Music’s biggest night is here.
Most of the genre categories were already announced for the 68th Grammy Awards during the pre-telecast Sunday afternoon, and heading into the main ceremony, the biggest storyline is who will come away with hardware in the general field. Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga and Sabrina Carpenter all have nominations for album of the year, record of the year and song of the year, and all have history on the line. Others in contention in the general field include superstars Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and Doechii.
For a running winners list that will be updated throughout the night, click here.
Lamar, who came into tonight’s show as the top nominee with nine nominations overall, started the night strong, winning the first award of the night for best rap album with GNX, beating out Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out and Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia. All three rap albums are up for album of the year. Before the telecast, Lamar already won two other awards for best melodic rap performance and best rap song. Clipse, meanwhile, took home a Grammy during the pre-telecast for best rap performance with “Chains and Whips,” which featured Lamar as well. Lamar is now the most awarded rapper in Grammy history, breaking Jay-Z’s previous record.
There will be no shortage of star performances Sunday night. Rosé and Bruno Mars opened the show with global smash “Apt,” and Carpenter followed soon after with an instant classic “Manchild” performance that had Carpenter playing the role of pilot running through an airport. Tyler, Gaga and Clipse will all take the stage. Justin Bieber, who hasn’t performed at the Grammys since 2022, is set to return to the stage Sunday night, and his comeback album Swag is up for album of the year. All eight best new artist nominees took the stage for a segment as well, and Lauryn Hill, Reba McEntire and Post Malone will honor the likes of D’Angelo, Roberta Flack and Ozzy Osbourne for an in memoriam segment.
Lamar, who swept record and song last year with “Not Like Us,” could finally win his first album of the year after getting nominated in the category four times. Gaga is waiting for her first-ever win in the general field after nearly a dozen previous nominations, and Bad Bunny hopes to become the first-ever artist to win album of the year for a non-English-language album. The Latin superstar won’t perform tonight but will play next in a widely anticipated Super Bowl halftime show, which garnered conservative backlash.
Gaga, meanwhile, entered today’s awards in second place with seven nominations, while Bad Bunny and Carpenter both earned six. Gaga won for best pop dance recording during the pre-telecast for Mayhem hit “Abracadabra.”
2026 could be a banner year for K-pop too, as Rosé is contending for record of the year with “Apt” while KPop Demon Hunters smash hit “Golden” is up for song of the year.
Outside of the general three categories, the best new artist category lacks the comparative star power last year’s class of Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Benson Boone and Teddy Swims had, but it’s a deep category of budding stars like Olivia Dean, Leon Thomas, Addison Rae and KATSEYE, with Dean and Thomas considered frontrunners heading into the ceremony. Thomas himself won two Grammys earlier Sunday for best traditional R&B performance and best R&B album, and his album Mutt is up for album of the year.
Sunday’s show marks Trevor Noah’s sixth and final time serving as emcee after he first took the reins back in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s hosted every show since then. It’s also the last time the Grammys are airing on decades-long partner CBS before the show is set to move to Disney next year.