Grammy Award for Album of the Year facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Grammy Award for Album of the Year
Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé is the most recent recipient.
Presented by	National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
Country	United States
First awarded	1959
Currently held by	Beyoncé – Cowboy Carter (2025)

The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is an award presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales, chart position, or critical reception." Commonly known as "The Big Award", Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammy Awards, and is one of the four general field categories alongside Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year that have been presented annually since the 1st Annual Grammy Awards in 1959. The current recipient, Beyoncé, is the first black woman to win the award since Lauryn Hill in 1999.

Credit rules

Over the years, the rules on who was presented with an award have changed:

• 1959–1965: Artist only.
• 1966–1998: Artist and producer.
• 1999–2002: Artist, producer, and recording engineer or mixer.
• 2003–2017: Artist, featured artist, producer, mastering engineer, and recording engineer or mixer.
• 2018–2020: Artist, featured artist, producer, songwriter (of new material), mastering engineer, and recording engineer or mixer (only those who were credited on at least 33% playing time of the album)
• 2021–2023: Artist, featured artist, producer, songwriter (of new material), mastering engineer, and recording engineer or mixer (regardless of credited playing time)
• 2024–future: Artist, featured artist, producer, songwriter (of new material), mastering engineer, and recording engineer or mixer (only those who were credited on at least 20% playing time of the album)

The category expanded to include eight nominees in 2019 and ten in 2022. Beginning with the 2024 ceremony, the number of nominees has been reduced back to eight.

Album of the Year is awarded for a whole album, and the award is presented to the artist, featured artist, producer, songwriter, mastering engineer, and recording engineer or mixer with significant contributions to that album. The similarly titled Record of the Year is awarded for a single or for one track from an album. This award goes to the artist, producer, mastering engineer, and recording engineer or mixer for that song.

See also

In Spanish: Anexo:Premio Grammy al álbum del año para niños