Last night’s Grammy’s was full of firsts. Kendrick Lamar deposed Jay-Z as the most-awarded rapper in the awards’ history, taking home four trophies for 2024’s GNX album, and despite losing out elsewhere, Tyler, the Creator won the ceremony’s inaugural award for Best Album Cover with Chromakopia. Meanwhile, it was surprising to many that last night also saw the first K-Pop Grammy win, with fictional girl group Huntr/x – the protagonists of spectacularly successful Netflix animated series KPop Demon Hunters – winning Best Song Written for Visual Media for “Golden”.
Behind the scenes however, the Grammys underwent a more subtle, yet arguably more important shift. 2026 marked the first year that voters of the Latin Grammys were also eligible for the Recording Academy that decides on Grammy winners, with 28 per cent of this year’s 1,500-strong panel identifying as Hispanic or Latino. Moreover, 3,800 new music creators and professionals were invited to join the Recording Academy this year, further diversifying the selection process with 50 per cent of panel members being aged 39 or younger, and 58 per cent being people of colour.
But did these changes lead to the right people winning last night? Below, Dazed music writer Solomon Pace-McCarrick breaks down his (highly subjective) list of gripes with this year’s Grammy wins.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Kendrick is without doubt the most talented rap voice of our generation. But him dominating the Grammys for a second year in a row with a project that dropped in 2024 just doesn’t sit right with me. In my mind, GNX is from the same Kendrick era as “Not Like Us”: on both, Kenny is riled up, crip-walking to G-funk, and motivated more by defending his crown than the social commentary of his previous releases. So, why did “Not Like Us” clean up in 2025 and GNX clean up in 2026? If nothing else, it’s boring.
While this year’s rap nominees left much to be desired (it seemed a much better year for the hip-hop underground than the mainstream), it does seem a crying shame that Virginia sibling duo Clipse lost so many awards to GNX last night. In fact, the only award Clipse did win – Best Rap Performance for “Chains & Whips” – had a Kendrick feature. I maintain that Clipse’s heartfelt ode to their late parents, “The Birds Don’t Sing”, should’ve taken Best Rap Song over Kendrick’s “TV Off”.
Yes, it’s wonderful that Puerto Rican reggaeton crusader Bad Bunny finally broke out of the regional categories this year with his Album of the Year win for DtmF, and it’s even better that he chose to continue his campaign against ICE’s reign of terror in his acceptance speech. But, should he have won even more? 100 per cent.
In particular, I’m talking about the other two major categories: Song of the Year, which went to Billie Eilish’s “Wildflower”, and Record of the Year, which went to Kendrick Lamar’s “Luther feat. SZA”. Both tracks were released in 2024, and neither came close to the profound resonance that Bad Bunny’s celebration of Latin American culture had. While the Grammys have made attempts to increase its panel diversity in order to justify their “music’s biggest night” tagline, it seems that this hasn’t gone far enough because they did Bad Bunny bad last night.
Continuing this thread of musical Eurocentrism is the lack of K-pop appreciation at last night’s awards ceremony (not that this is anything new). While much has been made of KPop Demon Hunters’ “Golden” becoming the first K-pop win in Grammys history, the fact that this arrived in the the Best Song Written for Visual Media category just doesn’t do that track – or, indeed, the mass virality of Bruno Mars and Rose’s “APT” – justice. Both “Golden” and “APT” were much more deserving winners of Best Pop/Duo Vocal Performance than Wicked’s “Defying Gravity”. Sue me.
It’s funny to call Justin Bieber an underdog, but that’s exactly what he felt like last night as his lo-fi and heartfelt SWAG album was nominated for four categories and still left empty-handed. It wasn’t Album of the Year, sure, but it was surprising to see standout single “Daisies” beaten by Lola Young’s “Messy” for Best Pop Solo Performance, and SWAG lose out to Lady Gaga’s MAYHEM. This new Bieber era might be left-field, sitting far closer to Dijon and Mk.Gee’s crunchy alt-pop than the baby-faced pop star of years gone by, but is that not the exact type of innovation that the Grammys should reward?
Not to shade Lady Gaga any further here, but was 2025 really her best year? Sure, “ABRACADABRA” slaps, and MAYHEM has some huge production, but neither were Gaga’s peaks in terms of creativity and cultural relevance. Yet, it was these releases that won over PinkPantheress’ arguably more innovative Fancy That? album last night. We’ll let Gaga have Best Pop Vocal Album, but PinkPantheress’ “Illegal” should’ve taken home Best Dance/Pop Recording.
… and Skepta, too, for that matter. You can call me chronically online, but you can’t tell me that this year’s Best Dance/Electronic Recording winner, Tame Impala’s “End of Summer”, came anywhere close to the viral successes of Fred Again.., Skepta and Plaqueboymax’s “Victory Lap”. Originating in a Plaqueboymax livestream in which Fred Again.. flipped a Doechii vocal sample live on air, and then developed with verses from Skepta, Denzel Curry, Hanumankind, That Mexican O.T. and D Double E, “Victory Lap” speaks directly to the nature of music listening in 2025. “End of Summer”, meanwhile, sounds like it could’ve been written about any summer in the last five years.
