The 2027 Grammy Nominations, Explained: Five New Categories, Who Is Sitting Out and What to Watch for Monday

The nominees for the 69th Grammy Awards will be announced Monday (Nov. 16), with the presentation at 7:45 a.m. ET on Grammy.com and the Grammys’ YouTube channel and the full list posted at 9 a.m. ET. Below is what the Recording Academy has confirmed, what changed in the rules and what is still contention. Nothing here is a nomination, and every prediction is labeled as one.

When are the nominations, and how do I watch?

The presentation starts at 4:45 a.m. PT/7:45 a.m. ET on Monday, Nov. 16, with special live coverage on Good Morning America, the Academy says. For the first time it will also be broadcast live at The Square in Times Square. CEO Harvey Mason jr. and board chair Dr. Chelsey Green will be joined by 16 acts: Alan Menken, Amy Allen, Carly Pearce, David Guetta, FYÜTCH & Aura V, Herbie Hancock, Israel Houghton, Juanes, Kehlani, Linda Perry, Meghan Foley & Michelle Holme, Olivia Dean, Pharrell Williams, Renée Fleming, YUNGBLUD and Ziggy Marley. The complete list across all 100 categories goes up on Grammy.com at 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. ET.

When is the ceremony?

The 2027 Grammys air Sunday, Feb. 7, 2027, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ABC and stream on Disney+ and Hulu, live from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

What counts as eligible?

Eligible releases came out between Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, and Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, the Academy’s voting guide says. Entries went in during an online entry period from July 7 to Aug. 21, and first-round voting, which picks the nominees in all 100 categories, ran Oct. 12 through Oct. 22. Music that wasn’t formally submitted can’t appear on the screening ballots or compete, Variety notes. In the four big categories, Billboard says, there will be eight nominees each for the fourth year running, and 683 albums were on the album of the year eligibility list.

What is new this year?

Five new categories debut, the Academy says: best Asian pop music performance (K-pop, J-pop and C-pop, with meaningful use of one or more Asian languages); best R&B collaboration or duo/group performance; best traditional pop vocal performance; best traditional folk album; and best Latin song, for songwriters of newly written songs that are at least 51 percent in Spanish. Best R&B performance becomes best R&B solo performance, and best folk album becomes best contemporary folk album.

Read moreThe 2026 Latin Grammys, Explained: 40 Performers, a Daddy Yankee Tribute and Where to Watch

The rules moved too. A new opt-in “Ballot Plus” lets voters with expertise across genres vote in up to 15 peer-related categories, a best new artist can now be submitted four times instead of three, the share of new recordings required on an eligible album drops from 75 percent to 66 percent, and songwriters of new material on winning albums in most genre categories now receive Grammy statuettes.

Who is sitting out?

Not everyone entered. After the Asian pop category was announced, BTS said it would not submit this year: “We hope our music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language,” the group wrote in a statement, per Variety. Stray Kids’ agency, JYP Entertainment, confirmed the group filed no entry before the Aug. 21 deadline but offered no explanation, Variety reports. Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. said when the Academy confirmed the new category would go ahead: “We understand this conclusion will not satisfy everyone, and that never feels good.”

Drake, who put out three albums in a day in May, did not submit any albums or songs, sources told Billboard; the Academy hasn’t commented in the coverage we’ve seen. Our earlier explainer has the background.

Which albums and songs dominated the year?

Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl logged a 15th nonconsecutive week atop the Billboard 200 on the chart dated Oct. 24. Olivia Rodrigo’s you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love opened at No. 1 on the chart dated June 27 with 485,000 equivalent album units, the largest week of 2026 for any album by a soloist, has yet to leave the top five in 21 weeks and returned to No. 1 for a fourth nonconsecutive week on the Nov. 14 chart. Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” has spent a record 27 weeks atop the Hot 100; the previous mark was 22, by Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Noah Kahan’s The Great Divide: The Last of the Bugs is his first album to top the Billboard 200, per Billboard, and BTS’s ARIRANG spent three weeks at No. 1 before the group opted out of the Grammys. Several of these are on our Grail List too, alongside Drake’s ICEMAN, Don Toliver’s OCTANE and Bruno Mars’s “I Just Might.”

What are critics saying?

This is opinion, not a nomination list. Billboard’s final album of the year predictions, published Nov. 9, are Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving, Kahan’s The Great Divide: The Last of the Bugs, Langley’s Dandelion, Mars’s The Romantic, Rodrigo’s album, Rosalía’s LUX (Complete Works), Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl and Toliver’s Octane. It also notes that, because of the rule change, Langley could be nominated in four of the six general categories, which would make her the first country crossover artist to do that since Bobbie Gentry in 1968. And it points out that Dean, the reigning best new artist winner, is one of the 16 acts announcing the nominees: “Does that mean Recording Academy insiders already know she’s going to sweep the nominations? I doubt it. But they probably suspect she will.”

Variety framed the race in early October as “Olivia vs. Olivia,” adding: “Welcome to the matriarchy, and may the best woman walk away with an armful.” Predictions come with a caveat. The Academy has no say in them, and the real list arrives Monday.

What’s next?

Nominees arrive Monday, Nov. 16, and the winners on Feb. 7. The Latin Recording Academy’s own show comes first: our Latin Grammys explainer covers Thursday’s ceremony.