Gomez Sarmiento of NPR News. Interestingly, Sophia Kim, a senior at ERHS, notes an error in this category, referencing how her favorite artist “The Marias” was wrongfully placed there. Kim states, “For the Best New Artists category “The Marias” were nominated, which is kind of wrong because they’ve been in the music industry for a long time. They had a song in I believe in 2020 or 2022 that blew up on TikTok so they’re not really considered ‘Best New Artist’ so having them categorized there feels [kind of] wrong. Maybe they should’ve been placed in ‘Rising Artist’ rather than ‘Best New Artist’.”
Besides her conflicting opinions about this mix up she states that she is delighted that “The Marias” still got nominated stating, “It’s nice to see more diverse artists within like the tops. It’s usually [just] always white people you know? Seeing more Latin representatives is nice to see their songs. And it’s also different. It’s not pop, it’s a [much] more mellow sound which is nice to listen to.”
For the categories Record, Album, and Song of the year a nominee who is well known in the ERHS community due to her popular album “Short n’ Sweet” which was released August 23, 2024. Sabrina Carpenter has been nominated for her song “Manchild” and Album “Man’s Best Friend.” Chimere Chike, who is a Sophomore at ERHS, believes that Carpenter deserves all three of these awards since both of her albums were worth listening to.
Alongside Chike, Kim mentions, “Sabrina Carpenter did some acting but she still worked her way up to where she’s at now.” Following that statement Chike said, “Though I don’t listen to her much, she definitely deserves the nomination since her album”Short n’ Sweet” was so good and it was trending so other people also enjoyed it.”
Taking a step back from scrutinizing the nominees. What about other artists who didn’t get nominated? Kim talked about a popular artist who was not nominated this year despite her many contributions to the music industry, Laufey. Kim notes, “I enjoy Laufey songs, they’re different like a mix of Jazz and pop, which is nice. Sometimes a lot of artists who are nominated are always in the pop industry, which is kind of boring. So it’ll be nice to hear different songs and different genres of music.”
Chike mentions another small artist, Lexa Gates, whose music mainly persists in hiphop, mentioning, “I enjoy her music. She is in the hip-hop scene, and she has like two full albums out and she’s just been pumping out music that’s really good but not a lot of recognition.” Simpson, relating to Chike’s pain of enjoying a small, underrated artist, states,“My favorite artist is Amelia Moore, she’s not very popular though so she wouldn’t get nominated.”
Although most of the nominations mentioned above are really exciting, the Recording Academy has made a few mistakes that Kim noted and should be fixed when next year’s Grammy event is announced. Perhaps look into when the music artist debuted and place them in a category where they most definitely fit into.
Kim, Simpson, and Chike all came to the conclusion that every artist who has been nominated for the upcoming Grammy’s deserves the nomination whether or not they listen to their music since every nominee has worked very hard and diligently to get to where they are at now.
The Grammys will be taking place on February 1st, 2026 on both CBS and Paramount+ from Los Angeles in the Crypto.com Arena, Said by Maria Sherman of AP News.
