SAN DIEGO — You don’t need to speak a word of Spanish or Korean to appreciate the significance of this year’s Grammy Awards nominations, which sees Puerto Rican-born superstar Bad Bunny’s “DtMF” and the song “Golden” from the hit film “KPop Demon Hunters” both vying for Song of the Year honors on Sunday.

Bad Bunny (born: Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) should be front and center during the Feb. 1 telecast from Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, which will air on CBS for the last time before moving to ABC and Disney+ next year. The most streamed artist of 2025 in any genre — with a staggering 19.8 billion streams — he has six Grammy nominations this year and will headline the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show in San Francisco on Feb. 8.

This year’s other top nominees, all with six or more nominations, include Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, Canadian record producer and songwriter Cirkut, producer and songwriter Jack Antonoff, Sabrina Carpenter, neo-soul singer Leon Thomas and Romanian-Canadian audio engineer and mixer Serban Ghenea.

Bad Bunny, Lamar, Gaga and Carpenter are each nominated in the Album, Song and Record of the Year categories. In theory, one of them could sweep all three categories, but that seems unlikely.

Regardless, all eyes should be on Bad Bunny, who in 2022 became the first — and, so far, only — artist in any genre to perform two back-to-back stadium concerts at San Diego’s Petco Park. Both sold out, drawing a combined audience of 79,123.

The 31-year-old reggaeton and Latin trap-music singer, songwriter and Latino culture champion is the first Spanish-language artist in Grammy history to be nominated for Album, Song and Record of the Year in the same year. No Spanish-language artist has ever won before in any of these categories — and you can count the previous Spanish-language nominees on one hand and still have a few fingers left over.

“Obviously, Bad Bunny has had a massive year and he’s made really important music, so I could see a world in which he absolutely does win.” said Harvey Mason Jr., the President and CEO of the Recording Academy, under whose auspices the Grammy Awards are presented.

Validation for K-pop?

It remains to be seen if that world will also include K-Pop, which has also endured a steep uphill battle for Grammy recognition. Never mind that it’s been more than 30 years since K-pop’s inception in Korea — and nearly a decade since the genre’s U.S. breakthrough.

Until now, the only K-pop act to make the ballot was the South Korean boy band BTS, whose reunion tour will see the group perform four September concerts at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. BTS had a single Grammy nomination in both 2021 and 2022, and two in 2023. But the five-piece vocal group, which sings primarily in Korean, went home empty-handed each time.

This year sees a record number of K-pop-related nominations — never mind that the previous number of nominations could also be counted on one hand.

Rosé, the best-known member of the girl group Blackpink, is the first K-pop artist to earn Grammy nods for Song and Record of the Year. Both of those nominations are for “Apt.,” her chart-topping pop hit with longtime Grammy favorite Bruno Mars.

Also vying for Song of The Year honors is the international hit “Golden” by Huntr/X, the fictional girl group — voiced by real singers — in the smash animated feature film, “KPop Demon Hunters,” the most-watched film in Netflix’s history. (It is unclear why the movie’s title omits the hyphen between “K” and “pop” that is used in most other instances, including on the Grammy ballot).

The fact that the nominated songs by Rosé and Huntr/X are both sung in English may make them more palatable to K-pop-shy Grammy voters than BTS, whose 2026 reunion tour includes four September concerts in Los Angeles at SoFi Stadium. Rosé should be helped significantly by sharing vocal duties on the bouncy “Apt.” with 16-time Grammy-winner Mars,

The third K-Pop-related nominee this year is the Los Angeles-based girl group Katseye, which is a Best New Artist contender. Its members hail from South Korea, the Philippines, Switzerland and the United States, and its music is not strictly K-pop.

But Katseye was created in a partnership with HYBE, the Seoul-based entertainment company that propelled BTS to global stardom. And if K-pop can’t get a win on its own, then having a K-pop adjacent act like Katseye may be its best way to make Grammy inroads.

Katseye was showcased in the popular 2024 Netflix documentary series, “Pop Star Academy: Katseye,” which chronicled the group’s five members undergoing HYBE’s K-pop training program. That Katseye’s members sing in English — as does fellow nominees Huntr/X — may also prove appealing to Grammy voters. Ditto the fact that “Golden” has more than 3 billion streams worldwide since being released last July and is a song popular with kids and parents alike.

Ups and downs

But even with the addition in recent years of several thousand new Recording Academy members — who are younger and more diverse in terms of both ethnicity and musical genres — Grammy voters can still prove confounding when it comes to deciding winners in the major categories.

Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” won the 2024 Album of the Year Grammy despite being a release that even some of her most devoted fans acknowledged was one of Swift’s least accomplished efforts. In 2023, Beyonce’s epic “Renaissance” album lost out to Harry Styles’ well-crafted but comparatively lightweight “Harry’s House.”

The history of Grammy missteps dates back to at least the 1960s, when Frank Sinatra’s “A Man and His Music” topped the Beatles’ classic “Revolver” for Album of the Year. In the same category in 1987, Lionel Richie’s “Can’t Slow Down” beat out Prince’s “Purple Rain,” while in 1991 Nirvana’s game-changing “Nevermind” was not even nominated. In 2016, Swift’s “1989” won over Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly,” the masterful album that laid the groundwork for his subsequent Pulitzer Prize victory.

And who can forget Jethro Tull trumping Metallica and AC/DC in 1989 to win the first Best Hard Rock/Metal Grammy, and — the same year — the Will Smith-led DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince’s innocuous “Parents Just Don’t Understand” beating Salt-N-Pepa’s far superior “Push It” and LL Cool J’s “Going Back to Cali” to win the first Best Rap Performance Grammy.

There were also some more recent surprises.

Last year saw Grammy darlings Swift (who had six nominations) and Billie Eilish (who had seven) both walk away empty-handed. Ditto producer, singer-songwriter and longtime Swift collaborator Jack Antonoff, who went 0-for-6.

But the 2025 edition of the Grammys also saw Beyoncé, who now has a field-leading 35 Grammy wins to her credit, finally win the Album of the Year award. She did so for her country-music-inspired “Cowboy Carter,” after not getting enough votes the four previous times she was nominated in that category.

Last year also saw Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar’s classic diss-track, “Not Like Us,” become only the second hip-hop artist to ever win the Grammys for both Record and Song of the Year. (Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” was the first, in 2019.) Lamar, who generated excitement and controversy alike as the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show performer, has a field-leading nine nominations this year.

More than 23,000 recordings were submitted this year for consideration in 95 Grammy categories. Winners in most of those categories will be announced Feb. 1 during the Grammy Premiere Ceremony livestream, which precedes the telecast.

Here are our predictions for who the likely victors will be in the four highest-profile Grammy categories.

Album of the Year

Nominees: Bad Bunny, “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS”; Justin Bieber, “Swag”; Sabrina Carpenter,“Man’s Best Friend”; Clipse, “Let God Sort Em Out”; Lady Gaga, “Mayhem”; Kendrick Lamar, “GNX”; Leon Thomas, “Mutt”; Tyler, the Creator, “Chromakopia.”

The headlines-dominating Swift would surely be a contender in this category, but her chart-topping “The Life of a Showgirl” was released too late to qualify for consideration and will surely be on next year’s ballot instead. (Morgan Wallen, who had one of the top-selling albums of 2025, declined to submit it for Grammy consideration because of his ire over snubs by Grammy voters.)

A win by either neo-soul singer Thomas, the recently reactivated Bay Area rap duo Clipse, the oh-so-vampy Carpenter, the take-me-seriously-now (please!) Bieber, or the wry, shape-shifting hip-hop maverick Tyler, the Creator would qualify as a major upset.

The fact that Gaga has a reasonably strong comeback album and has never won in this category — despite four previous Album of the Year nominations — could work in her favor. Ultimately, though, this contest comes down to Lamar and Bad Bunny, and both are well-deserving.

Should Lamar’s “GNX” win as Album of the Year, it will become only the third hip-hop album to win that category — following Lauryn Hill’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” in 1999 and OutKast’s “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” in 2004.

But Lamar may find that his five Grammy wins last year may work against him this time around. At least they will if voters with an eye on history make Bad Bunny the victor for his audacious album, which lovingly celebrates his Puerto Rican musical and cultural heritage with pop-savvy verve.

Although he lost in his only previous Album of the Year bid three years ago, Bad Bunny’s profile has risen so much higher since then that a win seems almost inevitable — especially given how many votes he gets from the 1,000 members of the Latin Recording Academy whi recently accepted the Recording Academy ‘s invitation to vote in this year’s Grammy Awards. And if significant number of the 14,000 other Grammy voters feel compelled to rebuff President Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric with their Grammy ballots, casting votes for Bad Bunny could serve a dual purpose.​​

Record of the Year

Nominees: “Bad Bunny, DtMF”; Sabrina Carpenter, “Manchild”; Doechii, “Anxiety”; Billie Eilish, “Wildflower”; Lady Gaga, “Abracadabra”; Kendrick Lamar with SZA, “Luther”; Chappell Roan, “The Subway”; Rosé & Bruno Mars, “Apt.”

Either Gaga’s dancefloor-filling “Abracadabra” and Carpenter’s Fleetwood Mac-inspired “Manchild” could win, assuming votes for each don’t cancel each other out. Billie Eilish’s aching, whisper-soft ballad “Wildflower” would be one of the most understated Record of the Year winners in years.

That distinction would apply nearly as much to Lamar and SZA’s sultry slow-jam, “Luther,” with Chappell Roan’s song of love imagined and unrequited not far behind. Conversely, Doechii’s carefully calibrated “Anxiety” — although a long shot to take home the trophy — would become the first (and catchiest) Record of the Year-winner in memory about feelings of dread and anxiety that lead to a panic attack.

But voters love Mars, whose track record so far of 36 Grammy nominations and 16 wins gives him an impressive winning percentage of 44. That should give a sizable boost to Rosé’s “Apt.,” which features Mars and is the first song by any female K-pop artist to make the Billboard Top 10 chart. And its upbeat, retro-New Wave-tinged flavor and broad appeal give “Apt.” an appealing sense of familiarity that should attract enough voters to triumph.

Song of the Year

This award honors songwriters. The performer of each nominated song is shown in parentheses. Nominees:

“Abracadabra” — Lady Gaga, Henry Walter & Andrew Watt, songwriters (Lady Gaga)

“Anxiety” — Jaylah Hickmon, songwriter (Doechii)

“Apt.” — Amy Allen, Christopher Brody Brown, Rogét Chahayed, Omer Fedi, Philip Lawrence, Bruno Mars, Chae Young Park, Theron Thomas & Henry Walter, songwriters (Rosé and Bruno Mars)

“DtMF” — Marco Daniel Borrero, Scott Dittrich, Benjamin Falik, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, Hugo René Sención Sanabria, Tyler Thomas Spry & Roberto José Rosado Torres, songwriters (Bad Bunny)

“Golden [From “KPop Demon Hunters”]” — EJAE & Mark Sonnenblick, songwriters (HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami)

“Luther” — Jack Antonoff, Roshwita Larisha Bacha, Matthew Bernard, Scott Bridgeway, Sam Dew, Ink, Kendrick Lamar, Solána Rowe, Mark Anthony Spears & Kamasi Washington, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar with SZA)

“Manchild” — Amy Allen, Jack Antonoff & Sabrina Carpenter, songwriters (Sabrina Carpenter)

“Wildflower” — Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas O’Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish)

Seven of the eight nominated songs in this category are also vying for Record of the Year honors. The one contender that is not in both is “Golden,” a catchy if overly facile earworm from the animated “KPop: Demon Hunters” soundtrack album.

Nearly any of the tracks also nominated for Record of the Year are also worthy contenders for Song of the Year, a category that begs the question: How many collaborators does one song require? (Ten for Lamar and SZA’s “Luther” and nine for Rosé and Mars’ “Apt.”)

Assuming Gaga doesn’t triumph for “Abracadabra,” either “Luther” or “Apt.” appears to have the best chance of winning. And if you’re inclined to wager, betting on almost anything that features Mars should be a pretty safe bet. A win for him or for Eilish, who have each won twice before in this category, would make one of them the first artist to ever earn a third Grammy for Song of the Year.

Best New Artist

Nominees: Olivia Dean; Katseye; The Marias; Addison Rae; Sombr; Leon Thomas; Alex Warren; Lola Young.

Carlsbad native Alex Warren was named Billboard’s Top New Artist of 2025, thanks to his bombastic power ballad, “Ordinary,” which topped the Billboard charts for 10 weeks. That distinction alone could give him the edge in terms of his ubiquitous presence on the airwaves.

Lola Young, Olivia Dean and Addison Rae all had breakout years in 2025, and Young’s song “Messy” had one of the best couplets in some time: “I smoke like a chimney / I’m not skinny / And I pull a Britney every other week / But cut me some slack / Who do you want me to be?”

But don’t count out Thomas, who — at 32 — has a good number of film, TV and Broadway credits under his belt. A 2026 Album of the Year nominee, he is unlikely to win in that category. But his fresh, expertly delivered blend of old-school soul, funk and rock could be catnip for Grammy voters whose appetite for new music that sounds instantly familiar has long been a matter of record.

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The 68th annual Grammy Awards

Hosted by: Trevor Noah

Featuring performances by: Pharrell Williams, Clipse, Sabrina Carpenter, Addison Rae, Alex Warren, Katseye, Leon Thomas, Lola Young, Olivia Dean, sombr, the Marías and more to be announced.

When: 5 p.m. PT Sunday, Feb. 1, on CBS and Paramount+

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2026 Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony

When: 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 1, on live.grammy.com and the Recording Academy’s Grammy YouTube channel

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