For students, the beginning of the year is marked by three things: freezing cold temperatures, the beginning of spring semester and award shows.
This weekend, that trend continues with the Grammys returning Feb 1 for their 68th year. In early November, the Recording Academy released the list of nominees for the 95 different categories, including the new awards for Best Traditional Country Album and Best Album Cover.
These are a few of my predictions for who will go home with the biggest awards on music’s biggest night.
The award categories span an extensive range of genres, including rap, pop, Latin, techno, country, classical, jazz and more. But ‘The Big Four’ awards — Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist — are the most prestigious and popular titles, headlining the night’s coverage.
Record of the Year is an award given to an artist for having the best overall song of the last year. The nominees for this category include “DtMF” by Bad Bunny, “Manchild” by Sabrina Carpenter, “Anxiety” by Doechii, “WILDFLOWER” by Billie Eilish, “Abracadabra” by Lady Gaga, “luther” by Kendrick Lamar with SZA, “The Subway” by Chappell Roan and “APT.” by ROSE with Bruno Mars.
Every one of these songs was incredibly popular in 2025, with some being so overplayed I can’t imagine how a single voting member could tolerate listening to them ever again. That being said, “APT.” has a strong chance of taking this category for the reach it found into every single demographic. Everyone has heard this song and danced along at one point or another. It was a song enjoyed by young children, the elderly and everyone in between.
The most deserving song, however, is “The Subway” by Chappell Roan. Roan had a significant year in 2024 and won last year’s Best New Artist Award, while “The Subway” was not given the credit it was due. This is partially due to Roan teasing the song as unreleased for far too long. When the final production was released, it consequently lost a lot of buzz.
The Album of the Year is an award granted to the artist and other contributors, like producers and engineers, recognizing the entire process behind an album. This year’s nominees are “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” by Bad Bunny, “SWAG” by Justin Bieber, “Man’s Best Friend” by Sabrina Carpenter, “Let God Sort Em Out” by Clipse, Pusha T and Malice, “Mayhem” by Lady Gaga, “GNX” by Kendrick Lamar, “Mutt” by Leon Thomas and “CHROMAKOPIA” by Tyler, The Creator.
The top contender for this category is Kendrick Lamar, who performed many of the songs off the album at Super Bowl LIX last year. With huge songs like “luther,” which has earned its own handful of Grammy nominations, combined with Lamar’s past Grammy’s success, “GNX” is likely to take home the win for this category.
Song of the Year is similar to the Record of the Year award, however this one focuses more on recognizing songwriting. There is significant crossover in nominees between the two categories. The nominees are “Abracadabra” by Lady Gaga, “Anxiety” by Doechii, “APT.” by ROSE and Bruno Mars, “DtMF” by Bad Bunny, “Golden - From KPop Demon Hunters,” by HUNTR/X, “luther” by Kendrick Lamar with SZA, “Manchild” by Sabrina Carpenter and “WILDFLOWER” by Billie Eilish.
Like the prior song-specific category, this award could unsurprisingly go to any of the nominees. Among these songs, though, top contenders include “Anxiety” and “luther.” It would also be unsurprising to see “Golden - From KPop Demon Hunters” manage a win for Song of the Year. The Netflix original “KPop Demon Hunters” released in June of 2025 and quickly rose in popularity among children and adults alike, becoming Netflix’s most watched film of all time. Every original song from the film flooded social media feeds and garnered radio play, giving “Golden - From KPop Demon Hunters” a solid chance of taking home a win for Song of The Year.
The final Big Four category is Best New Artist. This year’s nominees are Olivia Dean, KATSEYE, The Marias, Addison Rae, Sombr, Leon Thomas, Alex Warren and Lola Young.
This category recognizes an artist’s growth in the past year. Many of the artists on this list were producing, songwriting and releasing their music long before the year of 2025, but this award is granted to an artist or group who gained popularity in the prior year and made a major mark on the music industry.
Most of these artists’ growth can be attributed to social media applications like TikTok, where their songs found overnight popularity and quickly trended. Dean, KATSEYE and Sombr all found rapid success this way in 2025, but there is one artist who makes this category no real contest at all.
Addison Rae released her highly anticipated debut album “Addison” in June of 2025. Her growth from dancing TikTok influencer to rising pop star and it-girl has been long and hard-earned. Rae’s musical career in the past year has established her as a serious artist in the music industry and has made her incredibly deserving of this award.
