UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP’S ARTISTS, SONGWRITERS, LABELS AND DISTRIBUTED PARTNERS WIDELY RECOGNIZED ACROSS GENRES AT THE 68TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS
Night’s biggest winner Kendrick Lamar with five awards including Record of The Year
Billie Eilish wins Song of The Year
Olivia Dean wins Best New Artist, the fourth time in five years a UMG artist takes that honor
UMPG Songwriters represented across Record, Song, and Album of the Year wins
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Feb. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Universal Music Group, the world leader in music-based entertainment, and its artists, labels and distributed partners were widely recognized at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, with Interscope Records artist and UMPG Songwriter Kendrick Lamar the night’s biggest winner, picking up five awards including Record of the Year and Best Melodic Rap Performance for “Luther” featuring SZA (UMPG), Best Rap Album for GNX, Best Rap Song for “TV OFF.” He also won in the Best Rap Performance category for his feature on Clipse’s “Chains & Whips”.
Billie Eilish (Interscope/UMPG) was celebrated in the Song Of The Year category for “Wildflower.” Olivia Dean (Island Records/Capitol Records UK) was named Best New Artist. This marks the fourth time in the past five years that a UMG artist has received the honor. Lola Young (Island Records) won Best Pop Solo Performance for “Messy.” Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande (Republic Records/Verve Label Group) were awarded Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Defying Gravity.”
Lady Gaga (Interscope) won two Grammys for Best Pop Vocal Album for Mayhem and “ABRACADABRA” was named Best Dance Pop Recording. It also collected Best Remixed Recording for Gesaffelstein’s remix.
Jelly Roll (Republic/Broken Bow) won three Grammys: Best Contemporary Country Album for Beautifully Broken, and was also recognised for feature performances in the Best Country Duo/Group Performance category alongside Shaboozey for “Amen,” and Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance for “Hard Fought Hallelujah” alongside Brandon Lake.
In the R&B categories, Leon Thomas (Motown/Capitol) won two Grammys: Best R&B Album for Mutt and Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Vibes Don’t Lie.”
Universal Music Publishing Group songwriters were represented across wins in the major categories including Record of the Year (Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Jack Antonoff), Song Of The Year (Billie Eilish), Album of the Year (Bad Bunny, Roberto Rosado), Best Rap Album (Kendrick Lamar, Jack Antonoff), Best Rap Song for Kendrick Lamar’s “TV OFF” (Kendrick Lamar, Jack Antonoff), Best Pop Vocal Album (Cirkut) among others.
UMPG songwriter Cirkut was named Producer of the Year in recognition of his work with artists including Lady Gaga, The Weeknd, Rosé and Bruno Mars. In the film/TV categories, “Golden” from the KPOP Demon Hunters soundtrack, performed by HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna, REI AMI (Republic) won Best Song For Visual Media (with UMPG interest via Lee Yoo Han, Nam Hee Dong, Kwak Joong Gyu, Park Hong Jun, Seo Jeong Hun.) UMPG Composer Ludwig Göransson won Best Compilation Soundtrack and Best Original Score for Visual Media for his work on “Sinners.”
In the Rock and Alternative categories. Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross / Nine Inch Nails (Interscope) won Best Rock Song for “As Alive As You Need Me To Be,” Yungblud (Capitol) featuring Nuno Bettencourt, Frank Bello & Adam Wakeman II won Best Rock Performance for “Changes (Live From Villa Park, Back To The Beginning)”. The Cure (Polydor/Capitol/Fiction) won Best Alternative Music Album for Songs Of A Lost World and Best Alternative Music Performance for “Alone.”
In the Country and Americana categories, Chris Stapleton (MCA) won Best Country Solo Performance for “Bad As I Used To Be” [From “F1® THE MOVIE”]. Jon Batiste (Verve Label Group/Interscope) won Best Americana Album for Big Money.
Samara Joy (Verve Label Group) picked up Best Jazz Vocal Album for Portrait. Carín León (Island Records/Virgin Music Group/UMPG) won Best Música Mexicana Album for Palabra De To’s (Seca). I’m With Her (Rounder Records/Concord) won Best Folk Album for Wild And Clear And Blue and Best American Roots Song for “Ancient Light.” Robert Randol won Best Contemporary Blues Album for Preacher Kids. Blake Mills (Verve Label Group) earned Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for his collaborative album, That Wasn’t a Dream with Pino Palladino.
In the classical field, Andris Nelsons won Best Orchestral Performance for Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie (Deutsche Grammophon) with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Nelsons, together with Yo-Yo Ma. The Boston Symphony Orchestra was also recognized in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo for Shostakovich: The Cello Concertos (Deutsche Grammophon). Miles’ 55: The Prestige Recordings from Miles Davis (Craft Recordings/Concord) was recognized In the Best Album Notes category.
Additionally, Republic Collective Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO Monte Lipman and Republic Collective, Co-Founder, Vice-Chairman and COO, Avery Lipman received the Recording Academy’s 2026 Industry Icon Award, recognizing their transformative leadership, entrepreneurship and impact on the music industry.
About Universal Music Group
At Universal Music Group, we exist to shape culture through the power of artistry. UMG is the world leader in music-based entertainment, with a broad array of businesses engaged in recorded music, music publishing, merchandising and audiovisual content. Featuring the most comprehensive catalogue of recordings and songs across every musical genre, UMG identifies and develops artists and produces and distributes the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful music in the world. Committed to artistry, innovation and entrepreneurship, UMG fosters the development of services, platforms, and business models in order to broaden artistic and commercial opportunities for our artists and create new experiences for fans. For more information, visit www.universalmusic.com.
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