Grammys Adds New Country Category For 2026 Show After Beyoncé’s Win

The nation music classes on the upcoming Grammy Awards in 2026 will look completely different than earlier than.

Months after Beyoncé took house the awards for “Finest Nation Album” and “Album of the Yr” for her genre-bending eighth studio album, “Cowboy Carter,” which options the No. 1 nation single “Texas Maintain ‘Em,” the Recording Academy’s CEO revealed that nation musicians approached the board with a proposal for a major change.

Transferring ahead, the Grammy Awards will now honor two distinct forms of nation albums: one that includes a extra conventional fashion of nation music, and the opposite celebrating artists with a extra modern sound, which frequently incorporates R&B, pop, and blues.

Throughout the 2025 Grammy Awards, there have been 10 nation classes within the nation and roots discipline, with one particularly for Finest Nation Album.

For the upcoming ceremony, which is able to happen someday throughout the first quarter of 2026, that class will likely be break up into two: Finest Conventional Nation Album and Finest Modern Nation Album.

Different classes, which deal with Americana, bluegrass, people, and extra, will stay.

The Recording Academy’s CEO, Harvey Mason Jr., elaborated on the change in an interview with Billboard, including that nation performers approached the academy with their issues.

“They stated, we predict we’d like extra space for our music to be celebrated and honored,” he informed the publication, including that the proposal had been submitted a number of occasions prior to now earlier than being handed this yr.

“It makes nation parallel with what’s taking place in different genres,” Mason stated, “However it’s also creating area for the place this style goes.”

In line with Billboard, the Grammys’ new Finest Conventional Album class will acknowledge “excellence in albums of conventional nation music, each vocal and instrumental.”

“Conventional nation contains nation recordings that adhere to the extra conventional sound buildings of the nation style, together with rhythm and singing fashion, lyrical content material, in addition to conventional nation instrumentation reminiscent of acoustic guitar, metal guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, piano, electrical guitar, and stay drums. It additionally contains sub-genres reminiscent of Western, Western Swing, and Outlaw nation.”

As Mason continued talking in regards to the Academy’s determination to replace the nation classes on the Grammys, he additionally recommended that the change will present extra alternatives for artists to be celebrated amongst their friends.

“The problems have been, historically, lots of people that weren’t certain whether or not [an album] was Americana or roots or people or nation had been simply jamming every part into one class,” he stated. “There are clearly nuances between the completely different genres. These specialists in these genres perceive these nuances, and I’m fairly sure now you’re going to see the appropriate individuals going into Americana versus people versus conventional nation. [The change] provides us a possibility to place issues in additional particular classes.”

Mason defined that making modifications to the best way nation music is honored on the Grammys permits the Recording Academy to remain present with the style’s evolution.

“I’m hopeful that that group understands that the academy is doing what it at all times does, which is keep in tune with what’s taking place of their style,” he completed.

In early 2025, after successful a number of Grammys for her nation album, “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé faced criticism from on-line customers who believed she wasn’t deserving of the dignity.

Nonetheless, throughout her acceptance speech, the previous Future’s Little one member used her platform to share phrases of encouragement for these watching.