The Grammys add 5 new categories and announce changes to best new artist

Advertisement

Advertise with us

NEW YORK (AP) — The Recording Academy has tweaked some of its rules for the 2026 Grammy Awards, including the addition of five new categories.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Recording Academy has tweaked some of its rules for the 2026 Grammy Awards, including the addition of five new categories.

The academy on Tuesday announced the addition of a best Asian pop music performance category — celebrating releases across K-pop, J-pop, C-pop and beyond — awarded to the performer.

A new best traditional pop vocal performance category will be awarded to performers whose music “cannot properly be intermingled with present forms of pop music,” according to a press release.

FILE - Grammy Awards are displayed at the Grammy Museum Experience at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Oct. 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
FILE - Grammy Awards are displayed at the Grammy Museum Experience at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Oct. 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

Also, a new best Latin song category will recognize songwriters for their work on Latin songs recorded predominantly in Spanish.

The other changes affect the R&B and folk categories. A new best R&B collaboration or duo/group performance award joins the reimagined best R&B solo performance category.

Folk has experienced a similar change that country experienced last year: Best folk album has become best contemporary folk album. A best traditional folk album category has been added.

New Grammys, new rules

In addition to the five new categories, changes have been made regarding the criteria of a few releases. Most noteworthy: alterations to the best new artist category.

The Grammys will now allow artists to submit in the category four times, up from three. That is in an attempt to better reflect the current music market, where it can take time for an artist to break through.

There is no specified maximum number of previous releases and a screening committee is tasked with determining “whether the artist had attained this high degree of impact in the music industry prior to the eligibility year,” according to the rule book. An artist who has received a Grammy nomination in the past is not eligible.

The Grammys will also allow certain qualified members to vote in more categories.

“2027 is going to be an amazing year for the Grammy Awards, and one that reflects the extraordinary growth we’re seeing across music,” Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy said in a statement. “The changes advanced by our Recording Academy members speak to the breadth of today’s music industry and the many genres, crafts and creators shaping it. We’re excited to see these updates come to life in the year ahead as we celebrate the music people who are driving music forward.”

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Jets new backup Stevenson ‘stoked’ to be in tandem with Skinner

Mike McIntyre 6 minute read Preview

Jets new backup Stevenson ‘stoked’ to be in tandem with Skinner

Mike McIntyre 6 minute read Yesterday at 4:23 PM CDT

It didn’t take long to get the dirt on the newest member of the Winnipeg Jets.

Meet Clay Stevenson, who has no problem if you prefer to refer to him by his long-standing nickname of “Mud.”

“You know, Clay is in the mud, and there you go. That’s it, right there,” Stevenson said Wednesday with a laugh. “I got it in juniors when I was playing in Coquitlam, and kind of stuck ever since.”

Stevenson is now hoping to make a name for himself in a city that, quite fittingly, translates to “muddy water” in Cree. The 27-year-old from Alberta was placed on waivers by the Washington Capitals and claimed by the Jets, who were looking to clarify a goaltending situation which was as murky as the Red River.

Read
Yesterday at 4:23 PM CDT

Collisions send people to hospital; one fatality

2 minute read Yesterday at 10:42 AM CDT

Five people are in hospital following a two-vehicle collision on Monday at the corner of Pembina Highway and Plaza Drive in which three pedestrians were struck.

On Sept. 28, just after 4:30 p.m., a Ford Fusion was travelling northbound on Pembina Highway through the Plaza Drive intersection with a green light when it was struck by a westbound Honda Fit that failed to stop for a red light at Plaza Drive. The Honda Fit mounted the sidewalk, striking three young children who were with an adult.

The three children were transported to hospital in stable condition with minor injuries. The driver of the Honda, a woman in her 70s, and the passenger, a man in his 80s, were transported to hospital in unstable condition. They were both upgraded to stable condition. The driver was issued a ticket under the Highway Traffic Act.

The Winnipeg Police Service’s Traffic Division is investigating.

Obsessed stalker who shot, killed young woman at bus stop in 1993 dies behind bars at age 74

Erik Pindera 3 minute read Preview

Obsessed stalker who shot, killed young woman at bus stop in 1993 dies behind bars at age 74

Erik Pindera 3 minute read Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2026

A Winnipeg man who stalked a woman for several years before shooting her dead in the street in 1993 has died in Stony Mountain prison.

On Monday, 74-year-old Ronald Edd Bell died of apparent natural causes at the federal prison just north of Winnipeg, the Correctional Service of Canada said.

Bell had been in prison since May 30, 1994, when he was given a life sentence with no chance of parole for 18 years for killing Terry-Lyn Babb, 25, on Jan. 21, 1993.

Bell walked up behind an unsuspecting Babb, who was waiting at a bus stop at Sherbrook Street and Wolseley Avenue, and shot her in the head with a pistol in front of horrified witnesses, says the Free Press report of his sentencing hearing.

Read
Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2026

Truck carrying mail, milk and alcohol to isolated N.B. island held at U.S. border

The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

Truck carrying mail, milk and alcohol to isolated N.B. island held at U.S. border

The Canadian Press 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 3:14 PM CDT

CAMPOBELLO ISLAND - A truck carrying supplies for an isolated New Brunswick island linked to the rest of Canada by U.S. roads was turned back at the international border Tuesday, says the local member of Parliament. 

New Brunswick South MP John Williamson said U.S. border officials stopped the truck bound for Campobello Island, N.B., because it was carrying milk and alcohol. Importing those items into the United States is prohibited under new rules that went into effect Tuesday as part of the ongoing trade war.

The only land link to the picturesque island, best known as the summer retreat of former U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, is a bridge to the town of Lubec, Maine. From there it's an 80-kilometres drive to the next border crossing at Calais, Maine, where the truck was stopped.

Williamson said the truck typically travels to the island every weekday, carrying mail and goods for the island's less than 1,000 residents under a special Canada Border Services Agency licence. The truck is sealed with a customs tag guarantying it will not stop on the way to the island.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 3:14 PM CDT

Winnipeg’s challenge: preparing for weather extremes

Adam Johnston 5 minute read Preview

Winnipeg’s challenge: preparing for weather extremes

Adam Johnston 5 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

A new United Nations report warns the world will exceed the 1.5 C Paris limit by 2030.

Read
2:00 AM CDT

In a smart-device world, some families keep phone jacked into the wall

Sheldon Birnie 8 minute read Preview

In a smart-device world, some families keep phone jacked into the wall

Sheldon Birnie 8 minute read Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2026

When the phone rings in Kristin Shiach and Jordan Sobkowicz’s Riverview home, their three daughters race to see who can be the first to answer.

“It depends who is closest,” says 13-year-old Emily. “If I’m sitting in my room, I can get to it quickest.”

“That’s because it’s always in your room,” Anna, 10, replies. “You never put it back!”

“Usually, when the phone rings,” explains Sobkowicz, “someone yells really loudly —”

Read
Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2026