The 2026 Grammy nominations have arrived, and alongside the deserving nominees, there are some less-than-deserving snubs.
This year’s shortlists — taken from albums and songs released within the eligibility period of August 31st, 2024, to August 30th, 2025 — is, for the most part, an undeniably talented and worthy list of artists working at the top of their game. Tyler, the Creator and Kendrick Lamar are swimming in nominations, with Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter, Bad Bunny, and the ever-ubiquitous producer Jack Antonoff also accruing some major nods.
But with such limited selections for each category, it begs the obvious question: Who got snubbed? It’s always fascinating to see how the Recording Academy’s preferences play out with these categories, as a lot of the year’s best music often slips under the radar simply for the fact that it didn’t reach the desired audience. Sure, Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal was an indie favorite over the last year, but can you really blame the Recording Academy for not being keyed in on the hype?
On the other hand, this year’s nomination list is actually omitting quite a few ultra-popular artists that you might expect to have massive Grammys success in 2026. Alex Warren got a nod for Best New Artist, but his ubiquitous slog “Ordinary” was (appropriately) shut out from the major song categories. No love for Benson Boone either, who backflipped his way through last year’s ceremony. Plus, you’d think that when scrolling the master list of nominees you’d see the names “Gracie Abrams” and “Role Model” on there, but nope, neither of them are nominated. To us, these aren’t snubs, because, well, their music is just fine.
There are, however, a few surprising misses, especially given how some of these snubbed artists were honored in certain categories. Dijon, FKA twigs, Miley Cyrus, and Perfume Genius received welcome nods, but not exactly in the categories we’d put them in.
Read on for our list of the 10 biggest snubs from this year’s Grammy nominations, and see a full list of the nominees in all major categories here.
FKA twigs
FKA twigs, photo by Jordan Hemingway
FKA twigs’ Eusexua, which she dropped at the top of this year, pretty much exemplifies the definition of ‘universal acclaim.’ And, because it matters, it also performed quite well commercially, topping out at No. 1 on the Billboard US Top Dance Album chart and No. 24 on the US Billboard 200. Despite all of that, Eusexua emerged today with merely a lone nomination for Best Dance/Electronic album. For a record that’s almost guaranteed to land on quite a few “Album of the Year” lists in just a handful of weeks here, it wouldn’t have been all that crazy to see it land a nod or two in one of the marquee categories or, at the very least, a few more mentions in the Dance/Electronic slots. And yet, twigs got just the one. — Jonah Krueger
Dijon
Dijon, photo by Zachary Harrell Jones
Dijon Duenas has had a massive 2025. Not only did he emerge with Baby, his passionate, bewildering sophomore effort, but he was partially responsible for some of the best music that Justin Bieber has ever made. Swag, specifically lead single “Daisies” (which Duenas co-wrote and produced) has gotten its flowers, and Dijon was appropriately given a Producer of the Year nod. And look, the Bieber album is alright — but Baby should have absolutely been honored with an Album of the Year nod, or at the very least, some R&B category nominations (the progressive R&B category might have been a slight stretch given the scope of Baby, but it nonetheless was wide open for him). Seeing Bieber there in both the Album of the Year and Best R&B Song categories and not Dijon just feels wrong. — Paolo Ragusa
No Hip-Hop in the Best New Artist Category? Really?
BigXthaPlug (photo by Daniel Prakopcyk) / Bossman Dlow (photo by PhotoTea)
The lack of breakout hip-hop artists seems to be a constant topic of discussion, but rising stars BigXthaPlug and BossMan Dlow are both rappers deserving of Grammy recognition. BigX’s second studio album, Take Care, was one of the best rap albums released in 2024. This year, he pivoted into country rap with I Hope You’re Happy, featuring the Top 5 hit “All the Way” with Bailey Zimmerman. Meanwhile, BossMan Dlow built on the viral momentum of “Get in with Me” with his debut album, Dlow Curry, which gained mainstream attention after being announced on ESPN SportsCenter. — Eddie Fu
Lorde
Lorde, photo by Thistle Brown
We may have not been the biggest fans of Lorde’s new album Virgin (ideas are great, the songs themselves are a little hit-or-miss), but it is a little shocking to see Lorde completely snubbed from the Grammys altogether. As shown by notable work from FKA twigs, Florence + the Machine, and now Rosalía this year, many women in pop have used new albums as an opportunity to interrogate the intersection between bodily autonomy and the lack of control of it, blurring the boundaries of gender and playing with the idea of performance. Lorde really goes for some of these big ideas on Virgin, and in the process, reminded us all what she’s capable of. Including Lorde in one of the bigger categories — or Alternative Album or Performance, at the very least — would have made a lot of sense in 2025. — P. Ragusa
Playboi Carti
Playboi Carti, photo courtesy of the artist
Gen Z cult hero Playboi Carti didn’t land a single Grammy nomination despite dropping the highest-selling rap album of 2025 with MUSIC, which spawned the hit collaboration with The Weeknd, “RATHER LIE.” Going beyond sales figures and the charts, he is one of the most influential voices of his generation, evolving from a SoundCloud-era trendsetter into a full-blown festival headliner. And while this year’s rap categories were especially competitive, “RATHER LIE” seemed like a perfect fit for Best Melodic Rap Performance. — E. Fu
Royel Otis
Royel Otis, photo by Alex Wall
Often in Grammys season, we turn to the undiscovered gems of the year and wonder what it would take for the Recording Academy to recognize the genius of these smaller artists. But that doesn’t apply to the great Aussie duo Royel Otis, who are bigger than they’ve ever been in 2025. Their new album Hickey serves as their major label debut, and boasts co-writes from Amy Allen and Blake Slatkin (both nominated for Songwriter of the Year) — lead single “Moody” may have some spicy undertones, but it’s an outstanding combo of the duo’s signature slacker rock and guitar pop styles. Surely, they would have been a no-brainer for Alternative Music Performance, or even Best New Artist (they’re only two albums in!). — P. Ragusa
Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus: Something Beautiful (Hulu)
Miley Cyrus didn’t get fully snubbed by the 2026 nominations: Something Beautiful was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album. However, the very splashy big-budget movie that accompanied it was left out of the Best Music Film category, with nominations instead going largely to documentaries like Chris Smith’s DEVO, Diane Warren: Relentless, and Music by John Williams, not to mention the LEGO-animated Pharrell biopic Piece By Piece and concert film RAYE: Live At The Royal Albert Hall. All of the above are solid, but Cyrus’s 55-minute visual feast was a true example of how film and music can elevate each other in tandem. — Liz Shannon Miller
Deafheaven
Deafheaven, photo by Nedda Afsari
Listen, we know Deafheaven isn’t headlining arenas or anything. It’s not like we expected them to nab an Album of the Year nod. Still, their 2025 album Lonely People with Power is a triumph of forward-thinking, genre-blending metal. More than that, it received plenty of praise and attention upon its release (including from us). So, the band getting completely shut out in the Rock, Metal, and Alternative categories is a bit of a bummer, especially since those are spots that smaller acts are typically able to break into. — J. Krueger
The Weeknd
The Weeknd, photo courtesy of the artist
The Weeknd and the Grammys have a rocky history, and that’s putting it nicely. In 2021, the artist, born Abel Tesfaye, publicly stated he would boycott the long-standing institution and no longer submit his work for Grammy consideration after The Academy snubbed his album After Hours. The two parties seemingly patched things up in the years that followed, with Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. acknowledging The Weeknd’s grievances. The Weeknd even performed at last year’s ceremony, hinting that things were hunky-dory. The hurried hatchet may have been dug back up, though, as The Weeknd has once again been fully snubbed, with his latest Hurry Up Tomorrow nabbing zero nominations. Oh well, getting along was nice while it lasted. — J. Krueger
Perfume Genius
Perfume Genius on The Tonight Show (NBC)
