Grammy Awards debut a new award for best cover art. Among the nominees, Kendrick Lamar leads the pack

Just weeks ahead of Grammy night, the music industry is about to see a new addition. The 68th edition of the awards, set for February 1 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, will introduce the award for Best Album Cover for the first time. Officially announced last year, the new category was created to recognize the visual concept and graphic quality of an album cover, regardless of musical genre. It's a clear sign of the growing weight given to visual imagery in the making of a musical work, which now earns its own standalone recognition alongside the existing awards for Best Album Notes and Best Recording Package.

The changes don't stop there. In the country field, a sharper distinction is being drawn between the genre's different traditions: the longstanding Best Country Album category is being redefined as Best Contemporary Country Album, while a new award for Best Traditional Country Album makes its debut. There are notable changes in classical music too, where composers, lyricists and librettists will now be able to receive a Grammy directly, on par with performers, producers and sound engineers.

The Recording Academy, the organization behind the Grammys, explained that these changes are meant to more accurately reflect the evolution of the music industry and to recognize a greater number of creative contributions across the entire production process.

On the nominations front, the upcoming edition looks set to be dominated by rap and K-pop. Kendrick Lamar leads the pack with nine nominations, including Album of the Year and Song of the Year. Next up are Lady Gaga with seven nods, and Sabrina Carpenter, Bad Bunny and Leon Thomas, all tied with six apiece.

Particularly notable is the presence of Bad Bunny, nominated across all the major cross-genre categories thanks to the album "Debí Tirar Más Fotos". The Puerto Rican singer, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, will also take the spotlight on February 8, a week after the Grammys, headlining the Super Bowl halftime show, becoming the first artist to perform entirely in Spanish during the halftime spectacle.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google