Grammys Introduce New Country Album Category, Best New Artist Rules for 2026

The 2025 Grammy Awards were suspiciously great. Beyoncé finally won the coveted Album of the Year award for Cowboy Carter, which also scored Best Country Album and mined the history of Black musicians’ foundational contributions to country music. Chappell Roan and Doechii delivered powerful, moving speeches while accepting Best New Artist and Best Rap Album, respectively. The performances were stellar and there were no egregious snubs. What a night. The Recording Academy is ready to do it all again at the 2026 Grammys, but with a few caveats and changes to its categories and rules.

For starters, the Best Country Album award no longer exists in its previous form. When nominations are unveiled on Friday, Nov. 7, 2025, they will instead include Best Contemporary Country Album — the new version of this award — and the newly-introduced Best Traditional Country Album.

“It’s so important that our rules and guidelines are fair and equitable for musicians of all crafts and varying expertise, and that the Grammy Awards truly reflect and honor the full spectrum of music creators,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said in a statement.

The Recording Academy’s distinction between the two categories focus on the style of performance and included instrumentation. The Traditional Country Album category will include “country recordings that adhere to the more traditional sound structures of the country genre, including rhythm and singing style, lyrical content, as well as traditional country instrumentation,” like acoustic guitar, steel guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, piano, electric guitar, and live drums.

Best Contemporary Country Album, on the other hand, is less defined. “The intent is to recognize country music that remains reminiscent and relevant to the legacy of country music’s culture, while also engaging in more contemporary music forms,” the new rule reads. It notes that entries in the category should “create a sensibility that reflects the broad spectrum of contemporary country style and culture” through style, structure, content, and presentation.

With this change, the Country & American Roots category now includes 14 awards. The pop and dance/electronic category includes half as many, including Best Dance Pop Recording, which was first presented in 2024 as the first new category specifically recognizing dance/electronic music since 2005. Fans have speculated about whether Beyoncé’s Best Dance/Electronic Album win for Renaissance the previous year was a catalyst for expanding the category, much like the victory of Cowboy Carter appears to have been for making changes to country, which didn’t necessarily accept the album with open arms.

The Recording Academy is lowering the threshold for Best New Artist, as well. New rules in the category will allow artists who have been previously nominated for Album of the Year, including as a featured artist, to be eligible. “If an artist was nominated (but did not win) as a featured artist on an album of the year nominated album but their contribution was less than the current 20% playing time nomination threshold, the artist may enter this category if they are otherwise eligible,” the rule states.

The 2026 Grammy Awards will also make changes to how it recognizes the physical presentation of albums. Instead of presenting two separate awards for Best Recording Package and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package, the Recording Academy will present one holistic Best Recording Package award. It will also present the Best Album Cover award, which technically previously existed as Best Album Package and Best Recording Package. The award will honor art direction with special attention paid to “package design, photography and/or graphic art of the entire package as well as any materials included.”

The Grammy Awards return on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. Eligible releases must fall within the period of Aug. 31, 2024 through Aug. 30, 2025.

From Rolling Stone US.