How the Grammys Actually Work

Who votes

The Grammys are run by the Recording Academy. The voters are music-industry members: artists, songwriters, producers and engineers. Fans don’t vote. Sales don’t decide it either.

The Big Four

• Album of the Year: the whole album.
• Record of the Year: one recording, honoring the performer and production team.
• Song of the Year: one song, honoring the songwriters.
• Best New Artist: a breakthrough act.

"Record" vs "Song" confuses everyone. Record is how it sounds. Song is how it’s written.

How a winner happens

Music released in roughly a year-long window (ending in late summer) is eligible. Members vote on nominations, which are announced in November, then vote again for winners, revealed at the ceremony in February.

Snubs and boycotts

• 2016: Kendrick’s To Pimp a Butterfly loses Album of the Year to Taylor Swift’s 1989.
• 2017: Frank Ocean doesn’t even submit Blonde. Beyoncé’s Lemonade loses to Adele, who says Beyoncé should have won.
• 2021: The Weeknd gets zero nominations despite "Blinding Lights". The backlash pushes the Academy to scrap its secret nomination committees.
• Drake pulled his nominations in 2022. Tyler, the Creator has criticized how Black artists get boxed into "rap" categories.

The records people argue about

• Beyoncé has won more Grammys than anyone ever.
• Taylor Swift has the most Album of the Year wins: four.
• Billie Eilish swept the Big Four at 18.
• Kendrick Lamar’s "Not Like Us" won five in one night in 2025.
• Bad Bunny won the first Album of the Year for a Spanish-language album in 2026.