The Grammy Awards will have five new categories in 2027, including ‘best Asian pop performance’, the Recording Academy announced on Tuesday. There will also be new rules regarding voting and selections. “2027 will be a great year for the Grammys,” said Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy.
Source: ABC News
The other new categories are ‘best Latin song’, ‘best vocals on a traditional pop song’, ‘best R&B collaboration or duo/group performance’ and ‘best traditional folk album’. “The Grammy Awards reflect the extraordinary growth we are seeing in music worldwide,” said Mason Jr.
According to the Recording Academy, the new category for Best Asian Pop Performance recognizes the growing global impact of Asian pop music. The ‘best Latin song’ category should also give songwriters extra recognition. The new categories also lead to new names for existing categories. For example, ‘best folk album’ will now become ‘best contemporary folk album’ and ‘best R&B performance’ will become ‘best solo R&B performance’.
The Academy also announced changes to the voting and selection rules for the 69th Annual Grammy Awards. For example, Ballot Plus features a new voting option that allows members with expertise in multiple genres to vote in up to 15 categories based on their verified professional performance. The criteria for best new artist have also been adjusted: an artist can now be nominated four times instead of three times.
The percentage of new recordings that an album must contain to be eligible for a Grammy drops from 75 to 66 percent. According to the Academy, this reduction is more in line with the way albums are released today.
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The Academy is also expanding recognition for songwriters and composers. From now on, winning albums in most genre categories will also receive a Grammy statuette and certificate of merit. Releases that are only available online will now also be eligible for ‘best album notes’ and ‘best historical album’ if supporting material is included.
The 69th Annual Grammy Awards will air live on February 7, 2027 on ABC, Disney+ and Hulu.