LOS ANGELES — After a deep, focused recalibrating of its voting base — towards one younger, more diverse and more contemporary in taste — the Recording Academy made strides avoiding the big whiffs they were once famous for in the nominations for the 2026 Grammy Awards. But there will always be snubs, surprises and heated debates within the nominations. Here are a few that stood out for us.

Snub: The Weeknd waits again

After a surprise, hatchet-burying performance from the Weeknd at February’s ceremony, it seemed that Abel Tesfaye was finally ready to get back in the Grammy ring after a four-year boycott of the event. Tesfaye had been understandably angry that his smash hit 2019 single “Blinding Lights, off 2020’s “After Hours,” whiffed on nominations, and blamed the Grammys’ opacity around voting.

Even Recording Academy chief Harvey Mason Jr. admitted that the Academy bricked that one — “That made for some interesting reading over breakfast,” Mason Jr. said onstage. “But you know what? Criticism is okay. I heard him. I felt his conviction.”

Well, it looks like Toronto’s losing streak in L.A. is going to continue, because The Weeknd’s “Hurry Up Tomorrow” didn’t land a single nod this year either. At this point, Tesfaye waking up on Grammy nomination day must be like watching Yoshinobu Yamamoto walk out of the Dodger bullpen — another heartbreak for a hopeful Canadian.

Surprise: Country’s category divorce

Following Beyoncé’s massive cross-genre win streak for “Cowboy Carter,” the Country categories were split in two — Traditional Country and Contemporary Country Album. The split acknowledged the genre’s recent commercial dominance and immersion in pop, while trying to preserve laurels for its more classic sounds. But the divorce turned out to be a strange one in practice, where indie favorite Margo Price and R&B-infused Charley Crockett end up in Traditional while a bluegrass-informed, narrative-driven artist Tyler Childers ends up in Contemporary. The rules were drafted to honor both ambition and form, but somehow ended up vibes-based.

Surprise: Three rap albums in contention

Hip-hop set a sad milestone last month — not a single rap song held a spot in Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for the first time since 1990. Is the genre declining commercially, or at least losing some degree of mass appeal? Not within the Academy — Grammy voters saw fit to put three masterful rap LP’s up for Album, from esteemed veterans like Kendrick Lamar, Clipse and Tyler, the Creator, each of whom are making uncompromising, ambitious rap records deep into the middle of their careers.

It’s weird for the old heads to consider, but perhaps rap is becoming more like jazz in the Academy. Now it’s a critically beloved, technically dense art form lauded by the Grammys annually, yet also a genre that, outside of a few megastars, seems to be slipping from popular consciousness on the singles charts.

(On the subject of Tyler and genre, after previously roasting the Academy for confining him to hip-hop categories, he must be stoked to see his name in Alternative Music Album for “Don’t Tap the Glass,” a bold and open-minded pick for a category that includes the Cure, Wet Leg, Hayley Williams and Bon Iver).

Snub: An “Ordinary” letdown

Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” was the CVS-core hit of the year, an inescapable ballad of martial devotion that built off his Hype House fan base on social media, while deftly luring Middle America with worship-band undertones. Whatever you want to read into that regarding cultural shifts in America in 2025, its surprising that such a rock-solid piece of songwriting didn’t get nominated for Song or Record, though Warren did turn up for New Artist.

Surprise: “Golden” earns its medal

What should the Grammys do about “Golden?” The smash hit from “KPop Demon Hunters” was undeniably one of the defining singles of the last year, a rare piece of insatiably catchy and vivaciously produced music that almost every tween on the planet could recognize. But could the Academy sincerely give a New Artist nod to Huntr/x? It’s impossible to separate “Golden” from the animated-movie context it came from, so giving EJAE, Audrey Nuna, REI AMI and Mark Sonnenblick nods for Song, rather than Record, along with Pop Duo/Group Performance and Song Written For Visual Media feels like appropriate acknowledgment of the skill and powerhouse performance that went into it.

Surprise: A high “Anxiety” Doechii nod

Doechii’s loosie single spawned a thousand memes about happily hearing the opening pings of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know,” only to turn around and smash something when you hear Doechii sing “Anxiety, keep on tryin’ me…”

Is that harsh? Doechii deservedly won the Grammy for Rap Album in February, for the masterful “Alligator Bites Never Heal.” Clearly the Academy loves her, but its still kind of surprising that that “Anxiety” — an early demo riffing on Gotye and Kimbra’s 2011 hit, which took off on TikTok in 2025 while earning a mixed reception among rap fans — got nods for Record and Song, along with Rap performance, Rap Song and Music Video. When the Grammy voters get their teeth in an artist, it takes a lot to make them let go.

Snub: Another Anton-Off Night

Grammy stalwart Jack Antonoff continues his unexpected cold streak in the Producer, Non-Classical category, missing out on a nomination despite his work on Album front-runners from Sabrina Carpenter and Lamar. He didn’t get one last year either, despite Grammy acclaim for both Carpenter and Taylor Swift LP’s. Nonetheless, he remains the Grammys’ Shohei Ohtani of pop producers — even when he misses, he still looms large over the field.

Surprise: Shred envy

In a banner year for metal and hard rock running up big numbers on the album and streaming charts, there are worthy nominations for Metal Performance from Sleep Token, Ghost, Spiritbox and Turnstile. Yet we smiled to see the Grammys keeping it weird, making room for ‘90s prog-metal stalwarts Dream Theater alongside these more contemporary acts. They previously won in 2022, and seem to have a deep Academy fan base in metal. High-five your local Guitar Center clerk in celebration.

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