The Grammys are getting even looser with their Best New Artist category requirements

We should have known that, after Bad Bunny’s historic win, the Grammys were going to make things weird again. Yesterday, the Recording Academy announced five new categories and changes to a few extant ones as part of its annual category update. New categories—possibly a response to a non-English language album winning Album of the Year for the first time—include Best Asian Pop Music Performance and Best Latin Song. Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance has also been added, and two older, sort-of-retired categories—Best Traditional Folk Album, and Best R&B Collaboration or Duo/Group Performance—are being brought back.

What’s got musicians up in arms, though, is the update made to the Academy’s Best New Artist category, an award that has long garnered opposition for its opaque guidelines and ever-shifting parameters. Famously, Sabrina Carpenter was nominated for the award in 2025 despite her debut album coming out in 2015. Artists were previously allowed to enter three times, a rule that would bar bands like Geese from entering the running this upcoming winter. Now, they’ll be allowed to enter four times, which really only makes the problem worse. Academy officials have credited artists’ “non-traditional” paths to fame for the rule change. 

Another rule update alters the “new material” requirement for awards eligibility, lowering the percentage of newly recorded music needed for an album to garner Grammy consideration from 75% to 66%—a change Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. stated was “driven by our members and… the way music continues to evolve.” The full slate of changes can be seen here. The 69th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony, which will be the first to take place on ABC instead of CBS and will stream on Disney+ and Hulu, is set take place on February 7, 2027.

After this year’s Grammy Awards ceremony, we ranked every Album of the Year winner. Check that list out here.

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