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When Beyoncé released Cowboy Carter, the conversation around what does and does not count as “country” reached a height the genre could no longer ignore.
The album didn’t just challenge radio formats or playlist logic, but forced institutions, including the Recording Academy, to reckon with how narrow definitions can flatten a genre.
So, when the Recording Academy announced the addition of Best Traditional Country Album to its slate of Grammy Awards categories, it wasn’t just an update caused by one of the most influential artists on the planet, but a culmination of decades of fervent debate among activists, artists, historians and fandoms alike.
The expansion of country categories at the 2026 Grammy Awards is not without precedent, as evidenced by the evolution in a variety of other genres since its inception in 1959.
For instance, R&B has undergone similar evolutions for decades, as the Recording Academy repeatedly adjusted its categories to reflect the genre’s breadth and internal diversity.
Beginning in the late 1960s with separate awards for solo and group performances, the Academy later introduced Best R&B Song, Best R&B Album, and eventually distinctions between traditional, contemporary, and progressive R&B styles.
Those changes were not meant to fragment the genre, but to protect it, ensuring that classic soul traditions were not swallowed by commercial trends while still making room for innovation. By acknowledging that R&B could hold multitudes, the Grammys validated the genre’s importance by notating its roots and clearing the path for a glorious future.
The new split between Traditional and Contemporary Country Album follows similar logic, signaling a recognition that country music has grown too expansive to be judged through a single lens.
More importantly, it opens the door for foundational subgenres such as western, western swing, and outlaw country to receive long-overdue recognition. That shift is already evident in the breadth of the inaugural nominees, which reflects the genre’s full range and complexity.
Need proof? Consider the contrast across this year’s nominees.
Margo Price’s Hard Headed Woman stands as a defiant, roots-forward statement, while Zach Top’s ’90s-tinged sophomore effort channels nostalgic traditionalism.
On the contemporary side, Tyler Childers’ Snipe Hunter stretches his bluegrass foundation into a freewheeling, delightfully strange sonic terrain, expanding his catalog without abandoning its core. Elsewhere, Kelsea Ballerini’s Patterns confronts self-reflection head-on, marking one of the most artistically cohesive moments of her career.
In the performance categories, Shaboozey’s flamboyant ‘Good News’ sits comfortably alongside the crystalline magic of Lainey Wilson’s ‘Somewhere Over Laredo,’ underscoring just how wide the country spectrum has become.
With room for tradition, experimentation, and everything in between, these distinctions matter not just for the artists being recognized now, but for the future of country music itself and whose stories get told.
As the anticipation builds for the awards, our writers voted on the categories and weighed in on the contenders, noting what each possible win could mean for the genre moving forward.
Traditional Country Album Nominees
Charley Crockett – Dollar a Day
Lukas Nelson – American Romance
Willie Nelson – Oh What a Beautiful World
Margo Price – Hard Headed Woman
Zach Top – Ain't in It for My Health
Who Will Win & Why:
Margo Price – Hard Headed Woman
We've got a feeling the inaugural Grammy award for the Best Traditional Country Album will go the way of one of classic country's most militant torchbearers.
Despite taking a three-album detour via everything from cosmic Americana to psych pop and indie-tinged country rock after 2017's All American Made, Margo Price found her way back home to more straight forward, traditional country on last year's Hard Headed Woman.
It was perfect example of how to stay true to the genre's origins while contemporising it to make sense to a modern day country listenership.
Reunited with Midwest Farmer's Daughter and All American Made producer Matt Ross-Spang and recorded in the historic RCA Studio A, the setting for Waylon Jennings' Honky Tonk Heroes and Jolene by Dolly Parton among countless other legendary country albums, the fifth studio album from Margo Price felt part of a lineage of era-defining country records.
A timely collection of songs that met the moment, politically and socially, Hard Headed Woman switched between boldly defiant and wistfully nostalgic, featuring a duet with Jesse Welles and a flirty waltz with Tyler Childers that might arguably be the best song either artist released this year.
- Jof Owen
Why This Win Will Matter
Margo Price – Hard Headed Woman
Any one of the other nominees would have been deserving of the award, but we think it's Margo's time to finally scoop her first Grammy award after missing out on the Best New Artist award in 2019 to Dua Lipa.
If she does win, it'll send a strong message to the rest of country music that there is nothing anti-American or indeed anti-country about being outspoken, socially conscious and standing up for the things you believe in. Whatever Nate Smith might think.
Throughout its long history, everyone from Johnny Cash to Dolly Parton has spoken up for people whose voices have been silenced, and Hard Headed Woman is a contemporary rebalancing of the conversation for the overlooked and underserved in America.
- JO
Contemporary Country Album Nominees
Kelsea Ballerini – Patterns
Tyler Childers – Snipe Hunter
Eric Church – Evangeline vs. the Machine
Jelly Roll – Beautifully Broken
Miranda Lambert – Postcards from Texas
Who Will Win & Why (A Tied Debate)
Kelsea Ballerini - Patterns
Few artists today define “contemporary country” quite like Kelsea Ballerini. For the last decade, the ‘Baggage’ artist has deftly traversed the divisive line between country and pop, crafting a blend of the two that makes for both chart-topping hits meant for crowded rooms and intimate moments to reflect on in solitude.
While fans saw the star flexing that skill again on Patterns, they also came face-to-face with something – and someone – wholly new.
When it was released in October of 2024, Patterns marked a metamorphosis for Ballerini, the wonderfully intricate and achingly personal oeuvre ushering in her most introspective era to date.
The entire collection was an all-out departure from the mostly simplistic, inconsequential stylings of favorites like ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘half of my hometown’ as she welcomed enticing textures, rich arrangements and lush curtains of sound. In substance, too, the 15-track album marked the final fall of any facade Ballerini had been fronting, making way for beautiful vulnerability, eviscerating honesty and necessary closure.
As one of the most evolutionary displays from an artist, Patterns should be celebrated and is more than worthy of this year’s Grammy for Contemporary Country Album.
~AP
Tyler Childers - Snipe Hunter
If we’re talking ‘contemporary’, then surely we should be looking at what sounded new this year.
Snipe Hunter? Well that’s an album that came crashing out of the gate, sounding so new it threw us all for a loop and begged for a second play.
From the explosive opening on ‘Eatin’ Big Time’, it was obvious that this was going to be a statement making album, Childers’ statement being: take it or leave it, this is what I’ve got for you.
‘Bitin List’ is easily one of 2025’s best tracks - its unashamed and untamed insanity becoming an instant sarcastic classic that no one saw coming. But if that’s not your thing, then you’ve got ‘Tirtha Yatra’, Childers leading us through his journey into Hindu spiritualism to a backing of kirtan-country worship.
The album is absolute organised chaos produced to give the wildest result possible, Childers and Rick Rubin coming together in a perfect clash - that’s pretty contemporary if you ask me.
-DI
Why This Win Will Matter (A Tied Debate)
Kelsea Ballerini - Patterns
Since 2019’s Unapologetically, several of Ballerini’s albums have received Grammy nods, but she’s never taken home the prize. A win would mean the longtime star’s first Grammy and that’s a noteworthy achievement in itself.
Because the artist is “contemporary country” through and through, she seems a shoo-in among this year’s nominees.
A win from Ballerini, however, would matter very little for the whole of country music.
In fact, her win could have a negative impact on the Grammy’s new, seemingly progressive genre distinctions.
Her victory would likely only solidify the already narrow parameters that exist within country, hammering home the idea that “contemporary country” has a face and a sound and that it can only exist at the intersection of country and pop.
~ AP
Tyler Childers - Snipe Hunter
If Childers takes the win for this, then it’s not only setting a precedent of just how expansive the category will be soundwise, but thematically too.
Whilst we’re hoping that the traditional category might notice the art form of a concise classic country album, the contemporary category is for the artists that are veering off on their own path.
Although we might think of Childers as more of a traditional country artist - standing in his bluegrass roots throughout his career - it’s perhaps his possibility to move beyond the expected that makes his place in this category make a little more sense.
Snipe Hunter proves exactly that, contemporary can come from a traditional artist. It can come from a new artist, one who’s been rocking around for a while, one that doesn’t look like a paint-by-numbers country artist, or one from Appalachia that recorded an album in Hawaii.
With Childers being yet to take home a Grammy, it’s about time. To get his first win for an album that saw him let loose completely and take us all by surprise, it kinda says… we don’t know what this category sounds like either, that feels promising in the sonic progression and diversity of the genre.
-DI
Best Solo Country Performance Nominees
"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
Who Will Win & Why (A Tied Debate):
Lainey Wilson - ‘Somewhere Over Loredo’
Lainey Wilson oozes cool cowgirl charisma in any performance that she delivers, be that at an intimate event at her Broadway bar or to over 20,000 fans on an arena stage. Bell Bottom Country was an entire movement for music, fashion and attitude and even picked up ‘Best Country Album’ back at the 66th Annual GRAMMY Awards.
Fiercely at the top of her game, Wilson released a song that was a moment of pause and allowed us all to join her and reflect on her journey. Her performance of ‘Somewhere over Laredo’ is executed with the class of a country music veteran.
She harnesses the crowd like the slick cowgirl she is, stripping it back to her empathetic vocals to carry the loneliness and longing of the song.
No, it isn’t her most upbeat or most viral or even most playlisted, but it is passionate and thoughtful. It is Lainey Wilson at her most authentic, relatable self and resonates with fans of all ages.
- Georgette Brookes
Zach Top - ‘I Never Lie’
Best Solo Country Performance at the 2026 Grammys could have quite the odds to go to Zach Top for “I Never Lie,” largely because it sits at the intersection of tradition and modern momentum.
The song’s organic virality online has given it a visibility that voters can no longer ignore, especially as the Grammys continue to reflect how digital culture shapes listening habits. We’ve seen this shift clearly in recent years, particularly in categories like Best New Artist, where online traction increasingly informs cultural relevance.
While Lainey Wilson’s “Somewhere Over Laredo” carries the weight of an established global name and industry respect, its reach felt more contained within the country space. “I Never Lie,” by contrast, moved beyond genre boundaries in how it circulated, discussed, and spread online.
In a category that is often quiet, specific, and highly selective, Zach Top’s performance stands out by doing less, not more. It feels intentional, confident, and unmistakably country, which makes it especially compelling to voters balancing tradition with current impact.
- Caitlin Hall
Why This Win Will Matter (A Tied Debate):
Lainey Wilson - ‘Somewhere Over Loredo’
The significance of this win would show that country music is still about the people and the stories.
‘Somewhere Over Laredo’ works for Wilson because it’s true to her journey, where authenticity and integrity remain the cornerstones of celebrated country music. She is ‘chasing this neon rainbow’ and behind the glitz and glamour of her career are lonely, pensive moments.
A win for Wilson in this category demonstrates that modern country music can honour traditional values and be accepted.
Lainey Wilson is arguably the most talked about female in the game right now and has never been more spotlighted, just like the female powerhouses before her - Taylor Swift (2012), Carrie Underwood (2013, 2015), Maren Morris (2017) and Kacey Musgraves (2019).
She is the people’s princess and this performance captures just that; her humility and ability to resonate with her fans, knowing that after her show, everybody wants to be a cowgirl.
-GB
Zach Top - ‘I Never Lie’
A win for Zach Top would carry significance far beyond the trophy itself.
For an artist sometimes met with skepticism; whether for leaning heavily into traditional sounds or being accused of nostalgia without sincerity, this recognition would serve as a definitive validation.
It would signal that honoring classic country is not parody or imitation, but a legitimate artistic choice that still resonates at the highest level.
While other nominees like Lainey Wilson and Chris Stapleton have continued success that reflects the strength of established stars within the genre, a win for Zach Top would spotlight a different kind of momentum: one built through listener discovery rather than name recognition alone.
For a younger artist, this moment could firmly establish him as a credible voice in country music’s future, proving that taking the genre seriously - and trusting its foundations - can still lead to mainstream recognition.
- CH
Best Country Duo / Group Performance Nominees:
"A Song to Sing" – Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton
"Trailblazer" – Reba McEntire, Miranda Lambert and Lainey Wilson
"Love Me Like You Used to Do" – Margo Price and Tyler Childers
"Amen" – Shaboozey and Jelly Roll
"Honky Tonk Hall of Fame" – George Strait and Chris Stapleton
Who Will Win & Why: George Strait and Chris Stapleton - ‘Honky Tonk Hall of Fame’
With country awards categories now so fraught with internal debates about their own identity and “what it means”, here’s an opportunity to take a welcome break from any hand wringing. Duo categories are historically weak, and we’d hate to see Price and Childers take this one home as a bonus for losing out in individual categories, of which their work is much more deserving.
As for the rest of the entrants, none of these songs are going down in country music history. This leaves the Recording Academy the opportunity to give the award to a solid but straight down the line country song by two of the genre’s stalwarts with absolutely nothing controversial to do or say.
- Holly Smith
Why This Win Will Matter:
This win doesn’t matter, and that’s the whole point.
And before you get all het up asking whether Strait or Stapleton REALLY need any more metal to add to their bulging trophy cabinets, you might be surprised to know that George Strait has only won a single Grammy before now, compared to Stapleton’s 11.
So just let this award be a moment to go and refill your glass before raising it to the King of Country.
- HS
Best Country Song Nominees
"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)
Who Will Win & Why:
Tyler Childers - ‘Bitin’ List’
It’s no secret that Tyler Childers’ ‘Bitin’ List’ had a stranglehold on 2025. Soon after its late-July release, the Snipe Hunter anthem was everywhere, quickly becoming a viral trend on social media and uniting Childers fans and casual listeners alike over their personal grievances. You know you’ve had your own biting list tucked away ever since its snappy beat and infectious chorus was unleashed onto the world. No other nominee in this category has had that kind of pull.
Childers, the song’s sole writer, created in ‘Bitin’ List’ something so singular. Since its release, the simplistic tune has blossomed into a loud-and-proud, ornery-as-hell sing-a-long, becoming a rallying cry for anyone fed up with being made to feel small, insignificant or less-than.
‘Bitin’ List’ stands as a testament to the power music has to bring people together and inspire a united voice among the masses. In this way, it accomplished what music should always strive to do: incite change, however small. ‘Bitin’ List’ is, therefore, more than deserving of the honor of Best Country Song.
~Alli Patton
Why This Win Will Matter:
Tyler Childers - ‘Bitin’ List’
At the end of the day, a ’Bitin’ List’ victory means very little if Snipe Hunter doesn’t take home the overall Contemporary Country Album win. If this song is the only Childers work that triumphs during the upcoming ceremony, it just means the recording academy bought into what was trendy and overlooked the masterpiece that was his seventh studio album.
Sure, a ’Bitin’ List’ win would mean vindication for previous Grammy snubs like that of ‘All Your’n’ in 2020 and ‘In Your Love’ in 2024, but Childers likely doesn’t need the validation and, win or lose, this award neither solidifies nor negates his artistic talent.
~AP
