To be clear, Harry Styles at the Grammys is not a surprise. The musician-actor has long been a familiar sight at the awards show - the three-time winner was omnipresent during the early 2020s. But, since releasing Harry's House in 2022, Style's antics have skewed monkish; beyond his blisteringly fast incognito marathons, he's generally managed to recuse himself from the glaring limelight.
Less than two weeks after Wicked: For Good got entirely shut out from the Oscars, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande won a Grammy ... for a song from the first Wicked movie. During the Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony prior to the televised awards show, Erivo and Grande won a Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Defying Gravity," which is from the first Wicked film.
That could change at next month's 2026 Grammy Awards ceremony. Songs released by K-pop artists - or K-pop-adjacent artists, more on that later - have received nominations in the big four categories for the first time. Rosé, perhaps best known as one-fourth of the juggernaut girl group Blackpink, is the first K-pop artist to ever receive a nomination in the record of the year field for "APT.," her megahit with Grammys' favorite Bruno Mars.
She kicked it off by bringing home two Grammy awards for her album Short n' Sweet and her hit single "Espresso." Five months later, on Aug. 29, she released Man's Best Friend, which racked up six more nominations when the shortlist for the 2026 Grammys was announced in November. Plus, Carpenter spent the better half of the year touring Short n' Sweet.
The Grammy nominations are here, and with it the realization we have no great pop juggernauts like we did last year. No Charli, no Beyoncé, and no Taylor. Still, there's a lot of Lady Gaga and Sabrina Carpenter and even a good showing for Justin Bieber - but the big narrative of this year's noms is the enthusiasm for this past year in rap: Kendrick, Bad Bunny, Clipse, and yes ... even Drake.
(Rick Kern / Getty Images) D'Angelo, the soul and R&B singer who kicked off music's neo-soul movement with virtuosic, sensual and spiritually searching albums like "Brown Sugar" and "Voodoo," has died at 51. In a statement to Variety, the singer's family said that "The shining star of our family has dimmed his light for us in this life."
