Grammy Award for Album of the Year facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Grammy Award for Album of the Year
Debí Tirar Más Fotos by Bad Bunny is the most recent recipient.
Presented by	National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
Country	United States
First awarded	1959
Currently held by	Bad Bunny – Debí Tirar Más Fotos (2026)

The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is a very special prize given by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in the United States. This award celebrates the best musical albums based on their artistic quality and how well they are made. It doesn't matter how many copies the album sold or how popular it was on the charts.

This award is one of the most important honors at the Grammy Awards. It has been given out every year since the very first Grammy Awards in 1959. Other major awards include Best New Artist, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year.

Who Gets the Award?

The rules for who receives the Album of the Year award have changed over time. This is because many talented people work together to create an album.

• From 1959 to 1965: Only the main artist received the award.
• From 1966 to 1998: The artist and the album's producer were honored.
• From 1999 to 2002: The artist, producer, and the recording engineer or mixer received the award.
• From 2003 to 2017: The artist, any featured artists, the producer, the mastering engineer, and the recording engineer or mixer were all included.
• From 2018 to 2020: The artist, featured artists, producer, songwriters (for new songs), mastering engineer, and recording engineer or mixer were honored. They needed to have worked on at least 33% of the album's playing time.
• From 2021 to 2023: The same group of people received the award, no matter how much of the album they worked on.
• From 2024 onwards: The same group is honored, but they must have worked on at least 20% of the album's playing time.

The number of albums nominated for this award also changed. In 2019, it grew to eight nominees. In 2022, it increased to ten. However, for the 2024 ceremony, the number of nominees was reduced back to eight.

It's important to know the difference between Album of the Year and Record of the Year. Album of the Year celebrates an entire album. The award goes to everyone who made big contributions to it. Record of the Year is for a single song. That award goes to the artist, producer, mastering engineer, and recording engineer or mixer for that specific song.

Amazing Achievements and Records

Many artists and music professionals have achieved incredible things with the Album of the Year award.

Taylor Swift has won this award four times. She is the first woman to win it two, three, and four times as a main artist. She won in 2010, 2016, 2021, and 2024. She also holds the record for most nominations by a female artist with 7 nominations.

Frank Sinatra was the first artist to win the award two and three times. He won in 1960, 1966, and 1967. He has the most nominations in this category with 8 nominations.

Stevie Wonder won three times in 1974, 1975, and 1977.

Paul Simon also won three times. He won twice as the main artist, in 1976 and 1987.

U2 is the only group to win this award twice, in 1988 and 2006.

Adele won twice as the main artist, in 2012 and 2017.

Serban Ghenea, a talented engineer and mixer, has won this award five times, which is the most by anyone in that role. Taylor Swift (as a performer), John Hanes (as an engineer/mixer), and Tom Coyne and Randy Merrill (as mastering engineers) have each won four times.

Other artists like Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, and Paul Simon have won three times as performers. Several producers and engineers have also achieved three wins. Coyne, Ghenea, Hanes, and Ludwig are the only people to win the award three years in a row!

Paul McCartney has the most nominations among performers with nine. He was nominated five times with The Beatles, three times for his solo albums, and once with his band Wings. His former bandmate George Harrison has eight nominations. Frank Sinatra leads solo performers with eight nominations. Among female artists, Taylor Swift has the most nominations with seven, followed by Barbra Streisand with six.

The first woman to win the award was Judy Garland in 1962 for her album Judy at Carnegie Hall. Taylor Swift is the first solo female artist to win the award two, three, and four times. Adele has won twice as a main artist. Other female artists like Lauryn Hill, Norah Jones, and Alison Krauss have also won twice, either as lead artists or featured artists.

Billie Eilish became the youngest main artist to win this award in 2020. She was just 18 years old when she won for her debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. The youngest credited winners ever are The Peasall Sisters (Sarah, Hannah, and Leah), who were 13, 9, and 7 years old when they contributed to the O Brother, Where Art Thou? – Soundtrack. Leah Peasall is the youngest person to win any Grammy Award!

Christopher Cross and Billie Eilish are the only artists to win all four major Grammy awards (Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist) in the same year. Adele was the first to win all four, but on separate occasions.

Some albums made history by being the first of their kind to win:

• Frank Sinatra's Come Dance with Me! (1960) was the first by a traditional pop artist.
• Stan Getz & João Gilberto's Getz/Gilberto (1965) was the first by jazz artists.
• The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1968) was the first by rock and roll artists.
• Glen Campbell's By the Time I Get to Phoenix (1969) was the first by a country artist.
• Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1999) was the first by a hip hop artist.
• Santana's Supernatural (2000) was the first by a Hispanic artist.
• Arcade Fire's The Suburbs (2011) was the first by indie rock artists.
• Daft Punk's Random Access Memories (2014) was the first by electronic music artists.
• Debí Tirar Más Fotos by Bad Bunny (2026) is the first Spanish-language album to win. Un Verano Sin Ti (2023) was the first Spanish-language album to be nominated.

Only Frank Sinatra and Stevie Wonder have won the award in two years in a row as main artists. Lauryn Hill and Bruno Mars also won in consecutive years, with one win credited as a producer.

The Beatles hold the record for receiving Album of the Year nominations in five years in a row (1966–1970).

Artists with Multiple Wins

Here are some artists and bands who have won the Album of the Year award more than once as a main artist, duo, or band:

How Winners Are Chosen

From 1995 to 2021, members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences would suggest their favorite albums for the award. A special group of anonymous members, called the Nominations Review Committee, then picked the top five albums to be nominated. After that, all members voted to choose the final winner from those five nominees.

In 2018, the number of nominated albums increased to eight. In 2021, the Nominations Review Committees were removed. This meant that all members voted directly for the final nominees. For the 2022 awards, the number of nominees grew to ten. This change happened very close to the announcement, which allowed albums like Taylor Swift's Evermore and Kanye West's Donda to be nominated. These were the albums that received the most votes after the initial eight. For the 2024 ceremony, the number of nominees was reduced back to eight.

Winners and Nominees (Recent Years)

Here are the winners and nominees for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year from 2020 to 2026. The winner for each year is highlighted.

2020s

See also

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