Awards Record

Music

Grammy Award for Album of the Year: winners and how it is awarded

The Grammy Award for Album of the Year has been presented by the Recording Academy since the first Grammy Awards in 1959. Who receives the award has widened over time from the artist alone to producers, engineers and songwriters. Years here are ceremony years.1,3

Awarded byRecording Academy (National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences)
Established1959
FrequencyAnnual
Prize valueGramophone statuette. No cash prize stated in fetched sources (as of 27 October 2026)

How the winner is chosen

Recording Academy voting members submit nominations and vote on the winner. From 1995 to 2021 a Nominations Review Committee chose the nominees from members' votes, but the committees were disbanded in 2021 and member votes now decide the nominees. There have been eight nominees from the 2024 ceremony. Artists, featured artists, producers, engineers, mixers, mastering engineers and songwriters of new material on the album can receive the award, subject to playing time rules.

Winners

  1. 2026Bad Bunny1,2Debí Tirar Más Fotos (68th Annual Grammy Awards, Los Angeles, 1 February 2026)
  2. 2025Beyoncé1Cowboy Carter (67th Annual Grammy Awards)
  3. 2024Taylor Swift1Midnights (66th Annual Grammy Awards)
  4. 2023Harry Styles1,2Harry's House (65th Annual Grammy Awards)
  5. 2022Jon Batiste1We Are (64th Annual Grammy Awards)
  6. 2021Taylor Swift1Folklore (63rd Annual Grammy Awards)
  7. 2020Billie Eilish1When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (62nd Annual Grammy Awards)
  8. 2019Kacey Musgraves1Golden Hour (61st Annual Grammy Awards)
  9. 2018Bruno Mars124K Magic (60th Annual Grammy Awards)
  10. 2017Adele125 (59th Annual Grammy Awards)
  11. 2016Taylor Swift11989 (58th Annual Grammy Awards)

Notable facts

Taylor Swift won Album of the Year three times in this period, for 1989 (2016), Folklore (2021) and Midnights (2024).1

AP reported that Debí Tirar Más Fotos, the 2026 winner, was the first Spanish language album to win the category.2

Sources

  1. Recording Academy, Album Of The Year, category winners (27 October 2026)
  2. Associated Press (via PBS NewsHour), Bad Bunny wins album of the year at the 2026 Grammy Awards, making history for a Spanish language album (1 February 2026)
  3. Wikipedia, Grammy Award for Album of the Year (27 October 2026)