Grammys Change Best New Artist Rules for 2027: What You Need to Know
From an overdue Asian Pop category to giving late-bloomers another shot at Best New Artist, here is everything you need to know about the Recording Academy’s sweeping changes for the 69th ceremony
The music industry moves at warp speed, and the Recording Academy is doing its best to keep up. Today, the Grammys announced a massive slate of rule changes and category additions ahead of the 69th Annual Grammy Awards, set to broadcast live on ABC, Disney+, and Hulu on February 7, 2027.
Driven by an annual member-led review process, these updates are designed to reflect the fragmented, fast-evolving reality of how we consume music today. “The changes advanced by our Academy members speak to the breadth of today’s music industry and the many genres, crafts, and creators shaping it,” Grammys CEO Harvey Mason jr. shared in a statement. “We’re excited to see these updates come to life in the year ahead as we celebrate the music people who are driving music forward.”
Whether you’re a K-pop stan who has been demanding justice for years, or an R&B purist looking for more granular recognition, the 2027 ceremony is bringing five brand-new golden gramophones to the table. Here is a breakdown of the new categories and the major eligibility overhauls that will redefine music’s biggest night.
The most glaringly overdue addition is Best Asian Pop Music Performance. For years, global sensations from BTS to BLACKPINK have dominated the charts, yet they often found themselves shoehorned into generic Pop Duo/Group categories against Western artists. This new award explicitly recognizes artistic excellence in K-pop, J-pop, C-pop, and other Asian market origins that make meaningful use of Asian languages. It’s a massive step toward acknowledging the sheer global dominance of Asian pop.
R&B is also getting a much-needed structural tweak. To make room for the genre’s collaborative nature, the Academy is introducing Best R&B Collaboration or Duo/Group Performance. Consequently, the existing Best R&B Performance award will be rebranded as Best R&B Solo Performance.
For the roots and traditional crowds, the Grammys are splitting hairs in the best way possible. Best Traditional Folk Album will make its debut, allowing the old-school acoustic purists to have their own lane, while the former Best Folk Album category transforms into Best Contemporary Folk Album. Meanwhile, the crooners of the world get a nod with Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, dedicated to tracks that simply don’t fit into the modern, synth-heavy pop landscape.
Finally, Latin music continues its Grammy expansion with Best Latin Song, an award honoring the songwriters behind newly penned tracks where Spanish makes up at least 51% of the lyrics.
The Best New Artist category is notoriously tricky. Sometimes it takes an artist three or four album cycles to actually break into the mainstream consciousness, by which point Grammy rules may have already locked them out.
Previously, an artist could only be submitted for Best New Artist a maximum of three times. For 2027, the Academy is bumping that cap up to four. It’s a vital change that acknowledges the modern reality of artist development: the slow burn is real. This extra lifeline means buzzing artists who previously exhausted their three submissions without scoring a nomination now have one last shot at the ballot.
Behind the scenes, the mechanics of what makes an “album” an album are shifting. The threshold of newly recorded material required for a project to be eligible for Album of the Year and genre album categories has been lowered from 75% to 66%. This prevents widely recognized new albums that happen to include a few older singles or interludes from being technically disqualified by a harsh mathematical technicality.
Additionally, the Academy is righting a historical wrong when it comes to the people who actually write the music. Songwriters and composers of new material on winning albums across most genre categories will now take home actual Grammy statuettes and Achievement Certificates. It puts the pen-to-paper creatives on the same pedestal as the producers and engineers who have historically received this recognition.
Rounding out the technical updates, internet-only releases will now be eligible for Best Album Notes and Best Historical Album, provided the liner notes and materials are included in the commercial digital download.
The changes go into effect immediately. Let the campaigning for 2027 begin.