68th Grammy Awards 2026: Winners & Historic Highlights

The Night Bad Bunny Made Grammy History in His Second Language

Sixty-four years of Grammy history, and not once had an album recorded primarily in Spanish taken home Album of the Year. Bad Bunny changed that on February 1, 2026, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, accepting the most prestigious award in music for DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS and opening his speech with two words that became the night's defining political statement: "ICE out." The 68th Annual Grammy Awards delivered the milestones, the surprises, and the political heat that only music's biggest night can generate — 95 categories across two ceremonies, a host stepping away after his sixth and final year, a K-pop song winning its first Grammy in any category, a legendary filmmaker completing his EGOT, and Kendrick Lamar cementing his status as the most decorated hip-hop artist in the Recording Academy's history.

The Big Four: Who Won, Who Was Robbed, and What It Means

Kendrick Lamar entered the 68th Grammy Awards with nine nominations — the most of any artist — and left with five wins, including a second consecutive Record of the Year. His collaboration with SZA, "luther," won the night's most competitive category, beating out Billie Eilish's "Wildflower," Lady Gaga's "Abracadabra," Doechii's "Anxiety," Chappell Roan's "The Subway," and the ROSÉ and Bruno Mars duet "APT." It was Lamar's fourth five-win Grammy night across his career, and it pushed him past Jay-Z to become the most-awarded hip-hop artist in Grammy Awards history — a record that arrives in the same year he performed at the Super Bowl halftime show and spent twelve months as the dominant conversation in American rap.

The Album of the Year story was Bad Bunny's alone. DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS became the first primarily Spanish-language album ever to win the award — a historic moment that the Puerto Rican artist received visibly emotional on stage, delivering much of his acceptance speech in Spanish. The album's win represents a genuine shift in how the Recording Academy treats Latin music, not as a separate category but as a peer to English-language albums competing for the highest honour. Bad Bunny also took home Best Música Urbana Album for the same record, and the week after the ceremony he was scheduled to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show — making him the most visible artist in America at the exact moment he became a Grammy history-maker.

Song of the Year went to Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O'Connell for "Wildflower," from her 2024 album Hit Me Hard and Soft. This was their third Song of the Year win — making both of them the most-awarded songwriters in that category in Grammy history, tying with Adele, Bruno Mars, and Paul Simon for the most wins in the General Field at seven each. Eilish used her acceptance speech for something beyond music: "No one is illegal on stolen land," she said, adding her voice to the ICE criticism that ran through several of the night's most prominent speeches. Best New Artist went to British singer Olivia Dean — the ninth consecutive woman to win the award, and the first British winner since Dua Lipa won it in 2019. Dean had performed as part of the special Best New Artist medley earlier in the night, and her win represented a genuine full-circle moment in an evening that was notably kind to musicians making their first major mark on the Recording Academy.

Kendrick Lamar's Historic Night and the Rap Sweep

Beyond Record of the Year, Lamar swept the rap categories in a way that the field had been anticipating since GNX's release. Best Rap Album went to GNX, his sixth studio album, which arrived without conventional album rollout or advance singles and immediately became the most talked-about rap release of the eligibility period. Best Melodic Rap Performance went to "luther" featuring SZA, continuing the record-setting night for his SZA collaboration. The five-win total across the ceremony placed Lamar in uncharted territory for hip-hop — a genre that the Grammy Awards has historically underserved relative to its cultural centrality, making Lamar's dominance at the 68th ceremony read as a corrective as much as a celebration.

Lady Gaga, Lola Young, and the Pop Categories

Lady Gaga arrived at the 68th Grammy Awards with seven nominations and left with multiple wins. Best Pop Vocal Album went to Mayhem, which she accepted with characteristic emotional candour: "Every time I'm here, I still feel like I need to pinch myself." Her advice to women in music during the speech — "always listen to yourself and always fight for your ideas" in studio environments that can silence emerging voices — landed as one of the night's most genuinely useful acceptance speeches. She also took Best Dance Pop Recording for "Abracadabra," adding a second Grammy to a night that confirmed Mayhem's status as a major commercial and critical moment in her career.

Best Pop Solo Performance went to Lola Young for "Messy" — a win that caught even the winner off guard. "I don't know what to say because I don't have any speech prepared!" Young admitted on stage, with Charli XCX handing her the trophy. Young is a British artist whose TikTok momentum translated into a genuine Recording Academy moment, and her win alongside Dean's Best New Artist made the night a notably strong one for British women in music.

Historic Firsts: K-Pop, EGOT, and the Dalai Lama

The 68th Grammy Awards produced an unusual cluster of genuine firsts that began before the main telecast even started. At the Premiere Ceremony, "Golden" from the Netflix film KPop Demon Hunters — performed by HUNTR/X featuring EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami — won Best Song Written for Visual Media, making it the first K-pop song to win a Grammy in any category. The songwriters delivered their acceptance speech in both English and Korean. EJAE, who also provided the film character Rumi's singing voice, spoke in the press room about the significance of Korean cultural representation at the world's most visible music awards: "Today is about celebrating culture — and music that unites all cultures."

Steven Spielberg became an EGOT winner at the Grammys Premiere Ceremony, joining as the 22nd person in history to hold Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards. His Grammy came for producing Music by John Williams, which won Best Music Film. The Dalai Lama won his first Grammy Award in the same ceremony for Best Audiobook, Narration and Storytelling Recording — a category in which he beat out, among others, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, which is the kind of sentence that makes the Grammy Premiere Ceremony feel like a different event entirely from the pop spectacle that followed it.

The Performances: Airplanes, Silk Boxers, and Ozzy's Ghost

Sabrina Carpenter performed "Manchild" atop a massive airplane set piece that dominated the main stage — a theatrical moment that matched the song's attitude. The performance generated nearly as much coverage as her nominations, and PETA intervened with a statement criticising the use of a live dove on stage at another point in the broadcast. Justin Bieber returned to the Grammy stage for the first time in four years, performing "Yukon" from his comeback record Swag while wearing what appeared to be silk boxers as his complete outfit. The moment was received with the mixture of bewilderment and celebration that Bieber's public appearances have generated throughout his career.

Tyler, the Creator delivered what several critics called the evening's most artistically ambitious performance — a theatrical medley of "Thought I Was Dead," "Like Him" (joined on stage by actress Regina King), and "Sugar on My Tongue" that played out with the structure of a short film rather than a conventional awards show set. Lady Gaga reimagined "Abracadabra" as an electro-rock performance that was substantially different from the studio recording, demonstrating the kind of live-performance intelligence that distinguishes her from most of her contemporaries. The tribute to Ozzy Osbourne featured Post Malone on vocals, Slash on guitar, Chad Smith on drums, and Andrew Watt — a lineup that performed Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" as the in memoriam segment's centrepiece, with the camera cutting to Sharon, Kelly, and Jack Osbourne watching from the audience.

The Political Dimension: ICE, Immigration, and Music's Platform

The New York Times described the 68th Grammy Awards as the most politicised ceremony in years, and the reporting was accurate. Bad Bunny opened his Album of the Year speech with "ICE out" before pivoting to a broader message about love over hate. Billie Eilish's Song of the Year acceptance included "No one is illegal on stolen land" and a direct statement against ICE enforcement tactics. The political dimension of the evening was not manufactured by the host or the producers — it emerged from the winners themselves, multiple artists choosing the Grammy platform to add their voices to a national conversation that was running simultaneously outside the arena in Los Angeles.

Host Trevor Noah, hosting for his sixth consecutive and final year, managed the evening's tonal complexity with the dexterity that has characterised his Grammy hosting run. His most memorable moment came when Cher — who received a Lifetime Achievement Award — began walking offstage after her award presentation without announcing the Record of the Year winner. Noah called her back, and the moment became one of the night's most genuinely human exchanges. From 2027, the Grammy Awards will move from CBS to ABC, streaming on Hulu and Disney+ under a ten-year deal, making Noah's final hosting performance also the last time the ceremony aired on its longtime broadcast partner.

Other Notable Winners: A Complete Picture

FKA Twigs won Best Dance/Electronic Album for EUSEXUA, her most commercially accessible and critically praised record. Tyler, the Creator won the inaugural Best Album Cover category for Chromakopia — a new award category, alongside Best Traditional Country Album, that the Recording Academy introduced for 2026 bringing the total category count to 95. Jelly Roll won Best Contemporary Country Album for Beautifully Broken. The film Sinners won both Best Compilation Soundtrack and Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media. Leon Thomas won Best R&B Album for MUTT. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Defying Gravity." Doechii won Best Music Video for "Anxiety." Joni Mitchell won Best Historical Album for Joni Mitchell Archives – Volume 4: The Asylum Years 1976–1980. The comedian Nate Bargatze won Best Comedy Album. All eight Best New Artist nominees — Olivia Dean, Leon Thomas, Alex Warren, KATSEYE, Addison Rae, sombr, Lola Young, and The Marías — performed in a special multi-stage medley that moved through the arena's main stage, back halls, and loading dock.

What the 68th Grammy Awards Said About Music in 2026

A Spanish-language album winning Album of the Year. The first K-pop Grammy in any category. A British newcomer winning Best New Artist. A filmmaker achieving EGOT at a music ceremony. The Dalai Lama collecting a Grammy at ninety. The 68th Grammy Awards assembled a set of results that, taken together, described something real about where music is in 2026 — genuinely global, genuinely pluralistic, and operating at a moment when the artists who move culture are as likely to be singing in Spanish or Korean as English. Whether that description accurately captures the Recording Academy's full body of decisions across all 95 categories is a separate question. What is clear is that the night's most visible moments — Bad Bunny's historic win, K-pop's breakthrough, Lamar's continued dominance, Olivia Dean's breakthrough — pointed toward a music industry whose geography is expanding faster than its institutional infrastructure can comfortably keep up with.