The opinions and predictions shared in this article are the author’s own and do not represent the views or endorsement of the school.
It’s that time of year again for the world to celebrate the incredible music that has been created this year! The nominees for the 68th Annual Grammy Awards were announced on November 7th, on the official Grammy YouTube channel and will be voted on between December and January for the all-important ceremony February 1st.
But what’s a lead up to the Grammy Awards without some good old-fashioned speculation? After four hours of continuous listening, notetaking, and research, I’ve compiled a list of both my predictions and my personal picks for the 2026 Grammy Awards. This list will include the big four categories of Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Best New Artist, and Best Album, alongside a new category introduced this year, Best Album Cover. Without further ado, let’s start with Song of the Year.
Song of the Year
Personal Opinion: “DtMF” by Bad Bunny
Prediction: Between “WILDFLOWER” by Billie Eilish or “DtMF” by Bad Bunny
The Song of the Year award honors the songwriter who actually wrote the lyrics and/or melodies to the nominated tracks. This is different from Record of the Year, which is awarded to the artist, producer, and mixer of the nominated tracks. This year’s nominees for Song of the Year had some great contenders.
In the end, DtMF by Bad Bunny stole my heart with its lyrics. It’s is the only non-English song nominated for this category, but a quick look at the English translation provides a genuinely heartfelt dive into Bad Bunny’s life growing up in Puerto Rico, a topic that I predict will resonate heavily with the Academy. The lyric, “I should’ve given you more kisses and hugs whenever I could,” is so gut-wrenching to any person who has ever experienced leaving one home country for another, something I personally take to heart as someone who also wishes they didn’t take the time they had in their home country for granted.
My other prediction is WILDFLOWER by Billie Eilish, which felt like a strange pick considering it released in spring of 2024, but I’m not here to judge why the songs were picked. This is a hauntingly beautiful melody and Eilish always smashes it when it comes to any lyrical writing. Near the end when she cries out “Did I cross the line?” followed by numerous soft vocal rifts just before the outro is so impactful and emotional and just sheer raw writing talent.
Record of the Year
Personal Opinion: “The Subway” by Chappell Roan
Record of the Year, which is awarded to the artist, producer, and mixer of the nominated tracks, honors the actual production, vocals, and musical instrumentation of the nominated songs.
Prediction: “Abracadabra” by Lady Gaga
Personally for me, it was extremely close between The Subway by Chappell Roan and DtMF by Bad Bunny for this category, but I ended up going with the former. The Subway has been performed incredibly well by Roan since mid-2024, but she talked ad nauseam about her fears that the song would not be well received if it wasn’t performed live. Fortunately for her, this version perfectly mixes the dream-pop and classic ballad genres with Roan’s phenomenal vocal talent to create a product just as beautiful and raw as the original TikTok video.
I think that the Academy, however, is going to go with the safer route and pick the dance-pop song that took the internet by storm in Abracadabra by Lady Gaga. A great track that expertly mixes synths, speeding up and slowing down with Lady Gaga’s one-of-a-kind voice, it’s so strange and it’s so weird, but it somehow just works so well! While not my personal pick to win the category, it would absolutely be a deserving one.
Best Album Cover
Personal Opinion: DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS by Bad Bunny
Prediction: DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS by Bad Bunny
Best Album Cover honors the best in cover art for albums or extended play (EP) of any genre of music. This is a newly introduced category and I’m particularly impressed that the Recording Academy chose less known covers to nominate, such as Perfume Genius’ “Glory” cover and Wet Leg’s “moisturizer” cover, a direction I hope they continue to take in the future.
But in the end, it’s all in vain. Bad Bunny’s cover for his album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” is one of the most impactful covers of the 21st century. The cover depicts two empty plastic chairs, symbolizing the many Puerto Ricans and other Latin Americans forced to flee their homes in hopes of a better life elsewhere. It stands in front of a layer of palm and plantain trees that really drive home the point that this album is meant to connect Latin Americans across the world to their roots. It’s so empty, and that’s the ingenious purpose. I have no doubt in my mind that the Recording Academy will do this category’s first year justice and award the two plastic chairs with the highest honor in music.
Best New Artist
Personal Opinion: Lola Young
Prediction: Leon Thomas
According to the Grammy Awards, Best New Artist honors a new artist who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording which establishes the public identity of that artist. Since the category is hard to talk about in context of artists in general, I’ve established that I will listen to the artists’ three most currently trending songs on Spotify and determine my winner by adding that to their hype and potential.
Amongst this star-studded lineup, I’m definitely leaning towards Lola Young. Lola’s discography, consisting of many alt-pop and pop-rock bangers, pushes her just over the edge for me into the victory territory. My main worry however, with her meteoric rise to stardom since being featured on Tyler, the Creator’s song “Like Him,” is that it has led to lots of unfounded scrutiny about her appearance and stress. Not too long ago, Young’s completely passed out while performing on stage. But her recent releases have been super fun and completely Young, and I’m so excited to see what she has planned next.
The underdog pick and the nominee with the least monthly listeners, Leon Thomas is my prediction for the winner of Best New Artist. I absolutely love a good R&B track, especially when it incorporates elements of hip-hop music as well, and Leon blends the two beautifully. He is the only nominated artist to be nominated for Album of the Year with his album “MUTT,” and also the only nominee to already have a Grammy, winning as one of the producers on SZA’s song “Snooze” in 2024. Leon’s music gets you in a grooving mood immediately, entertaining his fans just as he did during his days on Victorious.
Album of the Year
Personal Opinion: CHROMAKOPIA by Tyler, The Creator
Prediction: Let God Sort Em Out by Clipse, Pusha T & Malice
The award for Album of the Year is often known as “The Big Award,” simply because it is recognizing the creation of a magnum opus in someone’s career, from start to finish it must be nearly perfect.
Tyler, the Creator is one of the most experimental and influential musicians around, one who isn’t afraid to completely flip a script and create an album that can only be described as a trip through the mind of an artist, and CHROMAKOPIA is a complete culmination of his career up until that point. For anybody that knows me at all, this does not come as a surprise, as this is the only album on the list I actually attended the tour for, but my bias is not unfounded.
Originally intended to be his final album for a very long time, he deals with issues of his personal life, growing old, and the consequences of stardom through the character of St. Chroma. The production, from start to finish, is some of his best to date, especially the smooth transitions between tracks and the originality of each track in tandem with his usage of copious samples. Listening to the album again for this column made me fall in love with each and every track all over again.
My predicted winner, however, is Let God Sort Em Out by the hip-hop duo Clipse, Pusha T and Malice. Their anticipated return has been in the making for the past 16 years. And the wait? Worth it.
Produced by the legendary Pharrell Williams, immediately apparent by his signature four note producer tag at the beginning of the first song on the album, the album’s breathtaking lyricism and plethora of well-incorporated features from other rap artists makes this album read to me like a love letter to the genre. This is most certainly my most outlandish prediction, but due to the fact that it’s been so long since Clipse has released an album, and over 30 years since their last Grammy nomination, I think that the nostalgia is enough to boost this astounding album to the ultimate prize of the night.
At the end of the day, we won’t know the winner of these awards for another couple of months, but take this opportunity to find and listen to some incredible new music, I promise you won’t regret it.
