There’s a turf war going down at the Grammy Awards that hasn’t necessarily been as pronounced until now. As one anonymous voter — who’s in their second year as a member of the Recording Academy — puts it, it’s fueled by the inevitable evolution of how music is being discovered and consumed, which often takes the form of video crudité. “There are two sides,” the voter explains. “We’re looking at the ‘virality artists’ who are intentionally creating TikTok hits, making songs to go viral, and are very catchy with the algorithm and meant for that type of platform. The 15-second hooks, if you will.” The opposing side upholds a weightier industry standard, at least for this voter. “We have artists creating complex narratives, like Kendrick Lamar and Billie Eilish, who are doubling down on musicianship and legacy,” they say. “That’s the overall theme this year, and I strongly leaned in to the legacy side.”
Lamar, who leads the 2026 Grammy-nominations list with nine noms, is closely followed by Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber, Clipse, and Lady Gaga, all of whom hope to take home some brass and triumph like Steely Dan did in 2001. (It airs this Sunday on CBS.) So, whose chances might rank higher than the others? And shouldn’t we have fun and speculate more often? While it wasn’t tenable, time-wise, to go through every single Grammy category — even our Rock Hall ballot chats tend to exceed an hour, and that shortlist rarely surpasses 15 names — the anonymous voter was happy to go through the categories that always tend to be televised and provide the rationale for their selections. “When I talk to my fellow friends and colleagues who have voting privileges, everyone is so jaded about everything,” they explain. “I still have some romanticism with it. But check back with me in five years.”
