Bucks County’s Sabrina Carpenter is among top Grammy nominees with six nominations

As the Recording Academy announced nominations for the 2026 Grammy Awards on Friday, Kendrick Lamar led the way with nine nominations. Lady Gaga, Jack Antonoff, and Canadian producer Cirkut pulled in seven each, and Bucks County’s Sabrina Carpenter and three others have six.

Carpenter is a contender in three of the four major Grammy Awards, starting with a nod for Man’s Best Friend in the album of the year category. She’s up against Justin Bieber, Clipse, Lady Gaga, Lamar and Tyler, the Creator. And Super Bowl headliner Bad Bunny and soul singer Leon Thomas, who also have six nominations. Audio engineer Serban Ghenea also has six.

Carpenter is competing for song and record of the year, pop solo performance and best video for “Manchild,” as well as pop vocal album for Man’s Best Friend. Earlier this year, she won Grammys for her breakout album Short n’ Sweet and hit “Espresso.”

Philly and Philly-connected artists are well represented in the lengthy Grammy nominations list, which includes 95 categories this year.

In the melodic rap category, Philly R&B hip-hop singer Fridayy is in the running for “Proud Of Me”,” which features Meek Mill, though the favorite in that category is Kendrick Lamar for “Luther,” with SZA.

Lamar dominated the Grammys last year and seems poised to do so again with his GNX album, which came out in November of last year. The eligibility period for this year’s awards, which will be given on Feb. 7 in Los Angeles runs from Aug. 31, 2024 to Aug. 30, 2025.

That is why Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl garnered zero nominations. It wasn’t released until Oct. 13, and no singles came out before then either. She hasn’t been snubbed, she’s simply ineligible.

Philly artists fared particularly well in jazz categories. Trilogy 3 (Live), with Chick Corea, Brian Blade, and West Philly-raised bassist Christian McBride, is up for best jazz instrumental album, and the trio got a nod for best jazz performance. The Christian McBride Big Band’s Without Further Ado, Vol. 1 is nominated for best large jazz ensemble album, vying with the Sun Ra Arkestra’s Lights on a Satellite, among others.

Rising star Philly saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins’ Blues Blood is in the running for alternative jazz album, and he too is nominated for best jazz performance for his guest spot along with Mark Whitfield on Lakecia Benjamin’s “Noble Rise.”

Samara Joy is from the Bronx, but has deep Philly family connections. The singer who will celebrate her 26th birthday on Tuesday at the Miller Theater — and who has already won five Grammys — is also competing in the jazz performance category, for “Peace of Mind / Dreams Come True” and best jazz vocal album for Portrait.

Camden bandleader Tye Tribbett — a three time Grammy winner — is up for another in the gospel album category, for Only On the Road (Live). And UPenn grad John Legend has an opportunity to add to his pile of 13 golden gramophones: He’s up for his feature on Tasha Cobb Leonard’s “Church” in for gospel performance/song and for best rap song for Clipse’s “The Birds Don’t Sing.”

In classical categories, the Philadelphia Orchestra and its music and artistic director Yannick Nézet-Séguin are up for best orchestral performance for Still & Bonds: Symphonies & Variations and for best opera recording. Nézet-Séguin is also nominated for conducting the Metropolitan Opera orchestra on Tesori: Grounded.

Perennial Philadelphia-area contenders The Crossing choir — who are four-time Grammy winners — are again in the hunt. This time it’s for Lang: Poor Hymnal, in the best choral performance category, conducted by Donald Nally.

Antonoff and Cirkut will face off in the producer of the year, non-classical category. If Antonoff wins, he will tie Babyface’s record of most career wins in the category, with four.

This is the first time three albums have been up for both rap album and album of the year: Along with GNX, that includes Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out and Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia.

Bad Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” is only the second time an all-Spanish language album has been nominated for album of the year. The first was also a Bad Bunny release — in 2023, for Un Verano Sin Ti. Harry Styles’ Harry’s House won that year.

In the best new artist category, global girl group Katseye, Olivia Dean, The Marías, Addison Rae, sombr, Leon Thomas, Alex Warren, and Lola Young will go head-to-head.

The record of the year category is made up of Bad Bunny’s “DtMF,” Carpenter’s “Manchild,” Doechii’s “Anxiety,” Billie Eilish’s “Wildflower,” Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra,” Lamar and SZA’s “Luther,” Chappell Roan’s “The Subway,” and Rosé and Bruno Mars’ “APT.”

Rosé, who is one-fourth of the girl group BLACKPINK, is the first K-pop artist to ever receive a nomination in the record of the year field.

The nominees for song of the year — a songwriter’s award — are almost identical list to record of the year (which goes to the performer), except Roan is replaced by “Golden” from the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack.

Other nominees of note include Timothée Chalamet, whose A Complete Unknown performance as Bob Dylan is being rewarded with a best compilation soundtrack for visual media nomination.

Along with Clipse, Doechii, SZA and Tyler, the Creator, the list of acts with five nominations include Baltimore rock band Turnstile, who became the first ever band nominated in the same year in rock, alternative and metal categories, all on the strength of their album Never Enough.

Country singer Tyler Childers has four nominations, for country solo performance for “Nose on the Grindstone,” country duo/group performance for “Love Me Like You Used To” with Margo Price, country song for “Bitin’ List,” and contemporary country album for Snipe Hunter.

The 2026 Grammy Awards will air Feb. 1 live on CBS and Paramount+ from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

This article contains information from The Associated Press.