US rapper Kendrick Lamar and pop star Lady Gaga are among those leading Friday's nominations for next year's Grammy Awards.
The annual awards show will take place at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 1, 2026.
Lamar, who already has 22 Grammys to his name, is up for nine prizes, including record of the year, album of the year, song of the year, pop/duo group performance, melodic rap performance, rap album and rap song.
The 38-year-old has also been nominated twice in the rap performance category for "TV off" featuring Lefty Gunplay and 'Chains And Whips' with Clipse, Pusha T, Malice and Pharrell Williams.
Lady Gaga, who finished a spate of UK performances last month amidst her Mayhem Ball World Tour, is up for record, song and album of the year, her first time receiving nominations in all three categories simultaneously.
She could also score wins in the categories, pop solo performance, pop vocal album, dance pop/electronic recording and traditional pop vocal album.
Among the other artists with major nods this year is producer Jack Antonoff, Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny, US pop star Sabrina Carpenter and Canadian record producer/songwriter Cirkut.
The song of the year category, which includes Lady Gaga and Lamar, is rounded out by Doechii for her track "Anxiety", Bruno Mars and Rose with "APT", "Golden" by HUNTR/X from the Netflix hit "K Pop Demon Hunters", Carpenter with "Manchild", "DtMF" by Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish and Finne as for their song "Wildflower".
Two British stars secured nods in the best new artist category which was last year won by "Good Luck, Babe!" singer Chappell Roan.
"Messy" singer Lola Young and Mercury Prize-nominated artist Olivia Dean have both topped the UK charts this year with new releases.
This year's nominations included two new categories, traditional country album and best album cover.
Only recordings commercially released in the US between August 31, 2024 and August 30, 2025 are eligible for nominations for the 2026 ceremony.
Industry watchers will be dissecting the full list of nominees in all 95 categories to see if changes made by the Recording Academy, which hands out the awards, have addressed concerns about diversity.
More than 3,800 new members were admitted to the academy, greatly expanding the number of eligible Grammy voters.
Half of those new members are age 39 or younger and 58 per cent of them are people of colour, the academy announced earlier this week.
Invitations were also offered to all members of the Latin Recording Academy, which will hand out the Latin Grammys next week in Las Vegas.
"This year's class reflects the vibrancy of today's diverse music landscape", Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr said in a statement.
So why is Taylor Swift not in the Grammys mix? After all, Swift's "The Life of a Showgirl" has been ubiquitous since its release in October.
But it is not eligible for the 2026 Grammys — the window closed on August 30. Look for the pop megastar to be front and centre in the 2027 edition. — dpa/AFP
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