The Recording Academy announced on Tuesday, June 16th, that it’s adding five new categories to the Grammys, effective for the 69th Annual Grammy Awards on February 7, 2027 (airing on ABC, Disney+, and Hulu).
According to the academy, this is because the global music landscape has diversified and grown, with categories created to give more genres and collaborative formats dedicated recognition.
The five additions include: Best Asian Pop Music Performance (covering K-pop, J-pop, C-pop and similar genres with meaningful use of an Asian language), Best R&B Collaboration or Duo/Group Performance (which also means the existing Best R&B Performance category is being renamed Best R&B Solo Performance), Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance (for music style that doesn’t blend with contemporary pop), Best Traditional Folk Album (with the prior Best Folk Album category renamed Best Contemporary Folk Album), and Best Latin Song (a songwriting honor for Spanish-language Latin songs, requiring at least 51% of lyrics in Spanish).
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. tied the changes to the expansion of today’s music industry, saying the update shows the many genres and creators currently shaping it. He said the Academy is looking forward to celebrating that growth at the 2027 ceremony.
Alongside the new categories, the Academy made several rule tweaks: artists can now submit for Best New Artist up to four times (previously three), to account for how long breakthroughs can take in the current market; the threshold for what counts as “new” material on an eligible album was lowered from 75% to 66%, intended to stop excluding albums the industry already treats as new releases; and certain qualified voting members will now be able to vote in more categories.
This expansion follows a now-familiar pattern from the Academy of carving out genre-specific awards. In 2024, Best African Music Performance was introduced at the 66th Grammys to recognize African musical traditions as Afrobeats and amapiano rose internationally.
Tyla won it first with “Water” in 2024, Tems took it in 2025 for “Love Me JeJe,” and Tyla won again in 2026 with “PUSH 2 START,” becoming the category’s first two-time winner. The new Asian Pop and Latin Song categories appear to extend that same logic to other regions and formats.
