Album of the Year
You get a Grammys year and four albums that were all up for Album of the Year that night. One of them won. 68 ceremonies since the first in 1959, in a different order every round.
What people ask about the top Grammy
Who has won Album of the Year the most times?
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Who has won Album of the Year the most times?
›Taylor Swift, with four: Fearless in 2010, 1989 in 2016, Folklore in 2021 and Midnights in 2024. Frank Sinatra and Stevie Wonder have three each. Wonder's came in four years in the 1970s, and he won with every album he was nominated for.
Who has the most nominations without a win?
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Who has the most nominations without a win?
›Kendrick Lamar, with five. He lost with Good Kid, M.A.A.D City in 2014, To Pimp a Butterfly in 2016, Damn in 2018, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers in 2023 and GNX in 2026. Damn won a Pulitzer Prize in the same year it lost here. Kanye West and Lady Gaga have four nominations each as the lead artist and no win.
Why does the year not match the year the album came out?
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Why does the year not match the year the album came out?
›A Grammys is named after the year the ceremony is held, and it covers records released in an eligibility year that ends in late summer or early autumn of the year before. Midnights came out in October 2022 and won at the 2024 ceremony, because it missed the cut-off for 2023. The first two ceremonies were both held in 1959, in May and November, so those two are named by month as well.
How many albums are nominated each year?
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How many albums are nominated each year?
›Five for most of the award's history, with six in 1961, 1962 and 1971. The Recording Academy widened the field to eight from the 2019 ceremony, then to ten for 2022 and 2023, and went back to eight in 2024.
Has a rap album ever won?
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Has a rap album ever won?
›Twice. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill won in 1999 and OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2004. Eminem, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Drake and Cardi B have all been nominated since and lost.
Has an album not in English ever won?
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Has an album not in English ever won?
›Bad Bunny's Debí Tirar Más Fotos in 2026 was the first Spanish-language winner, three years after his Un Verano Sin Ti became the first Spanish-language nominee. Getz/Gilberto, the 1965 winner, was a bossa nova record sung mostly in Portuguese, with a few English verses from Astrud Gilberto.
The nights that changed the award
18 of the 68 ceremonies are remembered for more than the album that won: a genre winning for the first time, a favourite losing to a record few people bought, or a total nobody has beaten since.
Before rock got a look in
For its first decade the award went to records bought by adults: a TV score, two comedy albums and three wins for Sinatra. The Beatles had been nominated twice before one of their albums won.
MAY 1959
The Music from Peter Gunn · Henry Mancini
The first Album of the Year went to the music from a television detective series. Mancini wrote Peter Gunn for NBC, and Frank Sinatra, nominated twice on the same ballot, lost to it.
1961
The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart · Bob Newhart
A comedy record won. Bob Newhart's stand-up album beat Sinatra and Nat King Cole, and Newhart was named Best New Artist the same night.
1963
The First Family · Vaughn Meader
The last comedy album to win. Vaughn Meader's impression of John F. Kennedy sold millions, and after the assassination in November 1963 the record was pulled and his act was finished.
1967
A Man and His Music · Frank Sinatra
Sinatra's third win and his second in a row. One of the albums he beat was the Beatles' Revolver.
1968
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band · The Beatles
The first rock album to win. The Beatles were nominated five times, from Help! to Abbey Road, and this is the only one that won.
Firsts that took decades
Each of these opened the category to a kind of record it had never rewarded. The gaps between them say more about the voters than the music.
1965
Getz/Gilberto · Stan Getz & João Gilberto
The first jazz album to win, and the one with The Girl from Ipanema on it. The next jazz winner was Herbie Hancock's River, 43 years later.
1999
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill · Lauryn Hill
The first hip-hop album to win. Lauryn Hill took five Grammys that night.
2011
The Suburbs · Arcade Fire
An indie-label album won. The Suburbs came out on Merge Records, and it beat Lady Gaga, Eminem and Katy Perry.
2026
Debí Tirar Más Fotos · Bad Bunny
The first Spanish-language album to win. Kendrick Lamar's GNX lost, his fifth Album of the Year nomination without a win.
The results people still argue about
Years where the album that lost is now far better known than the one that won, or where the winner said so on stage.
1985
Can't Slow Down · Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie beat Purple Rain and Born in the U.S.A.
2001
Two Against Nature · Steely Dan
Steely Dan's first album in 20 years beat The Marshall Mathers LP and Kid A.
2008
River: The Joni Letters · Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock's album of Joni Mitchell songs beat Amy Winehouse's Back to Black, the second jazz album to win after Getz/Gilberto in 1965.
2017
25 · Adele
Adele beat Beyoncé's Lemonade and said on stage that Lemonade should have won.
Records that have stood
Most wins, most Grammys in a night, and the clean sweep of the four general categories that has happened twice.
1977
Songs in the Key of Life · Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder's third in four years, which put him level with Sinatra on three.
1981
Christopher Cross · Christopher Cross
Christopher Cross won Album, Record and Song of the Year and Best New Artist in one night, the first to take all four. Pink Floyd's The Wall was one of the albums he beat.
1984
Thriller · Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson won eight Grammys that night, a record for one ceremony that only Santana has matched.
2020
When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? · Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish was 18, the youngest winner, and took Album, Record and Song of the Year and Best New Artist in one night. Christopher Cross was the only one to do that before her.
2024
Midnights · Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift's fourth win, the most by any artist.