The 68th Annual Grammy Awards are set for this Sunday, February 1st at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California. It will be broadcast live on CBS with Trevor Noah is set to host the event, and while some very deserving country artists are nominated in the country categories, the genre was left off of the big four categories in Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist, though that certainly isn’t the norm and traditionally there are typically at least a couple country artists included in at least one of those. While a select few amount of people might be upset about the country snub, I honestly think people largely don’t pay any attention to these kinds of award shows, or cares who wins, so it really doesn’t matter… but Harvey Mason Jr., who is the CEO of The Recording Academy, says there are no hard feelings towards country, and he hopes it isn’t perceived as political. In interview with Variety, Harvey explained that it simply came down to what the voters chose to vote for this year, and like anything, it’s cyclical. There was a time where people had that complaint about hip-hop too in terms of them being left out, and he says they do try very hard to make sure the voters associated with the all-genre categories are balanced. Country music is as popular as ever, and with Morgan Wallen dominating music, but declining to submit anything for this year’s Grammy awards, I think that says a lot about what kind of weight these trophies carry in the world of streaming in 2026… little, if any at all. It certainly doesn’t matter like it used to, though Harvey explains that sometimes, the chips just fall where they fall: “Yeah, and I really hope it doesn’t turn into that type of dialogue based around politics or right or left, because it really is not that; it’s really about what the voters choose to vote for every given year, and it is cyclical. There have been other times where there’s been different representation. We will be looking into all our genre categories and the voters associated with them and making sure they are balanced, like we do every year. And after this year, we’ll do it again. It’s generally not based on who gets nominated, though, to tell you the truth. It’s based on, do we have a representative voting body of the different genres? And provided that we have the right percentage and ratios, then we’ll be in the right spot. We can’t tell what those people will vote for, but we can make sure that we have a representative voting body.” I honestly haven’t heard that much discussion about country not being included in the big four categories, and in fact, I find it to be a more interesting year than normal due to the fact that there is a brand new country category this year. The previously titled Best Country Album category has been changed to Best Contemporary Country Album, and a Best Traditional Country Album category has been added, which includes a stacked group of nominees in Charley Crockett’s Dollar A Day, Margo Price’s Hard Headed Woman, Zach Top’s Ain’t In It For My Health, Luka’s American Romance and Willie’s, Oh What A Beautiful World all up for the award. Yes, the category is 40% Nelson, and it’s only the second time in history that’s happened at the Grammys, in terms of a father and son both being nominated in the same category for different albums. It’s the first time for a country father/son duo. Turnpike Troubadours being snubbed from the country category entirely is the real crime here… Of course, more mainstream genres like pop and hip-hop/rap dominate music, so that’s obviously going to translate when it comes to the kinds of trophies the Recording Academy hands out, and I really don’t see a problem with that. Country music’s own award shows carry very little weight and have very little influence in terms of the success an artist can have in the genre, and with social media and streaming being the driving force for music discovery these days, that will only continue… the ratings for all of these shows seem to drop every year, which only continues to proves that you don’t need a trophy to become a household name. Simply put, people just don’t care about award shows anymore, and why should they? They know where to find the music on their own, and they have a direct line to the artists that they love… you don’t need some group of random voters to tell you that. Thus far, no country performers have been announced either, but I personally think they need to get someone from the Best Traditional Country Album category to perform, because it would be the highlight of the night… The full list of 2026 Grammy Nominees is below. 2026 Grammy Nominees The full list of country nominees is below. COUNTRY Best Traditional Country Album Dollar A Day, Charley Crockett American Romance, Lukas Nelson Oh What A Beautiful World, Willie Nelson Hard Headed Woman, Margo Price Ain’t In It For My Health, Zach Top Best Contemporary Country Album Patterns, Kelsea Ballerini Snipe Hunter, Tyler Childers Evangeline Vs. The Machine, Eric Church Beautifully Broken, Jelly Roll Postcards From Texas, Miranda Lambert Best Country Solo Performance “Nose on the Grindstone,” Tyler Childers “Good News,” Shaboozey “Bad as I Used to Be [From F1® The Movie],” Chris Stapleton “I Never Lie,” Zach Top “Somewhere Over Laredo,” Lainey Wilson Best Country Duo/Group Performance “A Song to Sing,” Miranda Lambert And Chris Stapleton “Trailblazer,” Reba McEntire, Miranda Lambert, Lainey Wilson “Love Me Like You Used to Do,” Margo Price & Tyler Childers “Amen,” Shaboozey & Jelly Roll “Honky Tonk Hall of Fame,” George Strait, Chris Stapleton Best Country Song “Bitin’ List,” Tyler Childers, songwriter (Tyler Childers) “Good News,” Michael Ross Pollack, Sam Elliot Roman & Jacob Torrey, songwriters (Shaboozey) “I Never Lie,” Carson Chamberlain, Tim Nichols & Zach Top, songwriters (Zach Top) “Somewhere Over Laredo,” Andy Albert, Trannie Anderson, Dallas Wilson & Lainey Wilson, songwriters (Lainey Wilson) “A Song to Sing,” Jenee Fleenor, Jesse Frasure, Miranda Lambert & Chris Stapleton, songwriters (Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton) AMERICANA/ROOTS Best American Roots Performance “LONELY AVENUE,” Jon Batiste Featuring Randy Newman “Ancient Light,” I’m With Her “Crimson and Clay,” Jason Isbell “Richmond on the James,” Alison Krauss & Union Station “Beautiful Strangers,” Mavis Staples Best Americana Performance “Boom,” Sierra Hull “Poison in My Well,” Maggie Rose & Grace Potter “Godspeed,” Mavis Staples “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark,” Molly Tuttle “Horses,” Jesse Welles Best American Roots Song “Ancient Light,” Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan & Sara Watkins, songwriters (I’m With Her) “BIG MONEY,” Jon Batiste, Mike Elizondo & Steve McEwan, songwriters (Jon Batiste) “Foxes in the Snow,” Jason Isbell, songwriter (Jason Isbell) “Middle,” Jesse Welles, songwriter (Jesse Welles) “Spitfire,” Sierra Hull, songwriter (Sierra Hull) Best Americana Album BIG MONEY, Jon Batiste Bloom, Larkin Poe Last Leaf on the Tree, Willie Nelson So Long Little Miss Sunshine, Molly Tuttle Middle, Jesse Welles Best Bluegrass Album Carter & Cleveland, Michael Cleveland & Jason Carter A Tip Toe High Wire, Sierra Hull Arcadia, Alison Krauss & Union Station Outrun, The Steeldrivers Highway Prayers, Billy Strings ALL-GENRE Record of the Year DtMF, Bad Bunny Manchild, Sabrina Carpenter Anxiety, Doechii WILDFLOWER, Billie Eilish Abracadabra, Lady Gaga Luther, Kendrick Lamar With SZA The Subway, Chappell Roan APT., ROSÉ, Bruno Mars Album of the Year DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, Bad Bunny SWAG, Justin Bieber Man’s Best Friend, Sabrina Carpenter Let God Sort Em Out, Clipse, Pusha T & Malice MAYHEM, Lady Gaga GNX, Kendrick Lamar MUTT, Leon Thomas CHROMAKOPIA, Tyler, The Creator Song of the Year Abracadabra, Henry Walter, Lady Gaga & Andrew Watt, songwriters (Lady Gaga) Anxiety, Jaylah Hickmon, songwriter (Doechii) APT., Amy Allen, Christopher Brody Brown, Rogét Chahayed, Henry Walter, Omer Fedi, Philip Lawrence, Bruno Mars, Chae Young Park & Theron Thomas, songwriters (ROSÉ, Bruno Mars) DtMF, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, Scott Dittrich,, Benjamin Falik, Roberto José Rosado Torres, Marco Daniel Borrero, Hugo René Sención Sanabria & Tyler Thomas Spry, songwriters (Bad Bunny) Golden [From “KPop Demon Hunters”], EJAE & Mark Sonnenblick, songwriters (HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna, REI AMI) Luther, Jack Antonoff, Roshwita Larisha Bacha, Matthew, Bernard, Ink, Scott Bridgeway, Sam Dew, Kendrick Lamar, Mark Anthony Spears, Solána Rowe & Kamasi Washington, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar With SZA) Manchild, Amy Allen, Jack Antonoff & Sabrina Carpenter, songwriters (Sabrina Carpenter) WILDFLOWER, Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas O’Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish) Best New Artist Olivia Dean KATSEYE The Marias Addison Rae Sombr Leon Thomas Alex Warren Lola YoungThe post “It’s Not Political”: Recording Academy CEO Breaks Silence On Country Music’s Snub From The All-Genre Categories At The 2026 Grammys first appeared on Whiskey Riff.