It was also a big morning for little monsters, with Lady Gaga’s fan base eager to cheer on her seven nominations, topping her previous record of six, which she scored back in 2010. Gaga ties for the second-most nominations with producers Jack Antonoff and Cirkut, who also found seven to be their lucky number.
Every year there’s at least one rising artist who gets a substantially bigger bonanza of nominations than anyone had prognosticated, and this year that artist is Leon Thomas. He scored a surprising six nods, which puts him in a tie with Sabrina Carpenter, Serban Ghenea and Bad Bunny.
The six nominations for the impending Super Bowl halftime showman is good news for anyone who was worried that Latin music might be shut out of the big categories, as it often has been, and relegated to the sister ceremony, the Latin Grammys. Bad Bunny was shut out of the top three categories in the past couple of years, but voters went the extra mile to ensure that didn’t happen this time. The global superstar is up for all three of the top categories, in fact — album, record and song of the year.
Bad Bunny is not alone in having the possibility for a sweep at the top. He’s one of four artists to be nominated in the top three categories, the others being Lamar, Gaga and Carpenter.
There’s no possibility of anyone making a run through all four all-genre categories, though, because the best new artist category is filled with performers who didn’t get much of a look anywhere else. Leon Thomas is pretty much alone among the eight BNA contenders in getting multiple nominations. Most of the other freshmen put up for new artist have that as their sole nomination, including Alex Warren, who had one of the year’s most ubiquitous hits with “Ordinary” but didn’t have the song itself turn up anywhere in the noms.
Fans of the “Kpop Demon Hunters” franchise were eager to see whether Grammy voters would celebrate the inescapable “Golden” with multiple nominations, despite a perception that Academy members might turn up their noses at voting for avatars. The news was mostly positive on that front: “Golden” landed four nominations — nearly all that were possible — including a coveted nod for song of the year, though “Golden” didn’t make it into the record of the year sweepstakes.
Some of 2025’s biggest hits are missing from the Grammys, either through the timing of the calendar or by self-deportation. The year’s second-biggest album is Morgan Wallen’s “I’m the Problem,” but his camp announced earlier in the season that he would not be submitting for the Grammys going forward. The biggest blockbuster of the year, Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl,” came out past the end of the eligibility period, leaving her with nothing to contend with this cycle.
But even without Swift making a return run at Grammy glory this time around, there is some instant déjà vu to be found in the top categories. Carpenter made a quick turnaround with her second album in just over a year, “Man’s Best Friend,” and once again she is nominated for record, song and album of the year. Roan and Eilish didn’t deliver new albums, but are back with singles in contention. Lamar is the one who stands the greatest chance of having an instant replay, with both his “GNX” album and “Luther” single among the front-runners in their respective categories, after he won five awards last year for “Not Like Us” — including record and song of the year — without having an album in play.
Commercially, it’s been a down year for hip-hop, but that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of Grammy voters, who gave the genre greater representation than some had predicted going in. Beyond Lamar’s major showing, Doechii, Clipse and Tyler, the Creator all landed a solid five nominations each. They were tied at that level with the rock band Turnstile, producers Andrew Watt and Sounwave, and Lamar’s “Luther” duet partner, SZA.
If hip-hop was surprisingly well-represented, country was very much underrepresented, with nary a nomination in any of the four all-genre categories. Wallen bowing out of contention might have made that a partial fait accompli, yet Megan Moroney, Ella Langley and Zach Top — all of whom have a major look going into this month’s CMA Awards — were all considered major contenders for the best new artist category. Nashville’s lockout from the major categories year after year (aside from an outlier like Beyonce’s one-time genre dip) is bound to stir discussion going forward.
The Grammys will return to CBS and Paramount+ on Feb. 1 with a live broadcast and stream starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 PT.
Here is how it shook out in all of the Grammys’ 95 categories: