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."[1] 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.
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[2] and ten in 2022.[3] Beginning with the 2024 ceremony, the number of nominees has been reduced back to eight.[4]
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.[5]
Achievements
Serban Ghenea (as engineer/mixer) is the most frequent winner in this category with five awards. Taylor Swift (as performer); John Hanes (as engineer/mixer); and Tom Coyne and Randy Merrill (as mastering engineers) have won the award four times.[6] They are followed by Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, and Paul Simon (as performers); Jack Antonoff, David Foster, Daniel Lanois, Phil Ramone, and Ryan Tedder (as album producers); Tom Elmhirst and Mike Piersante and Laura Sisk (as engineers/mixers); and Bob Ludwig (as mastering engineer) with three victories each. Coyne, Ghenea, Hanes, and Ludwig are the only people to win the award in three consecutive years. Paul McCartney leads all performers with nine nominations: five as a member of The Beatles, three for solo albums, and one as a member of Wings. McCartney's former bandmate George Harrison has a total of eight nominations: five as a member of The Beatles, one for a solo album, one for a live album with friends, and one as a member of the Traveling Wilburys. Sinatra leads solo performers with eight nominations: seven for solo albums and one for a duet album. Barbra Streisand and Taylor Swift have the most nominations amongst female artists with six each.[7][8]
Billie Eilish is the youngest main credit artist to win in the category, winning for her debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? in 2020 at age 18. The Peasall Sisters, Sarah, Hannah and Leah, are the category's youngest credited winners, winning for their contributions to the O Brother, Where Art Thou? – Soundtrack at ages 13, 9, and 7 respectively. Leah Peasall is the youngest winner of any Grammy in any category.[9] The youngest person to make an appearance on an Album of the Year is Stevie Wonder's daughter Aisha Morris, who appeared as an infant for "Isn't She Lovely?" on the album Songs in the Key of Life.[10]
Christopher Cross and Billie Eilish are the only artists to receive Grammys for Album of the Year as well as Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist, each winning all four "general field" categories in a single ceremony year. Adele was the first artist to win awards for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist on separate occasions. Five artists have won both Album of the Year and Best New Artist in the same year: Bob Newhart (The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart in 1961), Lauryn Hill (The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1999), and Norah Jones (Come Away with Me in 2003) along with Christopher Cross (Christopher Cross in 1981) and Billie Eilish (When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? in 2020) mentioned above.
Only Frank Sinatra and Stevie Wonder have won in two consecutive years as main artists: Sinatra won in 1966 (September of My Years) and 1967 (A Man and His Music) and Wonder won in 1974 (Innervisions) and 1975 (Fulfillingness' First Finale). Lauryn Hill and Bruno Mars have also won in consecutive years, with one win credited as producer rather than artist. Hill won as a producer in 2000 after winning in 1999 as artist and producer. Bruno Mars won as a producer in 2017 before winning as both artist and producer in 2018.
The Beatles were the first and only artists to date to receive Album of the Year nominations in five consecutive years (1966–1970). Frank Sinatra was the first to receive four nominations in consecutive years, 1959 - 1961 (two nominations at the first ceremony in 1959), receiving 3 more consecutive nominations for 1966–1968. Barbra Streisand (1964–1967)[11] and Kendrick Lamar (2016–2019) also received nominations in four consecutive years while Lady Gaga (2010–2012) was nominated in three consecutive years.
Stevie Wonder and Adele are the only artists to win the award for consecutive studio albums in this category, winning for Innervisions and Fulfillingness' First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life; and 21 and 25, respectively.
Quincy Jones, Lauryn Hill and Bruno Mars are the only performers to win the award both as main-credit artists and as record producers, winning as lead artists for their albums Back on the Block, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and 24K Magic, and as producers for Thriller by Michael Jackson, Supernatural by Santana, and 25 by Adele, respectively. Mars' work on the album 25 is credited under his production team name The Smeezingtons.
Eight artists have received the award more than once (either as a main-credit artist, duo or band; not counting wins solely as a producer, mixer or engineer).[12][13]
From 1995 to 2021, members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences nominated their choices for album of the year. A list of the top twenty records was given to the Nominations Review Committee, a specially selected group of anonymous members, who then selected the top five records to gain a nomination in the category in a special ballot.[14] The rest of the members then voted on a winner from the five nominees.[15] In 2018, it was announced the number of nominated albums would be increased to eight.[16] In 2021, it was announced that the Nomination Review Committees would be disbanded, and the final nominees for album of the year would be decided by votes from members.[17] Starting in 2022, the number of nominees in the category increased to 10.[18] However, the decision to expand the number of nominees in this category was made 24 hours before the nominees were announced after an early version of the nominations list had already been circulated. This allowed Taylor Swift'sEvermore and Kanye West'sDonda to be nominated as they were the albums that received the highest number of votes besides the other eight nominees.[19] As of the 2024 ceremony, the number of nominees has been reduced back to eight.[4]
Winners and nominees
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Notes
^ a b c d e f g hEach year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year.
^Only Houston and the producers of her tracks received the award.[56] None of the other artists who appeared on The Bodyguard soundtrack (Kenny G, Aaron Neville, Lisa Stansfield, The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M., Curtis Stigers, Joe Cocker, Sass Jordan, and the uncredited instrumental ensemble that performed Alan Silvestri's theme) shared in the award, nor did the producers of these other artists' tracks (other than those who also produced Houston's tracks).
^Other artists who appeared on soundtrack (James Carter and the Prisoners, Harry McClintock & The Stanley Brothers) were not included as their recordings long preceded the soundtrack; the only members of those acts still alive at that time were James Carter (the only "Prisoner" from the Alan Lomax recording who was located) and Ralph Stanley (separately credited for recording "O Death" specifically for the soundtrack). The Soggy Bottom Boys aren't credited as a group, but Dan Tyminski (the singing voice of George Clooney in the film) is credited as a member of Union Station, while the other two members (Harley Allen & Pat Enright) are credited individually. Chris Sharp, Mike Compton, Sam Bush & Stuart Duncan are not listed as lead or featured artists on any track, but were included for their instrumental credits on the album.[65]
^"What's New For The 61st GRAMMY Awards? | GRAMMY.com". March 29, 2019. Archived from the original on March 29, 2019.
^"Recording Academy Updates Rules For 2022 GRAMMYs". GRAMMY.com. May 26, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
^ a bPaul Grein (June 16, 2023). "Here Are the 10 Biggest Changes to the Grammy Awards Process for 2024". Billboard. Retrieved June 16, 2023.
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^"Grammys 2024: Winners List". The New York Times. February 4, 2024. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
^Mier, Tomás (November 10, 2023). "Taylor Swift Now Has the Most Song of the Year Grammy Nominations. Like, Ever". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
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