Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar battle for best album at Grammy Awards
By Casey Cooper-Fiske, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter
Pop star Lady Gaga and rapper Kendrick Lamar are to go head to head for album of the year at the 2026 Grammy Awards on Sunday.
The annual ceremony will be held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Lamar, 38, who already has 22 Grammys to his name, is up for nine prizes, the most of any artist at this year’s event, including record of the year, album of the year, song of the year, pop/duo group performance, melodic rap performance, rap album and rap song.
He has also been nominated twice in the rap performance category for TV Off featuring Lefty Gunplay and Chains And Whips with Clipse, Pusha T, Malice and Pharrell Williams.
The nominations sweep comes after a federal judge threw out a defamation lawsuit brought by Canadian rapper Drake against Universal Music Group, labelling the alleged libellous words in Lamar’s diss track Not Like Us as opinion.
Lamar took home Grammys for song of the year, record of the year, music video, rap song and rap performance at the last ceremony for the hit diss track, which he performed during his acclaimed Super Bowl LIX half-time show in February 2025.
Lady Gaga is the second most nominated, alongside producers Jack Antonoff and Cirkut, with seven nominations.
The star, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, is up for record, song and album of the year – her first time receiving nominations in all three categories simultaneously – and could also score wins for pop solo performance, pop vocal album, dance pop/electronic recording and traditional pop vocal album.
Gaga’s Mayhem and Lamar’s GNX will face competition from Swag by Justin Bieber, Debi Tirar Mas Fotos by Bad Bunny, Man’s Best Friend by Sabrina Carpenter, Let God Sort Em Out by Clipse, Pusha T and Malice, Mutt by Leon Thomas, and Chromakopia by Tyler The Creator, for album of the year.
Brat star Charli XCX, rapper Doechii, former One Direction star Harry Styles and singer-songwriter Carole King are among the stars presenting awards.
