2026 Grammy Awards: Complete Winners List, Performances, As it Happened

🚨5:56 AM: That’s a wrap on the night. The biggest prize of the night has been handed out, officially closing the 68th Grammy Awards.

While Nigerian artists didn’t take home a win this year, their presence across key categories kept Nigeria firmly in the global music conversation. Nominations, visibility, and sustained impact still matter, especially as Nigerian music continues to influence sound and culture far beyond award night. Thanks for following our live coverage. We’ll be back with post-show reactions, analysis, and what this Grammy night means going forward.

🚨DID YOU KNOW: Benito is now a six-time Grammy winner! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS also makes history as the first all-Spanish language 'Album of the Year' winner in Grammys history.

🚨5:36 AM: BREAKING!! Album of The Year - "DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS" - Bad Bunny (WINNER) Benito claims the biggest prize of the night.

🚨UPDATE: Kendrick Lamar is now a 27-time Grammy winner while SZA officially wins her seventh career Grammyyyyy!!!

🚨5:19 AM: BREAKING!! Record of The Year - "luther" - Kendrick Lamar & SZA (WINNER)

🚨4:42 AM: BREAKING!! GRAMMYS Global Impact Award Recipient: Pharrell Williams.

🚨DID YOU KNOW? Billie Eilish now holds the record for the most Song of the Year wins by any artist in Grammys history (3). and is now a 10-time Grammy winner.🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

🚨4:09 AM: BREAKING!! Song of The Year - "WILDFLOWER" - Billie Ellish (WINNER)

🚨4:00 AM: BREAKING!! Best Pop Solo Performance - "Messy" - Lola Young (WINNER)

3:55 AM: Bruno Mars is performing 'I Just Might', the lead single off his upcoming album The Romantic, at the 68th Grammy Awards.

Lady Gaga is officially a 16-time Grammy winner 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

🚨3:47 AM: BREAKING!! Best Pop Vocal Album - MAYHEM - Lady Gaga (WINNER)

3:32 AM: Lady Gaga takes centre stage to peform a rock version of ‘Abracadabra’ at the 68th Grammy Awards. The pop icon is nominated for seven awards, including three out of the 'Big Four' categories. This set a new personal record for her for the most nominations received in a single year. 

🚨3:29 AM: BREAKING!! Best Contemporary Country Album - Beautifully Broken -Jelly Roll (WINNER)

🚨3:19 AM: BREAKING!! Best Música Urbana Album - DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS - Bad Bunny (WINNER)

3:17 AM: Justin Bieber delivered a heartfelt performance of ‘YUKON’ on his long-awaited return to the Grammys stage. The Canadian pop star bagged several nominations at the 68th Grammy Awards.

3:14 AM: Leon Thomas performed his hit "Mutt" live at the 2026 Grammy Awards. He's already won two awards tonight for Best R&B Album and Best Traditional R&B Performance.

🚨DID YOU KNOW? The last male artist to win a Grammys for Best New Artist was Chance The Rapper in 2017.

🚨3:00 AM: BREAKING!! Best New Artist - Olivia Dean (WINNER)

2:50 AM: Lola Young's performance of "Messy" was absolutely superb! The 25-year-old is a nominee for the Best Pop Solo Performance and Best New Artist at the 2026 Grammy Awards.

2:50 AM: British sensation Olivia Dean brought her powerhouse vocals and undeniable stage presence to the Grammy audience with a stunning rendition of "Man I Need."

TIE BROKEN! With 26 Awards, Kendrick Lamar officially surpasses Jay Z as the rapper with the most Grammy wins in history. Epic! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

🚨2:38 AM: BREAKING!! Best Rap Album - GNX - Kendrick Lamar (WINNER)

MORE RED CARPET MOMENTS FROM THE 2026 GRAMMYS😍📸

2:35 AM: 2026 Grammy nominee Sabrina Carpenter takes centre-stage performing her smash "Man Child"

2:20 AM: Rosé and Bruno Mars Kick Off the 2026 Grammy Awards with Stellar Performance.

CELEBRITIES AT THE 2026 GRAMMYS RED CARPET😍📸

🚨1:11 AM: The 68th Annual Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony officially ends, the night transitions into the main event and red carpet festivities.

🚨12:40 AM: BREAKING!! Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording - Meditations: The Reflections Of His Holiness The Dalai Lama - Dalai Lama (WINNER)

🚨12:37 AM: BREAKING!! Best Comedy Album - Your Friend, Nate Bargatze - Nate Bargatze (WINNER)

 🚨12:33 AM: BREAKING!! Best Children’s Music Album - Harmony - FYÜTCH & Aura V (WINNER)

12:28 AM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Jazz Vocal Album - Portrait - Samara Joy (WINNER)

12:18 AM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Reggae Album - Blxxd & Fyah - Keznamdi (WINNER)

🗣️🤳And as expected the TL was in absolute tatters as Nigerians took to social media to react to the Grammys.

NOT TO BE: Nigeria has officially lost all categories at the 68th Grammy Awards. ❌❌

12:13 AM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best African Music Performance - "PUSH 2 START" - Tyla (WINNER)

12:11 AM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Global Music Performance - "EeO" - Bad Bunny (WINNER)

12:00 AM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Jazz Performance - "Windows – Live" - Chick Corea, Christian McBride & Brian Blade (WINNER)

11:53 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song - “Hard Fought Hallelujah” - Brandon Lake With Jelly Roll; Chris Brown, Jason Bradley Deford, Steven Furtick, Benjamin William Hastings & Brandon Lake, songwriters (WINNER)

11:49 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Contemporary Christian Music Album - Coritos Vol. 1 - Israel & New Breed (WINNER)

11:47 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Gospel Album - HEART OF MINE - Darrel Walls & PJ Morton (WINNER)

11:45 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Gospel Performance - "Come Jesus Come" - Cece Winans (WINNER)

11:24 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Historical Album - Joni Mitchell Archives – Volume 4: The Asylum Years — 1976-1980 - Patrick Milligan & Joni Mitchell, compilation producers; Bernie Grundman, mastering engineer (Joni Mitchell) (WINNER)

11:21 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Album Cover - Chromakopia - Tyler Okonma, art director (Tyler, The Creator) (WINNER)

11:18 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Contemporary Blues Album - Preacher Kids - Robert Randolph (WINNER)

11:16 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Recording Package - Tracks II: The Lost Albums - Meghan Foley & Michelle Holme, art directors (Bruce Springsteen) (WINNER)

11:15 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Country Duo/Group Performance - “Amen” - Shaboozey & Jelly Roll (WINNER)

11:12 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Country Solo Performance - “Bad As I Used to Be” — From F1: The Movie - Chris Stapleton (WINNER)

11:10 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Spoken Word Poetry Album - Words For Days Vol.1 - Mad Skillz (WINNER)

11:05 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Rap Song - “tv off” - Jack Antonoff, Larry Jayy, Kendrick Lamar, Dijon McFarlane, Sean Momberger, Mark Anthony Spears & Kamasi Washington, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar Featuring Lefty Gunplay) (WINNER)

RECORD TIED! With 25 wins, Kendrick Lamar officially ties Jay Z as the rapper with most Grammy wins in history. Legendary!

11:01 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Melodic Rap Performance - “luther” - Kendrick Lamar With SZA (WINNER)

10:59 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Rap Performance - “Chains & Whips” - Clipse, Pusha T & Malice Featuring Kendrick Lamar & Pharrell Williams (WINNER)

10:55 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best R&B Album - MUTT - Leon Thomas (WINNER)

10:52 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Progressive R&B Album - "Bloom" - Durand Bernarr (WINNER)

10:49 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best R&B Song - "Folded" - Darius Dixson, Andre Harris, Donovan Knight, Don Mills, Kehlani Parrish, Khris Riddick-Tynes & Dawit Kamal Wilson, songwriters (Kehlani) (WINNER)

10:40 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Traditional R&B Performance - "Vibes Don’t Lie" - Leon Thomas (WINNER)

10:37 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best R&B Performance - "Folded" - Kehlani (WINNER)

10:33 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Rock Album - NEVER ENOUGH - Turnstile (WINNER)

10:30 PM: 🚨BREAKING!! Best Rock Performance - "Changes (Live From Villa Park) Back To The Beginning" YUNGBLUD Featuring Nuno Bettencourt, Frank Bello, Adam Wakeman, II (WINNER)

10:26 PM:🚨BREAKING!! Best Dance Pop Recording - “Abracadabra” – Lady Gaga (WINNER)

10:16 PM:🚨BREAKING!! Best Music Video - "Anxiety" - Doechii; James Mackel, video director; Pablo Feldman, Jolene Mendes & Sophia Sabella, video producers (WINNER)

10:13 PM:🚨BREAKING!! Best Song Written For Visual Media - "Golden" — From KPop Demon Hunters EJAE, Park Hong Jun, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seo & Mark Sonnenblick, songwriters (HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna, REI AMI) (WINNER)

10:10 PM:🚨BREAKING!! Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media (Includes Film And Television) - "Sinners" (WINNER)

10:08 PM:🚨BREAKING!! Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media - "Sinners" - (Various Artists) Ryan Coogler, Ludwig Göransson & Serena Göransson, compilation producers; Niki Sherrod, music supervisor (WINNER)

10:06 PM:🚨BREAKING!! Best Tropical Latin Album - Raíces - Gloria Estefan (WINNER)

10:02 PM:🚨BREAKING!! Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album - PAPOTA - CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso (WINNER)

10:00 PM:🚨BREAKING!! Best Latin Pop Album - Cancionera – Natalia Lafourcade (WINNER)

9:59 PM:🚨BREAKING!! Best Remixed Recording - Abracadabra (Gesaffelstein Remix) Gesaffelstein, remixer (Lady Gaga, Gesaffelstein) (WINNER)

9:55 PM:🚨BREAKING!! Best Dance/Electronic Album: EUSEXUA - FKA twigs (WINNER)

9:52 PM:🚨BREAKING!! Best Dance/Electronic Recording: "End Of Summer" - Tame Impala, Kevin Parker, Producer; Kevin Parker, mixer (WINNER)

9:49 PM:🚨BREAKING!! Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: “Defying Gravity” – Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande (WINNER)

9:45 PM: 🚨BREAKING: See the 2026 Grammys official winners list. Keep checking back as more are revealed.

🚨9:30 PM: FOLLOW THE 2026 GRAMMYS PREMIERE CEREMONY LIVE ON YOUTUBE

🚨8:19 PM: Davido’s Path to Gold Tonight

The Song: "With You" ft. Omah Lay

The Category: Best African Music Performance

Grammy Credentials: This is Davido’s 5th career nomination; Omah Lay’s first.

The Context: By the end of December 2025, "With You" was officially the #1 most streamed Nigerian song released in 2025 on Spotify, closing the year with approximately 97 million streams. It eventually smashed through the 100 million stream ceiling in early January 2026, just weeks before tonight’s ceremony. It also remains the record holder for the highest first-week streams for any song released in 2025 on Spotify Nigeria (4.98 million), a benchmark that stood untouched until Wizkid and Asake's 'Jogodo' finally broke it last month.

🚨8:15 PM: WILL WIZKID SWOOP HOME HIS SECOND GRAMMY?

Tonight, Wizkid stands on the edge of history at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, eyeing his second golden gramophone. While 'Big Wiz' is already the most decorated African artist with reportedly over 150 awards, his current Grammy count sits at one (for 2021's "Brown Skin Girl"). With "Gimme Dat" his heavyweight collaboration with Ayra Starr, the iconic hitmaker enters the ring for Best African Music Performance, a nomination that highlights his continued dominance on the global stage. The energy around this potential win is undeniable. This isn't just about adding another trophy to his massive collection; it’s about his evolution into the ultimate collaborator. If they clinch the win tonight, it will solidify Wizkid's status as the ultimate "closer" who can transform high-level synergy into Grammy gold. Tonight, FC is Team Mobstarrs and Team Mobstarrs is FC!!

🚨8:00 PM: THE CELESTIAL BEING ON THE VERGE OF UNIVERSAL DOMINATION

Ayra Starr enters the 68th Annual Grammy Awards as a definitive force in global music, arriving with the "reassurance" of her second consecutive nomination in the Best African Music Performance category for her Wizkid collaboration, "Gimme Dat." This nomination serves as the ultimate validation for her record-breaking sophomore album, The Year I Turned 21, which cemented her status as the first Nigerian female artist to debut on the Billboard 200 and the first to surpass 1 billion streams on Spotify. Her momentum tonight is backed by a historic winning streak, having recently been crowned Best International Act at the BET Awards and becoming the first woman in 16 years to win Best African Act at the MOBO Awards. Ayra recently shared that this second nomination feels different from her first. She told Billboard, "The first time I got nominated, it was like, 'Oh my God... This is crazy.' But the second time felt like reassurance and just like, 'Oh, I'm good at this. I know what I'm doing.' I just need to trust God and myself a bit more." Whether she takes home the golden gramophone tonight or not, the "Sabi Girl" has already secured her place amongst the next generation of global pop stars.

🚨7:49PM: FIRST TIMERS & DEBUT WIN? Omah Lay is currently nominated for Best African Music Performance. If he wins, he will join the elite club of Nigerians who secured the "golden gramophone" on their first try, following the footsteps of Sade Adu and the great Sikiru Adepoju.

🚨DID YOU KNOW? Burna Boy has been nominated for the Best Global Music Album category five times for his albums African Giant, Twice as Tall, Love, Damini, I Told Them..., and No Sign of Weakness. The Afro-fusion star is also a 13-time Grammy nominee, the most for any Nigerian in history.

🚨BEST GLOBAL MUSIC ALBUM 2026 NOMINEES:

Sounds Of Kumbha — Siddhant Bhatia

No Sign of Weakness — Burna Boy

Éclairer le monde – Light the World — Youssou N’Dour

Mind Explosion (50th Anniversary Tour Live) — Shakti

Chapter III: We Return to Light — Anoushka Shankar featuring Alam Khan & Sarathy Korwar

Caetano e Bethânia Ao Vivo — Caetano Veloso and Maria Bethânia

🚨DID YOU KNOW? Angelique Kidjo has won the category the most, with five wins (four of which have been since 2016). The Beninise icon also has the most nominations in the combined Global/World history with 12 additional nominations. The second group to win most often is Ladysmith Black Mambazo, who have won four times during the combined history of Global/World categories. Soweto Gospel Choir have three wins in the Global/World categories. In the single merged category, Ravi Shankar and Ry Cooder have both won twice. Anoushka Shankar has the second most nominations in the combined categories with nine nominations, and she's also a favourite for the award tonight.

🚨7:25 PM: BEST GLOBAL MUSIC ALBUM: The award for Best Global Music Album, reserved for international performers exhibiting "non-European, indigenous traditions", was first presented to Mickey Hart in 1992 for the album Planet Drum. In 1996, Academy trustees attempted to solve the problem of "compressing 75% or more of the world's music into a single award category" by broadening the definition of "world music" to include non-Western classical music. Beginning in 2001, award recipients included the producers, engineers, and/or mixers associated with the nominated work in addition to the recording artists. Following the 45th Grammy Awards in 2003, the award was split into two separate categories for Best Traditional World Music Album and Best Contemporary World Music Album. In 2012, the two categories were merged back to Best World Music Album. In 2020, The Recording Academy announced it would be changing the name of the category to Best Global Music Album.

🚨BEST AFRICAN MUSIC PERFORMANCE 2026 NOMINEES:

"Love" – Burna Boy

"With You" – Davido ft. Omah Lay

"Gimme Dat" – Ayra Starr ft. Wizkid

"Push 2 Start" – Tyla (South Africa)

"Hope & Love" – Eddy Kenzo & Mehran Matin (Uganda)

🚨7:10 PM: ICYMI, let's walk you through all the categories when Nigeria's music stars were nominated at the 68th Recording Academy Awards.

🚨7:05 PM: We broke this down earlier today. In a separate deep dive, Pulse looked at Nigeria’s chances at the 2026 Grammy Awards, including which artists are best positioned and why this year could be significant. If you want the full context before the awards begin, this piece is worth catching up on. We’ll keep this live blog focused on real-time updates as the night approaches.

🚨7:02 PM: Before the awards begin, here are the key categories to watch for Nigerian representation tonight: Best African Music Performance, Best Global Music Performance & Best Global Music Album. These are the spaces where Nigerian artists have made the strongest impact over the past year both commercially and culturally. As always with the Grammys, surprises happen. But these categories are where the spotlight is most likely to land.