At the 2026 Grammy Awards, Album of the Year was undoubtedly the most coveted category of the night.
Bad Bunny got emotional while winning the accolade for Debí Tirar Más Fotos during the Sunday, February 1, ceremony at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The singer gave most of his speech in Spanish, speaking directly to his home country, Puerto Rico.
“There is nothing that exists that we can’t accomplish,” he told the crowd, according to a translation. “Thank God, thank you to the Academy, and thank you to all the people who have believed in me throughout my career. To all the people who worked on this album. Thank you, Mami, for giving birth to me in Puerto Rico. I love you!”
The other nominees in the Album of the Year category were Justin Bieber’s Swag, Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend, Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out, Lady Gaga’s Mayhem, Kendrick Lamar’s GNX, Leon Thomas’ Mutt and Tyler, The Creator’s Chromakopia.
“I want to dedicate this award to all the people who had to leave their homeland, their country, to follow their dreams,” Bad Bunny said in English, before continuing in Spanish.
“For all the people who have lost a loved one and,and even then have had to continue moving forward and continue with so much strength, this award is for you all. Thank you for so much love. I love you,” he concluded. “To all the Latinos in the entire world, and all the artists who came before and deserved to be on this stage picking up this award, thank you very much.”
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Among the Album of the Year contenders, Lamar, 38, led the pack with nine overall nominations at the 2026 awards show. His nods included Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Melodic Rap Performance for “Luther” with SZA (which he won), Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “30 for 30” with SZA, Best Rap Performance for “TV Off” with Lefty Gunplay and “Chains and Whips” with Clipse and Pharrell Williams (which he won), Best Rap Song for “TV Off” (which he won) and Best Rap Album for GNX (which he won).
Gaga, 39, followed close behind with seven nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Dance Pop Recording for “Abracadabra” (which she won), Best Pop Solo Performance for “Disease,” Best Pop Vocal Album for Mayhem (which she won) and Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Harlequin.
Bad Bunny, 31, Carpenter, 26, Thomas, 32, and Tyler, The Creator, 34, each secured six total nods.
Bad Bunny earned his for Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “DtMF,” Best Música Urbana Album (which he won) and Best Album Cover for Debí Tirar Más Fotos and Best Global Music Performance for “EoO” (which he won), while Carpenter received hers for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Music Video for “Manchild” and Best Pop Vocal Album for Man’s Best Friend.
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Thomas landed his nominations for Best New Artist, Best R&B Performance for “Mutt — Live From NPR’s Tiny Desk,” Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Vibes Don’t Lie,” Best R&B Song (which he won) for “Yes It Is” and Best R&B Album for Mutt (which he won).
Tyler, The Creator, for his part, was up for Best Alternative Music Album for Don’t Tap the Glass, Best Rap Performance for “Darling, I” with Teezo Touchdown, Best Rap Song for “Sticky” with GloRilla, Sexyy Red and Lil Wayne and Best Rap Album and Best Album Cover for Chromakopia (which he won).
Meanwhile, Clipse — made up of Pusha T and Malice — earned five total nominations, including for Best Rap Performance for “Chains and Whips” with Lamar and Williams (which they won), Best Rap Song for “The Birds Don’t Sing” with John Legend and Voices of Fire, Best Rap Album for Let God Sort Em Out and Best Music Video for “So Be It.”
As for Bieber, 31, he secured four nominations overall for Best Pop Solo Performance for “Daisies,” Best Pop Vocal Album for Swag and Best R&B Performance for “Yukon.”
Prior to the 2026 ceremony, seven of the contenders in the Album of the Year category were already Grammy winners, with 22 previous accolades for Lamar, 14 for Gaga, three for Bad Bunny, two each for Bieber, Carpenter and Tyler, The Creator and one for Thomas.
