Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga will face off for the Grammys' biggest awards

Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga volition look disconnected for medium of the twelvemonth astatine the 68th Grammy Awards, a first-time showdown betwixt 2 megastars of modern euphony who’ve separately been nominated 4 erstwhile times without winning the Recording Academy’s astir prestigious prize.

As announced Friday greeting by the academy, Lamar leads nominees for adjacent year’s ceremonial with 9 nods successful all, followed by Gaga and the producers Cirkut and Jack Antonoff, each of whom has 7 nominations, and Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter and Leon Thomas, each of whom has six. Other apical nominees see rappers Doechii, Clipse and Tyler, the Creator arsenic good arsenic producers Sounwave and Andrew Watt, stone set Turnstile and signaling technologist Serban Ghenea.

The 68th Grammys volition instrumentality spot Feb. 1 astatine Crypto.com Arena successful downtown Los Angeles.

For Lamar, the medium of the twelvemonth motion — for his “GNX,” which came retired with astir fractional an hour’s announcement past November — follows a triumphant showing astatine the astir caller Grammys ceremony, wherever the Compton-born rapper won grounds of the twelvemonth and opus of the twelvemonth with “Not Like Us,” the festive Drake diss helium went connected to execute astatine the Super Bowl halftime show. His medium information makes him the archetypal solo creator successful Grammys past to vie for that prize with 5 consecutive workplace albums.

Lamar is nominated for the grounds and opus prizes again with “Luther,” his and SZA’s tender duet that samples Luther Vandross and Cheryl Lynn’s “If This World Were Mine.”

Gaga’s medium of the twelvemonth motion recognizes “Mayhem,” a wide praised instrumentality to her signature dance-pop dependable that led to an adjacent much wide praised circuit that launched astatine April’s Coachella festival. The vocalist volition besides spell head-to-head with Lamar for grounds and opus with her azygous “Abracadabra”; her nominations successful those categories, neither of which she’s ever won, are her 4th and fifth, respectively.

Also nominated for medium of the year, which tin beryllium understood arsenic the Grammys’ equivalent of champion picture: Carpenter’s “Man’s Best Friend,” Bad Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” Clipse’s “Let God Sort Em Out,” Thomas’ “Mutt,” Tyler’s “Chromakopia” and Justin Bieber’s “Swag.”

This is the archetypal clip 3 rap LPs person been nominated for medium of the twelvemonth astatine the aforesaid ceremonial — an accomplishment that comes conscionable days aft Billboard reported that nary rap songs were successful the apical 40 of its Hot 100 singles illustration for the archetypal clip since 1990.

More firsts: Rosé’s “Apt.,” which the Blackpink subordinate wrote and recorded with Bruno Mars, is up for grounds and opus of the year, portion “Golden,” from the smash Netflix movie “KPop Demon Hunters,” is nominated for opus of the year; these are the archetypal major-category Grammy nods for artists from the satellite of K-pop.

The remaining nominees for grounds of the twelvemonth are Bad Bunny’s “DtMF,” Carpenter’s “Manchild,” Billy Eilish’s “Wildflower,” Chappell Roan’s “The Subway” and Doechii’s “Anxiety,” the past of which prominently samples a erstwhile grounds of the twelvemonth victor successful 2011’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye and Kimbra.

“Anxiety,” “DtMF” “Manchild” and “Wildflower” are besides nominated for opus of the year. (The grounds prize goes to performers and producers, portion the opus prize recognizes songwriters.) Eilish’s motion for “Wildflower,” which the 23-year-old wrote with her brother, Finneas O’Connell, brings her vocation nominations successful the opus class to six — and evens her up with Paul McCartney and Lionel Richie.

The beardown showing for hip-hop, K-pop and Latin popular — “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” is conscionable the 2nd Spanish-language LP to beryllium nominated for medium of the twelvemonth (after Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti” successful 2023) — tin beryllium seen arsenic a effect of the academy’s efforts to diversify its rank on age, contention and sex lines. This period the radical said it had added 3,800 caller members, fractional of whom are nether 40 and 58% of whom are radical of color; 35% of the caller members place arsenic women, the academy said.

Yet the large categories besides had much country acknowledgment to the lack of reliable Grammy faves specified arsenic Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Adele, nary of whom released recordings eligible for February’s ceremony. The model ran from Aug. 31, 2024, to Aug. 30, 2025 — conscionable a fewer weeks earlier Swift dropped her blockbuster “The Life of a Showgirl,” which volition nary uncertainty beryllium showered with nods astatine the 69th Grammys.

The academy said much than 23,000 recordings were submitted for information this twelvemonth crossed 95 categories, including 1 for audio publication successful which a postulation of meditations by the Dalai Lama is up against Fab Morvan’s relationship of his days successful Milli Vanilli. Nominations were determined by astir 15,000 manufacture professionals, who volition spell connected to determine the winners successful a 2nd voting circular scheduled to commencement Dec. 12.

Among the nominees for champion caller artist, lone Thomas scored a motion successful different of the show’s large categories — thing of a rarity astatine the Grammys, wherever young stars specified arsenic Carpenter, Roan, Eilish, Lizzo and Olivia Rodrigo person been nominated for each 4 large prizes successful caller years. The different acts up for champion caller creator are Olivia Dean, Katseye, the Marías, Addison Rae, Sombr, Alex Warren and Lola Young.

Further down the ballot, “GNX,” “Chromakopia” and “Let God Sort Em Out” volition vie with GloRilla’s “Glorious” and JID’s “God Does Like Ugly” for the rap medium award. For stone album, the nominees are Deftones “Private Music,” Haim’s “I Quit,” Linkin Park’s “From Zero,” Turnstile’s “Never Enough” and Yungblud’s “Idols.”

Following Beyoncé’s triumph for state medium astatine February’s ceremonial with “Cowboy Carter” (which was besides named medium of the year), the academy divided the state medium grant into a prize for accepted state medium and a prize for modern state medium — a determination criticized by immoderate arsenic an lawsuit of racialized gatekeeping.

The nominees for accepted state medium are Charley Crockett’s “Dollar a Day,” Margo Price’s “Hard Headed Woman,” Zach Top’s “Ain’t In It for My Health” and competing LPs by a begetter and lad successful Willie Nelson’s “Oh What a Beautiful World” and Lukas Nelson’s “American Romance.” For modern state album, the nominees are Kelsea Ballerini’s “Patterns,” Tyler Childers’ “Snipe Hunter,” Eric Church’s “Evangeline vs. the Machine,” Jelly Roll’s “Beautifully Broken” and Miranda Lambert’s “Postcards from Texas.”

Morgan Wallen’s “I’m the Problem” — the year’s second-biggest medium of immoderate genre aft Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” — wasn’t nominated due to the fact that Wallen didn’t taxable his euphony for Grammys consideration. The state superstar is 1 of a fistful of musicians, on with Frank Ocean and Zach Bryan, who’ve declined to instrumentality portion successful the awards amusement successful caller years arsenic a benignant of implied protestation against what they presumption arsenic a restrictive and old-fashioned system.

One erstwhile abstainer, the Weeknd, returned to the Grammys with a show astatine the astir caller amusement that was introduced by the Recording Academy’s main executive, Harvey Mason Jr. Yet the Weeknd’s medium “Hurry Up Tomorrow” received nary nominations for adjacent year’s ceremony.

The 68th Grammys volition beryllium the past successful the academy’s half-century-long pact with CBS, which has broadcast the awards amusement since 1973. In 2027, Disney’s ABC web volition instrumentality power of the Grammys to commencement a 10-year deal.