The most Album of the Year nominations without a win
Kendrick Lamar has been nominated for Album of the Year five times and has lost all five. No artist has more nominations in the category without a win. Lady Gaga also has five losses if Love for Sale, her 2021 album with Tony Bennett, is counted, and eleven artists have three or more.
The counts below run to the 68th ceremony, held in 2026, and include only albums where the artist is the name on the cover, not features or production credits.
Three or more nominations, no win
| ARTIST | NOMINATIONS | YEARS |
|---|---|---|
| Kendrick Lamar | 5 | 2014–2026 |
| Lady Gaga | 5 | 2010–2026 |
| Kanye West | 4 | 2005–2022 |
| Justin Bieber | 3 | 2017–2026 |
| Coldplay | 3 | 2009–2023 |
| Elton John | 3 | 1971–1976 |
| Eminem | 3 | 2001–2011 |
| H.E.R. | 3 | 2019–2022 |
| Mariah Carey | 3 | 1991–2006 |
| Radiohead | 3 | 1998–2009 |
| Sting | 3 | 1986–1994 |
Kendrick Lamar: five albums, five losses
| YEAR | ALBUM | LOST TO |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Good Kid, M.A.A.D City | Random Access Memories, Daft Punk |
| 2016 | To Pimp a Butterfly | 1989, Taylor Swift |
| 2018 | Damn | 24K Magic, Bruno Mars |
| 2023 | Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers | Harry's House, Harry Styles |
| 2026 | GNX | Debí Tirar Más Fotos, Bad Bunny |
Every studio album Lamar has released since Good Kid, M.A.A.D City has been nominated. To Pimp a Butterfly went in with eleven nominations, the most of anyone that year, and lost the big one to Taylor Swift’s 1989.
Damn lost to Bruno Mars in January 2018. In April it won the Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first winner of that prize that was not classical music or jazz. Lamar did win Record and Song of the Year at the 2025 ceremony with Not Like Us, a single from May 2024 that is not on GNX. GNX lost to Bad Bunny a year later.
Lady Gaga: three straight, then two more
| YEAR | ALBUM | LOST TO |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | The Fame | Fearless, Taylor Swift |
| 2011 | The Fame Monster | The Suburbs, Arcade Fire |
| 2012 | Born This Way | 21, Adele |
| 2022 | Love for Sale (with Tony Bennett) | We Are, Jon Batiste |
| 2026 | Mayhem | Debí Tirar Más Fotos, Bad Bunny |
Gaga was nominated at three ceremonies in a row at the start of her career and lost to Taylor Swift, Arcade Fire and Adele. The Fame Monster was an eight-song reissue of The Fame and still got its own nomination, a year after The Fame lost.
Love for Sale was Bennett’s last album, recorded while he was living with Alzheimer’s disease. It lost to Jon Batiste’s We Are in the year the field went up to ten nominees. Without it, Gaga has four nominations as a solo artist.
Kanye West: three of his first four albums
The College Dropout, Late Registration and Graduation were all nominated, in 2005, 2006 and 2008. The first lost to Ray Charles’s Genius Loves Company, released two months after Charles died. The second lost to U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, and the third to Herbie Hancock’s album of Joni Mitchell songs, which also beat Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black. Donda added a fourth loss in 2022.
When Beck won in 2015, West walked up to the stage as if to take the microphone, then turned back. He said afterwards that Beck should have given the award to Beyoncé.
Beyoncé: four losses, then Cowboy Carter
Before 2025 Beyoncé was on the list above with four nominations and no win: I Am... Sasha Fierce lost to Taylor Swift’s Fearless in 2010, her self-titled album to Beck’s Morning Phase in 2015, Lemonade to Adele’s 25 in 2017, and Renaissance to Harry Styles in 2023. Adele said on stage in 2017 that Lemonade should have won. Cowboy Carter won at the 2025 ceremony, her fifth nomination.
Paul McCartney: nine nominations, one win
Counted as one artist across his bands, McCartney has been nominated nine times and won once. The Beatles were nominated five years running and won only with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1968. After that he lost with Band on the Run, credited to Paul McCartney and Wings, in 1975, and with three solo albums: Tug of War in 1983, Flaming Pie in 1998 and Chaos and Creation in the Backyard in 2006. Flaming Pie lost to Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind, the same year Radiohead lost with OK Computer.
2026: three of them lost the same night
At the 68th ceremony Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber were all in the field, and all three lost to Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos, the first Spanish-language album to win. It moved Lamar to five, Gaga to five and Bieber to three.
Losing runs that ended
Beyoncé’s four losses before Cowboy Carter are the most any artist has had before a first win. Five others lost twice and then won, and for two of them the gap was close to twenty years.
Steely Dan lost with Aja in 1978 and Gaucho in 1982, broke up, and won in 2001 with Two Against Nature, their first album in 20 years. It beat Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP and Radiohead’s Kid A. Beck lost with Odelay in 1997 and Midnite Vultures in 2001 and won with Morning Phase in 2015, the night he beat Beyoncé.
Whitney Houston lost with her first two albums and won with The Bodyguard soundtrack in 1994. The Dixie Chicks lost with Fly and Home and won in 2007 with Taking the Long Way, which took all five categories it was up for. The Beatles lost with Help! and Revolver before Sgt. Pepper’s, and Frank Sinatra lost twice at the first ceremony in May 1959 and won at the second, six months later.
Every ceremony since 1959 is in Album of the Year, where you are given a year and pick the winner from the albums that were nominated with it. All 68 ceremonies are in the game, so every loss in this post can come up.