Grammys 2026 // Best of the Night
A great range of artists were celebrated at this year's Grammy ceremony, making it one of the most stacked and memorable shows in recent years. The night was filled not only with incredible performances, but also with meaningful artistic statements that felt especially apt to be making for this moment in history we are living through. Music remains one of the most unifying forces we have, and the statements so many artists chose to make on this stage felt especially important. In a time marked by division, unrest, and the constant heartache of witnessing horrors around the world, moments like this remind us why we need music more than ever to bring us together.
Kendrick Lamar was the most nominated artist of the year, earning nine nominations. His album GNX was absolutely incredible and truly deserving of all the hype and then some. At the main ceremony, he won for Best Rap Album and for Record of the Year for "luther" featuring SZA.
When accepting his award for Best Rap Album, he said, "I'm not good at talking about myself, but I express it through the music. Every time I tell you this: hip hop is gonna always be right here. We gonna be in these suits, we gonna be looking good, we gonna be having our folks with us, we gonna be having the culture with us."
SZA also had a powerful acceptance speech for her Record of the Year win, "I just am a small part of this record, but what I really wanted to say is, please don't fall into despair. I know that right now is a scary time. I know the algorithms tell us that it's so scary and all is lost. There's been world wars, there's been plagues, and we have gone on. We can go on. We need each other. We need to trust each other and trust ourselves, trust your heart."
This marks Kendrick's second consecutive year winning Record of the Year, following his memorable "Not Like Us" win in 2025, officially making him the first rapper to ever win the award twice and the first male artist to win it two years in a row. With 27 overall awards, Kendrick is now the most-awarded hip-hop artist in Grammys history!
It was undoubtedly going to also be a major year for Bad Bunny as well, who was a six-time nominee at this year's ceremony. Both he and Kendrick had groundbreaking years in music and their success is so well deserved.
Bad Bunny took home the coveted Album of the Year award for DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, making history as the very first Spanish-language album to do so. "I want to dedicate this award to all the people who had to leave their homeland to follow their dreams," Bad Bunny said during his acceptance speech. "To all the Latinos in the world and all the artists who came before and deserved to be on this stage getting this award, thank you."
He also won for Best Música Urbana Album as well earlier in the televised ceremony and had another powerful acceptance speech, which was among the most direct and notable of the entire night. "Before I thank God, I'm going to say ICE out," he said. "We're not savage. We're not animals. We are not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans. The hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love...if we fight, we have to do it with love."
Both speeches were incredibly important and heartfelt, each dedicated to his home of Puerto Rico and the communities he represents. Exactly one week from today, he's also set to headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show, which is another milestone in a long list of extraordinary career accomplishments!
The performances are always stellar at The Grammys and this year was no exception. ROSÉ and Bruno Mars opened the show with their three-time nominated collaboration "APT.", which is such a fun track and a lively way to kick off the show. She really embodied a really cool Gwen Stefani-inspired style with her look, which suited her so well. Later in the show, Bruno returned to the stage again for the first live performance of his new song "I Just Might", off of his upcoming album set to be released in a couple of weeks.
Sabrina Carpenter, a six-time nominee at this year's ceremony, delivered a stellar performance early in night with her hit "Manchild". This might be one of my favorite performances she has ever done, I absolutely loved the airport theming and all of the detail that went into making it such an elaborate moment. This is her second year in a row being a major Grammy contender, last year for Short n' Sweet and this year with Man's Best Friend, and it has been so exciting to see her artistry continue to evolve year after year.
Justin Bieber made his long-awaited return to The Grammys stage for the first time in four years with an incredible performance of his song "YUKON". The performance was stripped down in more ways than one, he performed in just socks and gym shorts with only a loop pedal, microphone, and guitar. It was such an intimate and captivating performance, it was truly one of the best of the entire night. With the full focus on his voice, it became a beautifully raw and emotional performance from him.
Lady Gaga's "Abracadabra" performance was also a major moment. She first debuted the song at last year’s ceremony during a commercial break, and it has been so cool to see the new life it has taken on and what it has come to represent in her career over the past year. She is truly one of the greatest rockstars we have, and the performance was insane. Her album MAYHEM also won Best Pop Vocal Album, marking her second time receiving the award, she first won for The Fame Monster back in 2011. This win feels so representative of her enduring impact on pop for more than a decade. One thing has remained true about Gaga from the very start: she is continuously innovating and expanding the bounds of pop music in a way no one else ever has.
Another one of the most interesting and elaborate moments of the night came from Tyler, The Creator, who always goes all out with his Grammy performances. Some of my all‑time favorites are his performances from years past, so this was one I was really looking forward to. This was a major year for him, as he was nominated five times for two different albums, CHROMAKOPIA and DON'T TAP THE GLASS. His mashup of "Thought I Was Dead", "Like Him", and "Sugar On My Tongue" was so bold and theatrical, it was absolutely one of the major highlights of the night. His performance blended the very distinct visual identities of both albums in such a cool and clever way.
One of the biggest performance highlights was the Best New Artist medley, featuring all eight of this year's nominees. It was such a stacked lineup, and it was so cool to see them perform one after another like this. Many of them have had long and steady rises in music, some spanning a decade or more, so the title of Best New Artist is subjective and open to interpretation in a lot of ways. I've loved following the journeys of so many of these incredible artists over the years. It really does take ten years to be an overnight success sometimes, and many of these artists are prime examples of that.
The first up was one of my personal favorites, The Marías, with a stunning performance of the extended version of "No One Noticed". I've never believed awards are a real measure of talent or impact and so many artists I love will never be nominated, but it was still especially exciting to see this band finally get recognition. It felt long overdue.
Addison Rae followed with an iconic performance of one of my favorite pop songs ever, "Fame Is A Gun". She truly is such a star and one of the few in pop music doing it the way she is right now. The choreography, the glam, the drama of it all - it was so much fun to watch. Addison is one of the best, innovating pop music in a way that feels reminiscent of the greats like Britney, Madonna, and Christina Aguilera, yet still inexplicably all her own. She embodies the persona of it all so well. She has had such a cool journey over the last few years, and I've loved seeing her come into her own as an artist and really carve out a space for herself in the industry. To see her be taken seriously in a space like this, and even be nominated in the first place, is such an exciting step for her. "Fame Is A Gun" feels indicative of the moment she's living through in her career right now, and I'm so excited to see where she takes this next.
While an artist like Alex Warren isn't necessarily my thing, it's still admirable to see the trajectory he's been on, especially one that in a lot of ways mirrors Addison's. If five years ago you told me that two TikTokers from the Hype House would be simultaneously nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammys, I probably wouldn't have believed you, and yet here we are!
Girl group Katseye performed "Gnarly", but it was honestly a bit lackluster in comparison to the rest of the lineup. Sombr, on the other hand, has a really fun, disco inspired performance of his hit "12 to 12", which brought such a vibrant burst of energy to the medley.
Leon Thomas was another major standout. He has had such a unique and gradual rise in music for well over a decade. While this was his breakout year as a solo artist, I have loved his work as a producer for so long, and I grew up watching him on Victorious as well. His performance of "MUTT" was incredible and it has been so exciting to see him have his long overdue moment with his music.
Lola Young performed "Messy" as a piano ballad, which was a unique take on the original version. She didn't win for Best New Artist, but "Messy" actually did unexpectedly win for Pop Solo Performance, which was yet another stacked category this year.
The clear winner of the Best New Artist category was absolutely Olivia Dean, who performed her beautiful hit "Man I Need". She's had such a massive breakout year, and she is so deserving of all of it. It's rare for an artist with such a timeless, classic contemporary pop style to find the kind of mainstream success she has, and she carries it with so much grace. In her acceptance speech, she said, "I want to say I’m here as the granddaughter of an immigrant," whose grandmother immigrated to the United Kingdom from Guyana. "I wouldn’t be here. I'm a product of bravery, and I think those people deserve to be celebrated. We're nothing without each other."
I’m really looking forward to seeing where she goes from here, I know the the best is absolutely yet to come for Olivia and for the rest of this year's Best New Artist nominee!
An unexpected but extremely well‑deserved win was for Billie Eilish's stunning "WILDFLOWER", which I was personally rooting for to win one of the awards it was nominated for. This is the second year a song from her 2024 album HIT ME HARD AND SOFT was nominated. The entire project, including "BIRDS OF A FEATHER", was one of the biggest snubs of the 2025 ceremony, so any recognition for this era from the Academy was absolutely deserved and long overdue.
Billie and Finneas are now the only artists in history to win Song of the Year three times. They're truly the best of the best, and they deserve every bit of recognition they get. Billie and Finneas remain two of the most impactful voices in music right now, and it's always exciting to watch them reach new heights with each passing year. She has now won in the Big Four categories seven times, which is incredible, and their monumental third win for Song of the Year speaks to how focused they both are on the craft of songwriting. "WILDFLOWER" is a stunning song and now joins the ranks of her other two classics, "What Was I Made For?" and "bad guy".
Billie also had one of the most impactful acceptance speeches of the night. She said, "I honestly don't feel like I need to say anything, but that no one is illegal on stolen land... It's just really hard to know what to say and what to do right now, and I feel really hopeful in this room."
"Our voices really do matter and the people matter," she continued. "Fuck ICE."
There were countless iconic music moments throughout the night, but I also always love highlighting some of my personal favorite fashion moments from the red carpet as well!
Chappell Roan
Sabrina Carpenter
Billie Eilish
Addison Rae
Bad Bunny
Olivia Dean
Lady Gaga
María Zardoya
Doechii
Miley Cyrus
Laufey
ROSÉ
HAIM
PinkPantheress
Jon Batiste
Jack Antonoff
Justin & Hailey Bieber
Kelsea Ballerini
Finneas & Claudia Sulewski
Audrey Nuna
Thanks for reading! Check out my lists of my personal favorite albums and songs of 2025, as well as my favorites of 2024 as well. I have written about some of this year's biggest winners and nominees many times, all of which are linked below!
Photo Credit: Getty Images for The Recording Academy, CBS, Vogue, Kevin Mazur
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