Music’s Biggest Night is finally here, and the 2026 Grammy Awards are ready to celebrate the best releases of the past year. As pop-culture obsessives, the best part of the award show (aside from the performances by our favorite icons) is the commentary from fellow music fans. That’s where you can count on us at the Marie Claire Culture team. We’ll be discussing this year’s ceremony here live.
Tonight, the world’s most popular recording artists have gathered at L.A.’s Crypto.com Arena, where host Trevor Noah will lead the ceremony for the final time. The red carpet brought the night’s first buzzy moments, with Doechii taking us back to the ‘90s in Roberto Cavalli and Sabrina Carpenter pairing dreamy blush with her boho-chic gown. Now that the main event’s set to begin, we’re just moments away from Carpenter, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Tyler, the Creator, and Justin Bieber’s returns to the Grammys stage, along with the performance debuts of Clipse, ROSÉ, and this year’s Best New Artists nominees—Addison Rae, Alex Warren, KATSEYE, Leon Thomas, Lola Young, Olivia Dean, SOMBR, and The Marías—among others.
Speaking of nominees, superstars like Bad Bunny (DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS) and Kendrick Lamar (GNX) are vying to make history in the Album of the Year category, where they go up against Clipse (Let God Sort ‘Em Out), Gaga (Mayhem), Bieber (Swag), Carpenter (Man’s Best Friend), Leon Thomas (Mutt), and Tyler, the Creator (Chromakopia). With Thomas, Kehlani, FKA Twigs, and HUNTR/X already taking home wins in this afternoon’s Premiere Ceremony, this year’s awards have already gotten off to an excellent start.
As we watch the star-studded ceremony together, we’ll be here sharing updates on the can’t-miss performances, the biggest wins, and the viral moments so you don’t miss a thing. We’ll also pull in Marie Claire’s editors to share their favorite surprises of the night. Now, let’s get ready for some music.
It’s Music’s Biggest Night, baby! Although I must say, going into this Grammys has been interesting because it doesn’t feel like there’s necessarily that clear a narrative this year. Last year was all about “the pop girls” (Beyoncé! Billie Eilish! Chappell Roan! Charli xcx! Sabrina Carpenter! Taylor Swift!) sweeping nominations, and the anticipation of whether Queen Bey would finally snag her Album of the Year title for COWBOY CARTER (which she inevitably and rightfully did!). This year is more of a toss-up, though.
However, I think one thing to look out for is whether this becomes Bad Bunny’s big year, which I certainly think is possible and would love to see. He’s won in the Best Música Urbana Album and Best Latin Pop or Urban Album categories and was nominated for Album of the Year in 2023 for Un Verano Sin Ti, but this could be the first year he wins big. The stellar DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS and its hit “DtMF” are up for the big three categories—Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year. He’s already made history as the first Spanish-language artist to be nominated in the categories at once, and, if he wins Album of the Year, he’ll reach another milestone with the first Spanish-language album to do so. DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is his best yet, immensely colorful sonically, and a compelling piece of anti-colonialist art. Plus, a winning streak from him would be powerful to see right now, given how the Puerto Rican hitmaker has long spoken out about what we gain by bringing people together and the efforts he’s made protecting his international fanbase against ICE and division. Benito, I’m rooting for you!
It’ll also be interesting to see how the Best New Artist category unfolds. The Recording Academy loves to honor artists with an old-school flair, like Olivia Dean and Leon Thomas (I think Olivia Dean will likely take the title), but I would love to see Addison Rae win. She’s arguably made the most daring, innovative choices of the nominees—and arguably of anyone in pop over the past year—and arrived fully formed as a recording artist with her dance-pop fantasia Addison. Her performance is my (and every other club rat’s) most anticipated of the night, and I feel certain the showgirl is going to deliver. That’s my best new artist. —Sadie Bell, Senior Culture Editor
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I agree that 2026 is likely Bad Bunny’s year, and his potential win would be part of hip-hop’s biggest Grammy year in recent history. Along with Bunny’s genre-bending reggaeton record, three rap albums are nominated for Album of the Year: Kendrick Lamar’s GNX, Clipse’s Let God Sort ‘Em Out, and Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia. Hip-hop heads like me have our best chance in a decade of a third rap Album of the Year, joining The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. (Yes, there have only been three in the past 67 years.)
I also have more excitement for the performances this year than I’ve felt in a while. The Best New Artist medley was my highlight of last year, and I’m hoping its return will feature an Olivia Dean/KATSEYE hand-off that will give me as much life as the RAYE/Doechii one did. Lauryn Hill’s D’Angelo tribute is guaranteed to bring me to tears. That’s not to mention Lady Gaga, Tyler, the Creator, and ROSÉ bringing K-pop back to the main ceremony!
Also, this may be a controversial opinion, but I like that the Grammys have become an opportunity for a pop superstar to announce a new release. Maybe Bruno Mars could debut a new single off The Romantic. Perhaps the night’s “additional surprise presenter”(ahem, Beyoncé, is that you?) will tease their next act? Maybe BTS will take a break from their social-media pause to promote Arirang? All of these are long shots, but it’s the Grammys! Let a girl dream. —Quinci LeGardye, Culture Writer
The 2026 Grammys started off with a party! To bring up the energy early, ROSÉ and Bruno Mars opened the ceremony with a performance of the Song of the Year nominated collab "APT.," complete with Mars's live band and some dancers partying at the foot of the stage. (Also, thanks to host Trevor Noah for the quick explainer on the song's Korean-drinking-game influence.) Excited to keep this going all night! —QL
Sabrina Carpenter had a big performance to top after last year’s Old Hollywood screwball comedy debut—and she stuck the landing. You can tell she has a total blast on stage, and this year she delivered an adorable, theatrical showstopper of her four-time-nominated “Manchild,” set in a bustling airport. Plus, Pan Am-inspired look! We were on board with this one. —SB
The Best Moments From the Pre-Ceremony
The Grammys famously only air a handful of the awards during the live ceremony, dishing out most gramophones during the pre-show. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t wins worth paying attention to, even if they didn’t make the broadcast. I was thrilled to see avant-pop auteur FKA twigs finally getting her flowers, with her phenomenal EUSEXUA winning Best Dance/Electronic Album. Another well-deserved win? Amy Allen won Songwriter of the Year for the second year in a row, thanks to her collaborations with Sabrina Carpenter, ROSÉ, Tate McRae, and others. With songwriter/producer opportunities for women in the studio still being few and far between, we love to see Allen’s work getting recognition.
Plus, as an indie/DIY fan, I personally also love that hardcore experimentalists Turnstile have become somewhat of Grammys darlings ever since their 2021 album GLOW ON propelled them to new heights. They won Best Rock Album for NEVER ENOUGH and Best Metal Performance for its single “BIRDS,” and I’m always for The Recording Academy embracing genre-bending guitar music (rather than exclusively honoring legacy acts, as they’ve done in the past). —SB
Some pre-ceremony wins that I’m celebrating: Kehlani is finally a Grammy winner! The singer took home Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance for “Folded,” a decade after her first-ever nomination in 2016. Some of my other R&B faves who took home awards include Leon Thomas’s MUTT for Best R&B Album and Durand Bernarr’s BLOOM for Best Progressive R&B Album. Also, the team behind KPop Demon Hunters continued their awards-season sweep, with “Golden” winning Best Song Written for Visual Media. —QL
Leave it to our resident gonzo pop princess Addison Rae to bring camp to the Grammys. It was all too fitting for her to perform her Addison album standout “Fame Is a Gun,” a song about the price of ambition, on the awards show stage. She sang in a bedazzled trench with a troupe of dancers backstage, leaning into her skill as a true performer with a captivating dance break. I think I gasped, “Oh, my god,” several times—which is exactly what we want from our pop girls! She may have just gotten a “taste of the glamorous life,” but may this be her first of many Grammys to come. —SB
Addison Rae performs ‘Fame is a Gun’ at the #GRAMMYs. pic.twitter.com/nMVxqADI2MFebruary 2, 2026
KATSEYE cemented their place as the girl group to watch with their performance of “Gnarly,” which took viewers through the venue to the Grammys stage. The sextet brought their signature high-energy performance, including synchronized twerking in front of vanity mirrors backstage, and a frenetic dance break with jaw-dropping splits. As someone who binged Pop Star Academy on Netflix in a single day, it was hard not to get emotional about how far the pop princesses have come. —QL
One star-making moment of the night? Olivia Dean’s set right into her big win for Best New Artist. Her vocals sounded pristine while she performed her mega-hit “Man I Need,” and she brought sheer charisma to the stage. Maybe it’s the old-school, soulful flair of her sound, but she felt like a musical legend of yesteryear up on the stage. That made all the more sense when moments later, last year’s Best New Artist winner, Chappell Roan, revealed that the British singer-songwriter had earned this year’s gramophone.
Dean herself was surprised, making a humble speech and taking the opportunity to speak out in support of immigrants. “I guess I want to say I'm up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant,” she said. “I'm a product of bravery, and I think those people deserve to be celebrated.” Amen to that—and to Dean’s well-deserved win. —SB
I think Justin Bieber may have felt he had a lot riding on this Grammys performance. He hasn’t taken to the awards show’s stage since 2022 and has seldom performed in general over the past few years. And yet, he made his grand, long-awaited return to the spotlight in 2025 with the release of SWAG, and he’ll be headlining Coachella in April. It felt like this performance may have been a tease of what to come—and to prove he’s still got it. Walking out on stage shirtless, in boxer shorts, with solely a guitar, he might’ve left viewers questioning what was to come. But singing a stripped-down “YUKON,” he highlighted what’s always been his strength: his swoon-worthy vocals. By the end, he definitely left us feeling Bieber fever.
As Bad Bunny took home the award for Best Música Urbana Album, he delivered the speech we all need to hear right now. The reggaeton superstar began with a simple statement, “ICE out,” and sent a positive message of hope. “We're not savages, we're not animals, we're not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans,” he said. “The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love. So, please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love. We don't hate them. We love our people, we love our family, and that's the way to do it: with love. Don't forget that, please.”
It was a moving moment and a powerful statement from the star who was just awarded for his anti-gentrification, anti-colonialization, uniquely Puerto Rican LP—and I’m hoping this was just his first of many honors of the night. —SB
Whenever Lady Gaga steps onstage, I lose any ability to look away. For her live rock remix of “Abracadabra,” Mother Monster skipped the intricate choreography for a close-up performance from herself and her band. Outfitted in a rattan headpiece with an eye-shaped cutout surrounding her face in lashes, Gaga sang directly to the camera, starring it down as it moved from angle to angle. The captivating performance led right into the singer’s third win on the night, as MAYHEM took home Best Pop Vocal Album.
After thanking her partner Michael Polansky and her producers, Gaga shared a message for women in music. “I know sometimes when you're in the studio with a bunch of guys, it can be hard,” she said. “So, I urge you to always listen to yourself and always fight for your ideas, fight for your songs, fight for yourself as a producer. Make sure you are heard loudly.” —QL
Our nicest surprise of the night so far goes to Lola Young, who took home Best Pop Solo Performance for "Messy." We couldn't really hear the speech due to the live censoring, but her unfiltered shock was adorable. —QL
If we didn’t get a performance from Bad Bunny, at least we got a truly adorable bit from Trevor Noah about how much we wished we got a performance from Bad Bunny! Throughout the night, the host negged Benito about why he wasn’t taking to the stage; he’s saving it for the Super Bowl Halftime Show next weekend, NBD. Eventually, Noah joked about how it’s his last time hosting the Grammys and that he should’ve taken more photos over the years—just like the lyrics of Bad Bunny’s multi-nominated “DtMF.” Noah started serenading Bad Bunny, who finally cracked and gave us a verse as a band came out to back them up. Benito is such a charmer, so seeing him grin, play along with the bit, and give in to it had me giddy, kicking my feet. Take that energy all the way to the Halftime Show! —SB
Trevor Noah tricks Bad Bunny into performing Debí Tirar Más Fotos at the #GRAMMYs2026 pic.twitter.com/tdOp2xvLHAFebruary 2, 2026
A confession: Tyler, the Creator’s Chromokopia is my personal pick for Album of the Year, and his high-concept performance may be my biggest highlight of the night. After his St. Chroma alter ego started off with a performance of “Thought I Was Dead,” the rapper appeared on another part of the stage, listening to some sage advice from his fellow L.A. native, Oscar winner Regina King. Then, after (accidentally?) mowing down St. Chroma with a Ferrari, Tyler began a rendition of “Sugar on My Tongue,” from his second nominated album of the night, Don’t Tap the Glass. Tyler’s partying through the chaos ended with him accidentally blowing up the St. Chroma gas station, closing the chapter on Chromakopia and preparing his fans for a new era. —QL
Tonight's joint tribute to D'Angelo and Roberta Flack was instantly a major moment in Grammys history. Despite the jokes and doubts, Ms. Lauryn Hill led the “deeply-personal” tribute, starting off with her and D’Angelo’s duet “Nothing Even Matters.” Hill later paid homage to her lifelong influence by singing Flack’s “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face,” before ending the performance alongside her Fugees bandmate Wyclef Jean, as the pair performed both Flack’s and their own renditions of “Killing Me Softly With His Song.”
Hill was joined onstage by over a dozen other artists, both talented up-and-comers and R&B legends. From Leon Thomas and Lucky Daye to Bilal, Raphael Saddiq, Lalah Hathaway, Chaka Khan, and many more, the tribute was a celebration of soul that had me fighting back tears as I sang along. —QL
The Grammys teased a surprise presenter, and as it turned out, they weren’t just a presenter—they were also a Lifetime Achievement award winner. Cher ended up presenting Record of the Year, but before she did, she accepted her honor to a standing ovation and applause from the elated crowd. Forever glamorous and inspiring, the true icon (dressed in a leather-and-lace ensemble, no less) shared words of wisdom from her career spanning “50 fucking years,” speaking to both the highs and lows.
“In my 20s, actually, I kind of thought I had it made. It didn't occur to me how rough my career was gonna be, and my life was gonna be, and I'm not saying, Oh, poor me,” she said. “I was either on the top or the bottom, you know? I was either a loser or winning an Oscar.”
“I’m sure a lot of you in the audience know what I'm talking about,” continued the hitmaker. “In the early 80s, it got so bad that I had to go to Las Vegas, and it was called the Elephant's Graveyard in those days, and then I got dropped from my label, and then another label picked me up, and I recorded a song called ‘Believe.’”
She concluded, “I just wanna tell you never give up on your dream, no matter what happens. Live it, be it, and if it's not happening now, it will happen soon.”
The kids love to call our pop divas “mother,” but that’s mother right there! Her walking off stage before actually presenting the Record of the Year title made it all the more incrediblet While she could’ve mic-dropped right then, but our gracious queen did turn back around—although not without voicing her annoyance at how not all the text was on the teleprompter. 10/10 Grammys moment. I would expect no less from Cher.
Did I tear up the moment presenter Harry Styles announced Bad Bunny won the prestigious Album of the Year award for DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS? Yes! Did I fully start crying when he started tearing up and was so stunned he couldn’t get up to the Grammys stage? I sure did! It truly felt like his year and the honor couldn’t have felt more deserved.
In winning the award, the musician made history with the first Spanish-language album to take home the honor. It felt especially touching that he made most of his acceptance speech in Spanish, as well, thanking everyone who contributed to the album and expressing his love for Puerto Rico. “I want to dedicate this award to all the people that had to leave their homeland, their country to follow their dreams,” he added.
What a special moment to cap off the awards show—and a thrilling send-off to his highly anticipated Super Bowl appearance next week. —SB
The 2026 Grammys have officially come to an end. A lil’ recap of the wins and historic moments: Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is officially the first all-Spanish-language album to win Album of the Year. With his five trophies tonight, including Best Rap Album for GNX” and Record of the Year for his and SZA’s “luther,” Kendrick Lamar is now the most-awarded hip-hop artist in Grammys history. Meanwhile, Billie Eilish and Finneas became the first artists to win Song of the Year three times, after taking home the prize for “Wildflower.” Other artists who earned major awards at this year’s ceremony include Olivia Dean (Best New Artist), Lady Gaga (Best Pop Vocal Album - MAYHEM), and Lola Young (Best Pop Solo Performance - “Messy”).
Perhaps most importantly, several artists throughout today’s premiere and primetime ceremonies spoke out against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Bad Bunny, Eilish, Dean, and country artist Shaboozey—who won Best Country Duo/Group Performance for his and Jelly Roll’s duet “Amen”—all took time to honor immigrants and call out ICE. Offstage, many celebs wore “ICE Out” pins while walking the red carpet, including Eilish and Finneas, Justin and Hailey Bieber, Jack Antonoff, Brandi Carlile, and Samara Joy.
And that’s a wrap for tonight! Hope you enjoyed following along for the biggest night in music.—QL
