Before February 27, Bruno Mars hadn’t released a new solo album since 2016. However, he was far from invisible. In 2021, he and Anderson .Paak teamed up for An Evening With Silk Sonic, the funk album that took the world by storm at a time when as few people as possible were spending time outside. In 2024, he collaborated with Lady Gaga and Blackpink’s Rosé for “Die With A Smile” and “APT.,” respectively. To the surprise of no one, both tracks were massive, ubiquitous releases, with the former netting Gaga and Bruno a Grammy win and the latter producing the most nominations for a K-pop act in the history of the award show.

So when he announced that a new album would be releasing in 2026, it didn’t feel quite as much like a grand return as he may have hoped, but it was still a welcome announcement. Especially since the Silk Sonic album produced such excellent results. One misstep notwithstanding, his recent run of singles has been similarly entertaining.

The Romantic is very much a Bruno Mars album. There are no actively bad songs, though his lyrics are more clichéd than ever. I did not find myself rushing to skip anything, and at a little over 30 minutes in length, it does not overstay its welcome. The instrumentation is pleasant, the recordings are pristine, and Bruno’s voice has arguably never sounded better.

So much of Bruno’s “thing” has been him paying homage to the 20th century, whether it’s the new jack swing revival on 24K Magic, the disco on Unorthodox Jukebox, or the funk on Silk Sonic. That’s not a bad lane to occupy, but it means that musically, he’s taken very few risks in his career. He’s mostly done what he already knows has worked.

As such, The Romantic is a collection of safe and familiar-sounding songs. And unfortunately, there’s no Anderson .Paak to bounce off of this time as Bruno veers primarily back into the funk and soul throwback lanes over production handled by himself and D’Mile, who also produced that acclaimed collaborative effort.

That is not to say that The Romantic is solely what An Evening With Silk Sonic would have sounded like without Anderson. Opener “Risk It All” is entirely new territory for Bruno, a mariachi-inspired ballad buoyed by a simple acoustic guitar and drums, where Mars croons about “running through a fire” to be by his lover’s side. Between running through fires and catching grenades, it feels as if Bruno may have missed his calling as an esteemed army general. Regardless, the track was a bold choice to start with because of how far removed it feels from anything else in his discography, but it works.

“Cha Cha Cha” pretty much immediately brings the album back into familiar funky territory, and while I do find myself nodding along to this song when it plays, I also think it suffers from having one of Bruno’s worst hooks to date. “Come on and cha-cha-cha with me / And I’ma cha-cha-cha with you tonight / Uh, I like it like that, she workin’ that back / I don’t know how to act,” he sings. Of course, the latter half of the hook is a direct nod to Juvenile and Soulja Slim’s classic track “Slow Motion,” but the earnestness with which Bruno sings it almost causes the track to venture into parody.

On a similar note, lead single “I Just Might” feels like Bruno Mars mocking a Bruno Mars song. After hearing some of the other moments on The Romantic, I think it sticks out even more as a low point in context. “But what good is bеauty if your booty can’t find the beat?” is an eyeroll-inducing lyric, and the hook’s catchiness does not really outweigh the fact that he’s sung some version of it on almost every release for the decade and a half he’s been in the spotlight. There is perhaps no greater example of the continued idea of diminishing returns across this album than just how boring “I Just Might” is relative to his other forays into soul music, even if it’s proven to be another chart-topper for quite possibly the most durable hitmaker of a generation.

“God Was Showing Off” and “On My Soul” are two of the highest points on the album. The former is the sharpest display of Bruno’s vocal mastery on the release, a very straightforward track about how great the woman he’s singing about is. “On My Soul” feels like the song Bruno should’ve led with, a fast-paced Motown-esque track with lyrics about how he’d rather die than break a woman’s heart and that he’s going to love her like she’s never been loved before. It’s a needed jolt of energy after the mid-tempo nature of the preceding tracks (the aforementioned “God Was Showing Off” and “Why You Wanna Fight?”).

“Nothing Left,” the second-to-last cut on the album, feels like the spiritual successor to Bruno’s 2012 track “When I Was Your Man.” “When I Was Your Man” was about a relationship that had already ended, but “Nothing Left” is about a relationship that’s in the process of flaming out. Instead of accepting that it’s over, Bruno attempts to get the two of them to find the spark again. “But the firе don’t burn like it used to, girl, no / Don’t wanna let you go, but you know something’s got to change, got to change,” he says just before the hook.

“Nothing Left” also has the strongest hook on the album. “Feels like I’m, I’m reaching out / With nothing left to hold on to” may not feel like the most elaborate statement in the world, but his voice soars, and it feels way bigger in execution than the lyrics written out in this manner may make it seem. Over the years, I’ve found myself drawn to Bruno’s ballads more than his poppier smash hits, and that is once again the case on this album.

Album closer “Dance With Me” ties everything together with a slow jam. Bruno expresses hope that he and the woman this album is about will one day find love with each other again.

This is not going to turn into a comparison piece, and I know I keep going back to Silk Sonic, but I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that when Anderson .Paak and ex-wife Jae Lin Chang split, the album that followed (2024’s Why Lawd?) was largely quite cynical in nature, though there were moments of acceptance towards the end. If we are to accept The Romantic as Bruno’s breakup album and farewell to longtime girlfriend Jessica Caban, he is much more optimistic about his future love life than Anderson ever showed himself to be on Why Lawd? Poor guys.

Despite my issues with it, I do think The Romantic is ultimately decent easy listening music, with some quality highs. Still, it suffers from some pretty glaring issues. Bruno Mars’ lyrics are the blandest they’ve ever been. The hooks, which, alongside his vocal acrobatics, are usually what we return to his singles for, are the most uninteresting I can remember them being. But even more frustrating than that, this does not offer anything new musically. Save for the opener, these are all ideas Bruno’s put forth in far more compelling ways on previous releases. I’d much rather listen to any of those than the retreads that appear here. If it takes another decade for the next solo release to arrive, I hope the result feels more worth the wait.

Few rises to pop stardom have been more unconventional than that of Charli XCX. When she first made waves in the music industry, it came over a decade ago, with the one-two punch of her song “Boom Clap” and a feature on Iggy Azalea’s super-smash hit “Fancy,” one of the most obnoxious singles of the 2010s.

In the years that followed, Charli opted to completely forgo superstardom, instead coming out with some of the most forward-thinking pop music of the last quarter-century, albeit pop music that suffered from not actually being popular among the masses. There was a tongue-in-cheek attempt at “selling out” with 2022’s Crash, with its more suggestive album artwork and radio-ready singles, and then a more blatant breakthrough, though not entirely intentionally at first, with the release of 2024’s Brat.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably familiar with “Brat Summer,” but if not, I will try to explain it as efficiently as possible. A couple of weeks before the album’s release, a wall in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, was painted lime green with the album’s title in lowercase black Arial font. When the album was released, the wall periodically got repainted with updated messages, including the announcement of the album’s first deluxe edition. It was an effective bit of marketing, and when the wall went back to normal, Charli “mourned” the loss in a tweet that amassed nearly 100,000 likes.

The simplicity of the album cover, combined with the frequently updated wall, led to some masterful viral marketing. Charli and Atlantic Records capitalized by releasing the “Brat Generator,” which allowed for regular people and companies alike to add their own custom text in place of the title.

Additionally, a TikTok dance to “Apple,” one of the standouts from the album, went viral as well, with everyone and their mother (literally, in many cases) posting their version. When Charli went on tour, it became tradition for the camera to focus on someone in the crowd dancing during the song, whether a random fan or one of her celebrity friends.

Eventually, Brat Summer reached politics when Charli referred to then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris as “Brat,” prompting the Harris campaign to embrace the distinction in an effort to cater to young voters. Unfortunately, we all know what happened next. But I digress.

Brat Summer was the big break that Charli had not necessarily been actively chasing but was also not against happening. Here she was, going from a mid-level pop artist to someone who could comfortably say she sold out both Madison Square Garden and the O2 Arena. Despite her best efforts at presenting as cool, Charli is someone who has always worn her emotions on her sleeve, and it became clear that, as successful as she had been in 2024 and 2025, she was terrified of seeing it end. This finally gets us to The Moment, the new mockumentary film directed by Aidan Zamiri (in his film directorial debut) and starring Charli herself.

The film itself is easy to follow, but I am also going to spoil the entire plot in these next few paragraphs. If you do want to watch it, look away.

Brat Summer is coming to an end, and Charli is preparing for her first arena tour. She and her team have to continue promoting the album because Atlantic Records wants them to, but they view it as “cringe.” Atlantic has several ways of doing this, including collaborating with fictional bank Howard Stirling to create the “Brat Card,” a lime green credit card that they believe will draw fans to start banking with them. It’s clear very early on that this is going to be an extreme version of what could have happened if Charli had gone all in on selling out.

Before rehearsals for the tour start, Charli’s team brings in Johannes Godwin (played by Alexander Skarsgård), a pretty middling director known for his critically acclaimed but formulaic concert movies. Godwin hates the seedy club aesthetic and wants to turn the tour into a family-friendly affair. Charli and creative director Celeste remind him that she sings about cocaine.

Charli leaves for Ibiza for a couple of days to get away from the stress of tour prep, which leads to mounting tensions between Celeste and Godwin. She has a negative interaction with a masseuse who tells her to drop everything and have a child. She also runs into Kylie Jenner, who tells her to squeeze everything she can out of her mainstream breakthrough. Charli has a breakdown, argues with her staff, accepts Godwin’s vision (which causes her and Celeste to fall out), and haphazardly promotes the credit card. The promotion with the bank meant that fans could purchase concert tickets early. However, as soon as fans made the purchase, they defaulted on their payments. Obviously, that is fraud.

The scandal causes Howard Stirling to file for bankruptcy and also helps speed up the end of Brat Summer. Shortly before the concert movie is filmed, Charli sends Celeste a three-minute voicemail apologizing to her for not sticking up for their original vision, adding that she wanted the Brat era to end as quickly as possible, even with her intense desire to be liked by everyone and the fame the run brought her.

The film ends with an advertisement for the concert, as directed by Johannes Godwin, and a series of rave reviews. But in the film’s final shots, she’s visibly going through the motions, a completely sanitized version of herself performing for a crowd that isn’t hers.

Of course, The Moment is an alternate reality film, a look at what the Brat era may have turned into had she listened to the wrong executive or decided against fighting for her ideas. But there is still a lot of sincerity here. Brat itself tackles several topics, including Charli’s own feelings regarding her inability to reach the upper echelon of pop stardom despite early-career success and a dedicated legion of fans. A recurring idea on the accompanying tour, especially as it stretched into 2025, was the understanding that moments like the one she experienced don’t last forever; hence, the symbolic flag burning at Glastonbury last July.

I loved the Brat album but could not stand the phenomenon around it. Especially once politicians used it to score “cool points” with potential young voters. The conversation moved too far away from the music, which was frustrating as someone who believes it to be among the best pop releases of the entire 2020s. That being said, if I were in Charli’s position, I would completely understand being so openly scared of the era coming to an end. You never know if you’re going to be able to recapture that feeling, so why not try to make it last forever?

In that regard, I feel as if the album and bits from the tour do a way better job of conveying the themes that The Moment presents. I mentioned the voicemail earlier, and while I think that scene is fine in isolation, I feel as if we could have benefited from her showing these feelings more instead of just telling the audience that she doesn’t want to go back to relative obscurity.

Despite that, I did ultimately come away feeling that The Moment was a solid film. Skarsgård is a bit too distracting as Johannes Godwin, which probably says more about the over-the-top nature of the character himself than Skarsgård’s acting. Everyone else delivers pretty realistic performances that capture the stress of preparing for something as big as an arena tour. Still, I don’t think it does a great job of presenting itself as a mockumentary. Most of the time, no one even acknowledges that a camera team exists, save for a moment at the very beginning where one of Charli’s people looks directly down the lens. It often feels more like a Succession episode than anything else. I don’t view that as a negative, but I also don’t think that was the intended reception.

What we’ve learned over the last several years is that Charli is a pop artist with reasonable insecurities about her place in the music industry. In simplest terms, she wants to be remembered, but for the right reasons. There are a couple of times in The Moment where she pokes fun at her older work, including a driver listening to “Boom Clap” and a raised eyebrow when Crash gets mentioned. It’s clear that even though she can look back on those moments somewhat fondly, that was not the legacy she wants to leave.

At this point, it’s fair to say that Brat will be remembered (though how much of that will be because of the music versus the cultural moment surrounding it remains to be seen), but what comes next? An even bigger album than Brat? An unprecedentedly massive falloff? The immediate answer to that question is that Charli produced the soundtrack of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights adaptation. But after that, who’s to say? Regardless, The Moment was a very appropriate way to finally put this section of her career to rest. Brat Summer… forever?

I cannot believe I’m saying this, but the 2026 Grammy Awards were… a good time? This now marks two straight years of legitimately enjoyable shows, which is two more than anyone could say following about a decade of mediocrity.

Comedian Trevor Noah, in his last year as host ahead of the show’s move to ABC in 2027, decided to pull no punches. He took plenty of shots at the current President of the United States and his new best friend, Nicki Minaj, whose absence from the proceedings received extended applause. In fact, political solidarity was one of the underlying themes of the night, culminating with Bad Bunny’s first Album of the Year win.

In November, I attempted to predict the winners of the “Big Four” categories. Of course, those four categories are Best New Artist, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Album of the Year. Were my predictions correct? Eh.

On the night, we had 18 different performances, eight of which were from the Best New Artist nominees. Of the 18, most of them were enjoyable. Even Addison Rae, who was easily the least complete performer to take the stage (and whose live vocals have been the subject of plenty of ridicule so far in her career), sounded like she belonged.

Some of the highest points of the night on the performance side of the event included Rosé and Bruno Mars cold opening the show with a rock rendition of their smash hit “APT.,” Sabrina Carpenter (in a pilot’s outfit) delivering a performance of “Manchild” in an airport, and Tyler, The Creator’s usual bombastic creativity taking center stage with “Thought I Was Dead” and “Sugar On My Tongue,” complete with a cameo from the great Regina King.

Of course, Lady Gaga brought the theatrics to yet another fantastic performance of “Abracadabra.” Olivia Dean stood out among the Best New Artist nominees with the breeziest performance of the night, delivering an effortless live rendition of “Man I Need.” Then, the legendary Lauryn Hill played the role of honorary bandleader while a who’s who of R&B stars from the last 40 years came through to pay tribute to D’Angelo and Roberta Flack, ending with a brief Fugees reunion that saw Hill and Wyclef Jean perform “Killing Me Softly With His Song.”

On the flip side, Alex Warren brought his woefully uninteresting hit “Ordinary” to the show. The longevity of that song continues to remain one of music’s greatest mysteries. Lola Young’s acoustic arrangement of “Messy” was equally inexplicable. Even though I’m not a fan of the original song, pretty much all of its appeal was tied to its original sound. It’s clear that she wanted to show off her vocal chops, but it is more than okay (encouraged, even) to play the original version of your star-making song at a show like this. Congratulations to her on actually winning a Grammy, though.

I also wish the producers had told KATSEYE to stick to the standard version of their song, as “Gnarly” felt like it just kept going. I understand that they played a slightly shorter version of the one that made it onto their tour setlist, complete with a dance break, but after hearing “gna-gna-gna-gna” on loop for what felt like an eternity, I found myself waiting for it to end. “Gabriela,” which actually received the Grammy nomination, is the better song anyway, but I digress. Only three performances I disliked out of 18 make the show a successful outing, I’d say.

As for the “Big Four” awards, I correctly predicted two of them. I was shakiest on Olivia Dean’s chances at the time, as artists like Warren and KATSEYE had huge years as well, but her star has only gotten brighter since November. By the time the show started, I couldn’t see anyone but her coming away with Best New Artist. “Man I Need” is currently fighting for the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100, and that win may have been the last thing she needed to finally earn that distinction. Dean’s rise feels very similar to Adele’s, down to them both being British “pop soul” artists. Though I doubt anyone new will ever produce the numbers that Adele did, I feel pretty confident in saying that pop music has a new superstar. Her next album will be a massive deal.

Song of the Year genuinely surprised me. “Golden,” the ubiquitous single by EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami from the equally ubiquitous K-pop Demon Hunters, became the first K-pop song to win a Grammy, nabbing the award for Best Song Written for Digital Media. I would have been very fine with it winning one of the main awards, but I also did not think it had a real chance. An Oscar win is still on the table, though.

Sabrina Carpenter was also up for this award. Shockingly, “Manchild” was shut out entirely, winning zero of its four nominations. Doechii’s “Anxiety” won Best Music Video, but also had little to no chance in the other categories. I expected Kendrick Lamar and SZA to win both Song and Record of the Year for “Luther.” I was only half right. Song of the Year went to Billie Eilish & Finneas for “WILDFLOWER,” arguably the strongest song on Eilish’s 2024 release, HIT ME HARD & SOFT.

Its inclusion in the category was controversial, and on some level, she probably knew she was gaming the system. Releasing a song from your 2024 album (which already got nominated in the previous eligibility period) in 2025 (during a new eligibility period) to have another chance at winning something for your 2024 album? Very strategic. But it worked, and now Eilish stands as the only three-time Song of the Year winner. With 10 Grammys to her name at just 24 years old, she feels well on her way to ending her career as the most-awarded artist ever.

As previously mentioned, Record of the Year went to Kendrick Lamar and SZA for “Luther,” which Cher excitedly introduced by saying that the award went to Luther Vandross. Notably, Vandross has been dead for 20 years. It was the funniest gaffe of the night, which Lamar and friends played off by giving the song’s namesake several shoutouts. Producer Sounwave, Lamar’s most frequent collaborator, even had a few words. With his five wins in nine categories, including his fourth for Best Rap Album, Lamar surpassed Jay-Z to become the rapper with the most Grammys to date, at 27.

If I were Jay-Z, I’d respond to this by putting out my first new album in almost a decade, but what do I know?

Considering Lamar’s continued acclaim from fans, critics, and peers alike, it would be disingenuous not to place him among hip-hop’s all-time greats at this point in his career. I look forward to hearing what he does next.

In my original predictions article, I mentioned Bad Bunny in passing, saying that Debí Tirar Más Fotos could become the first album sung entirely in Spanish to win Album of the Year. That is where it ended, as I did not think it had much of a chance at all, despite his own superstardom. I expected either Lamar’s GNX or Gaga’s Mayhem to win.

Clearly, I should have taken Bunny’s chances more seriously. He won both Best Música Urbana Album and Album of the Year for DTMF, using his acceptance speech for the former to condemn ICE to a rapturous standing ovation from those in attendance. For the latter, he spoke almost solely in Spanish, dedicating his award to those who’ve left their homeland to follow their dreams.

With his win, Bad Bunny became the first artist to do so with an entirely Spanish-language album. Considering that we’re nearing year 70 of the Grammy Awards as an institution, that feels overdue. But someone had to finally do it, and it helps that he did so for an excellent album. Of course, his next stop is the Super Bowl. In just six days, he’ll be taking the stage for what could very well become the most-watched halftime show ever.

Overall, I find myself actively looking forward to the Grammys these days, and the last two events are exactly why. Since the Recording Academy refocused its energy on ensuring (mostly) high-quality performances and producing generally agreeable sets of nominees and winners, it’s hard to come away feeling as if I wasted my time. Of course, two straight good shows mean that 2027 will be a disaster. If it is, at least this one was a lot of fun.

“A film about table tennis? How could that possibly be any good?”

I’d wager that more than a few people have asked those questions since seeing the first trailers for Marty Supreme, the latest leading effort from Timothée Chalamet. The film, directed by Good Time and Uncut Gems co-director Josh Safdie in his solo directorial debut, and produced by independent film auteurs A24, is unconventional in that regard. Sure, we’ve had plenty of sports films. But table tennis? Really?

Through sheer force of will, the answer to that question is “yes.” The answer to the question at the very top is “because it’s electric.”

For two and a half hours, Chalamet, alongside co-stars Odessa A’zion, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler Okonma (best known as superstar musician Tyler, the Creator), and Kevin O’Leary, leaves you on the edge of your seat as everyone makes some appallingly bad decisions. Through it all, the question that continues to persist is: “How do they all get out of this?”

The film is set largely in early 1950s New York. But, trips to the United Kingdom and Japan quickly remind us of the specter of World War II that continues to affect the lives of these characters.

Because of that postwar setting, it would be easy to view Marty Supreme through a more patriotic lens. Marty Mauser, who was the top-ranked American table tennis player at the time of the British Open, loses handily to a Japanese man named Keto Endo, who then returns to his home country as a hero for being the first athlete from Japan to win a major tournament since the end of the war. The rest of the film sees Marty obsessing over the idea of proving that his first loss to Endo was a fluke, doing whatever is necessary to get to Japan to prove himself right.

There’s unquestionably some of that, as sleazy businessman Milton Rockwell, played by the aforementioned O’Leary, lost his son in the war. Marty’s friendly rival, Bela Kletzki (Géza Röhrig), is a survivor of Nazi rule. Marty himself references by saying that by beating Kletzki, he’ll “do what Auschwitz couldn’t.” When Rockwell and Kletzki meet, Rockwell says his son died “liberating” Jewish prisoners, to which Marty snarkily credits the Soviets instead. When Endo qualified for the British Open, several people questioned how, since travel restrictions from the end of the war should have disqualified him from competing.

Still, Marty Supreme feels like a film about raw ambition (or selfishness, more accurately) much more than it feels like a film trying to make a hard political statement. Marty has a Michael Jordan-like obsessiveness with being the absolute best in his sport, and he views the loss to Endo as an insult to his entire being. Chalamet has spoken at length about his desire to be viewed as one of the greatest actors of all time, and his own obsessive nature feels as if it guides what is ultimately a stellar leading performance. I hesitate to call it his greatest showing to date, but it is unquestionably one worthy of award consideration.

Speaking of the aforementioned O’Leary, the quality of his performance is shockingly good for someone whose entire filmography consists of… just this film. Rockwell is a slimy multi-millionaire who initially pitches Marty on a scripted rematch against Endo for an event in Japan to help promote his ink business. Marty rebuffs him and disrespects him and his son on multiple occasions, but when he’s left with no way to get back to Japan for the tournament happening within the same week as the event, he is forced to grovel.

Rockwell takes joy in humiliating Marty, and paddles him in front of several of his millionaire friends at the conclusion of wife Kay Stone’s (Gwyneth Paltrow) “return to acting” party. He brings Marty to Japan, but does not take him back after Marty demands a non-scripted match against Endo and beats him.

Far be it from me to defend the millionaire against the broke athlete trying to cement his place in history, but Marty is a selfish and petulant character for much of the film. His selfishness affects so much of the world around him. And that is by design, as by the end, you can’t help but root for him despite his warts and one-track worldview.

Marty hooks up with childhood friend-turned-lover(?) Rachel Mizler (Odessa A’zion), who gets pregnant barely ten minutes into the film, complete with a scene depicting a sperm racing to an egg, inexplicably set to Alphaville’s “Forever Young,” a song released some three decades after this film takes place. At the end of the film, after Marty finds himself tied up with more than a few criminals on the hunt for their missing dog Moses, he almost gets Rachel (who is now eight months pregnant) killed by an errant gunshot from the man who took Moses in.

Wally, the affable taxi driver played by Tyler Okonma, is left jaded and with much less money than he started with after he and Marty first recover Moses following an unfortunate series of events that concludes with Marty falling through the ceiling of a rundown hotel. Wally has kids, and the hunt for the dog prevents him from taking fares that could help his family out. When he and Marty scam a group of people out of hundreds of dollars in table tennis matches, Marty takes the full sum for himself and leaves Wally to fend for himself to try recouping his losses.

Wally is the exact character needed to serve as Marty’s other half, as he’s a person with real responsibilities and other people to think about before making his moves. Okonma plays him very well, and it would be fun to see him get more acting opportunities. But needless to say, Rockwell paddling Marty is maybe the lightest punishment he could have walked away with.

Of course, despite Chalamet’s leading performance and both O’Leary and Okonma delivering in their roles, the film would not sing nearly as loudly without the performances from Gwyneth Paltrow and Odessa A’zion. Paltrow plays washed-up actress Kay Stone, who attempts an acting comeback in a play fully funded by her husband.

She also begins a sexual relationship with Marty, as we quickly learn that Rockwell and Stone’s own union is a loveless one. Marty and Stone’s relationship comes to a head when they nearly get arrested for having sex in Central Park on the opening night of Stone’s play. The play receives a negative review, and after that, she is no longer a factor in the film. But while she is involved, she shines as the exact opposite of Marty. Stone is older and much more of a realist, while Marty’s bullheaded optimism and faith that everything will work out eventually become a point of contention that shows just how far apart they truly are. Paltrow is wonderful as the cynical character, and she and Chalamet display some near-perfect chemistry in the scenes they occupy together.

Odessa A’zion delivers a similarly strong performance as Rachel once Marty comes back to New York after his lengthy worldwide trip. The pair have their Bonnie & Clyde moment on the aforementioned search for Moses that ends with her getting shot in a rural part of New Jersey. Upon returning to the city, she gets surgery and, not long after that, has their baby.

Most importantly for the narrative surrounding their relationship, Rachel is married to another man, so her entire dynamic with Marty can most generously be described as an affair. Rachel is deeply flawed and has a manipulative streak to her, as she fakes being abused by her real husband as part of her effort to get Marty to be with her. However, she is also scared and desperate for much of the film. She knows the child she’s carrying is not her husband’s, and that information becoming public would end another loveless, but safe, marriage.

However, after a nerve-wracking two and a half hours, where everyone involved makes fundamentally poor choices (I failed to mention it earlier, but Marty only got to Britain because he robbed one of his uncle’s employees at gunpoint for $700, and he then spends a section of the film running from the NYPD in a section that reminds us all that a Safdie brother did in fact direct this) and several people die, Marty Supreme ends on a surprisingly hopeful note. Rachel has the baby about a month early, but there are no complications.

Marty returns home from Japan on an army plane, as the soldiers who attended the Rockwell event took a liking to Marty after he beat Endo and decided to help him get home. He rushes to the hospital and showers Rachel with love before meeting his new son, which causes him to break down. Obviously, beating Endo was vindicating for him, but it’s clear that becoming a father did more to change him than any amount of “revenge” could.

Marty Supreme is many things. It’s an out-there sports film about a sport that’s never been taken seriously in the United States. It’s also a commentary on the world in the first few years after one of the most world-altering events in human history, with pro-USA undertones that are not nonexistent, but also not central to the story. Perhaps most importantly, it’s the story of an ambitious man with a deep belief in himself and a similar shallow understanding of how reality works, told at a breakneck pace with very few moments of reprieve from the first frame to the end.

It could have easily buckled under the weight of its own extended runtime. However, under Safdie’s direction, Chalamet and the rest of a remarkably star-studded cast help turn it into one of the best films of the year.

2025 was a remarkably strong year for music, and this was the toughest top 10 list I’ve ever had to compile. From the start of the year to now, I have listened to 145 albums in total, with dozens more that I did not get to check out. Reducing 145 albums down to 10 was a challenging task in and of itself. I think I may have lost my mind if I had to narrow down the list from the 200+ it could have been. Before we get into the actual list, here are some honorable mentions, seven albums that I deliberated over including and will almost certainly regret not including a month from now.

Honorable Mentions:

Erika De Casier - Lifetime

Lady Gaga - Mayhem

Saba & No ID - From the Private Collection of Saba & No ID

Little Simz - Lotus

Sudan Archives - The BPM

Geese - Getting Killed

The Weeknd - Hurry Up Tomorrow

10. Addison Rae - Addison

Addison Rae’s first attempt at jumping into the music industry did not really work. Back in 2021, the former TikToker dropped “Obsessed,” which was a standard enough pop track, albeit one that sounded straight out of 2015. It had an incredibly flat vocal performance, but I do not think that it was nearly as bad as some made it out to be. The original version of her album leaked the following year, and she took the lukewarm reaction to her early musical endeavors to return to the drawing board.

The result of that second try was Addison, a complete 180 from the direction she initially went in. She teamed up with young Swedish producers Elvira Anderfjard and Luka Kloser, both of whom are disciples of legendary pop producer Max Martin, to craft an album that looks back to past ideas (most notably Madonna’s 1998 opus Ray of Light) and brings them into 2025.

Trip hop and shockingly gloomy pop backdrops are in full force here, with tracks like “High Fashion” and “Headphones On” feeling like they could have come out at any point in the last three decades and generated buzz. The standout, “Fame Is A Gun,” is, without any shred of irony, dangerously close to being the best pop song of the year. And depending on the day, I may just call it the best. Addison could have easily made a lucrative career out of singing low-effort pop songs, but it’s clear that she wanted more. And, believe it or not, she pulled it off.

9. PinkPantheress - Fancy That

This may have been the most infectious release of the year. PinkPantheress, the wildly talented producer-singer with a string of viral hits over the last five years, put out Fancy That, a project she dubbed a “mixtape” that could have easily stood as her second album had she gone with that distinction. Pink gets deep into the UK garage and liquid drum and bass sounds that shaped her musical approach, singing about romance, clubbing, and sex over some of the most creative production to come from the electronic music scene this year.

It’s not a project that reinvents the wheel, as fans of those genres have heard these sounds (and many of the original samples) many times over by now, but it does not have to be a genre-shifting release to still be effective. Pink revitalizes familiar sounds for a modern audience in a way that hasn’t been done in years. Clocking in at barely over 20 minutes, this is comfortably the shortest project on the list, but it’s one that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I first heard it.

8. De La Soul - Cabin In The Sky

Just a few weeks before De La Soul’s legendary discography was set to land on streaming services, David Jolicoeur, best known as Trugoy The Dove, tragically passed away. Shortly after, Posdnous and DJ Maseo confirmed that a new De La album had been in the works, but timing was everything. And the right time finally showed itself this year, as Nas and his Mass Appeal record label put out seven albums from hip-hop icons as part of their “Legend Has It” series. The second-to-last release of the run was Cabin In The Sky, the first new De La Soul album in nearly a decade.

Considering the circumstances, it’s miraculous that this album exists at all, but it is especially miraculous that it is legitimately great. Narrated by Giancarlo Esposito, the album, largely helmed by Pos, takes listeners on a journey through their past and present. The social commentary is poignant, and their wit is still intact. The features (of which there are several) all add their own flavor to the proceedings, with Killer Mike delivering a touching tribute to his mother on “A Quick 16 For Mama,” Nas continuing to show his pen is as sharp as ever on the killer “Run It Back!!”

Still, Cabin In The Sky’s narrative comes together with its last two tracks, with Posdnous ruminating over the fragility of life and recalling Dave’s passing on the title track. “Don’t Push Me” is a Dave solo track, and it feels as if the group is closing the book on a nearly 40-year-long chapter by giving him the space to end the album. We don’t know if “Don’t Push Me” features the last two Trugoy The Dove verses we’ll ever hear, nor do we know what De La Soul’s music will sound like going forward. But Cabin In The Sky is a lovely piece of work by one of hip-hop’s most thoughtful trios. Long live Dave.

7. Rochelle Jordan - Through The Wall

2021’s Play With the Changes felt like a coming-out party for Toronto’s Rochelle Jordan. After seven years away, she returned with an album that was among the strongest of that year, and well worth the wait. Thankfully, Through the Wall did not take as long to release. Arriving in late September after nearly four and a half years, Jordan’s latest offering is her strongest to date and the best electronic album I heard this year.

The project can get a bit moody, with a soundscape that occasionally falls in line with what fans have learned to love about Toronto’s R&B scene over the past 15 years, but it is not a “brooding” album by any means. RoJo sings about love and desire, and gets very flirty on some of the more upbeat cuts. It’s a sensual album that doesn’t get into explicit territory, almost Aaliyah-like in that regard. Tracks like the KAYTRANADA-produced “The Boy” and “Bite The Bait” feature Jordan at her very best, with the latter coming with a vocal performance that sounds remarkably similar to the aforementioned late singer, though it’s all still uniquely hers. Through The Wall will probably fly under the radar of many music fans, but it’s an excellent release from one of music’s most forward-thinking women.

6. Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist - Alfredo 2

Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist set a high bar for future collaborations after 2020’s stellar Alfredo, which went down as one of the earliest contenders for the best hip-hop album of the decade. Five years later, the pair reunited for the sequel, and it is nearly just as high-quality as their first go. Gibbs has long been one of hip-hop’s greatest voices, and his bars are as precise as fans have grown to expect. Alc’s minimalist soul chops are the best they’ve been in some time. “1995” and the Anderson.Paak-assisted “Ensalada” stands out as two of his strongest moments as a producer so far this decade. The latter in particular is among the best hip-hop songs of the year, and quickly developed into a fan favorite (which I got to experience in person when I saw him perform both Alfredo albums at the Brooklyn Paramount earlier this fall). Alfredo 2 stands as a worthy addition to Freddie Gibbs’ extensive catalogue of excellent albums, and its consistency and high level of replayability made it a sure bet to end up here.

5. Olivia Dean - The Art of Loving

I messed up.

I first became aware of Olivia Dean in 2023, around the time she released her debut album, Messy. I saved it to my Apple Music library and everything, thinking that I would eventually get to it before the year ended. I did not. If I did, she probably would have landed in my top 10 that year as well. This time around, I did not miss the boat.

The Art of Loving is Dean’s second album, and has quietly turned her into one of music’s most fun breakout stories of the year. Her brand of neo-soul/sophisti-pop, which puts her somewhere between contemporaries Jorja Smith and Cleo Sol, with occasional moments that feel almost Amy Winehouse-esque, has made her a breath of fresh air in the incredibly saturated American pop music landscape. Of course, her biggest success this year was the single “Man I Need,” which pushed its way into the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 over the course of months, with its vibrant production that feels like it’s straight from the 1970s without sounding “old” and a loose vocal performance that does an excellent job of conveying Dean’s desire to be loved the way she deserves to be.

Across The Art of Loving, Dean does not try to sell listeners a dream, instead opting for authenticity and candidness about the highs and lows of love without ever veering into melodrama to push the project forward. It’s the type of music that’s easy to fall in love with, and I certainly loved listening to everything she had to say this year.

4. The Last Dinner Party - From The Pyre

I would not have heard From The Pyre at all had “This Is The Killer Speaking” not found its way into a playlist I was listening to a few months ago. Missing this would have been incredibly unfortunate, as this album is incredible. It’s personal and raw while still maintaining some more maximalist tendencies that have contributed to comparisons to acts like Fleetwood Mac, Florence + The Machine, and Kate Bush.

The comparisons are apt, but they do not sound contrived or unoriginal. The aforementioned single feels like a modernized version of something from the late 1980s, while “Rifle” has more of a grunge sheen to it. The album’s centerpiece, “The Scythe,” is one of the best songs of the year, with its lyrical focus being a meditation on death and understanding that life is finite. The baroque pop sound and a soaring vocal performance from Abigail Morris result in it being the track where the Bush comparisons fit most comfortably. This album blew me away on my first listen, and it only sounds better with each subsequent play. To say that I’m excited to hear what The Last Dinner Party puts out next would be an understatement. From The Pyre is a fantastic release from a young band with a blindingly bright future.

3. Gigi Perez - At The Beach, In Every Life

Fun fact: this was my most listened-to album of 2025.

I became interested in Gigi Perez’s music from the moment I first heard “Sailor Song” in full, the viral track at the heart of many million-like TikTok videos over the last year and a half. The 2010s indie rock aesthetic greatly appealed to me, and while not particularly relatable, its lyrical content was evocative and incredibly well-performed. From there, Perez followed with “Fable,” a beautiful tribute to her younger sister Celene, who tragically passed away in 2020. Those two tracks were enough to get me invested in any full-length release she’d come up with, and in April, she put out her debut album, At The Beach, In Every Life.

It would be a stunning release for an artist at any stage in their career, let alone one who, to that point, only had one EP to her name. Tracks like “Normalcy,” “Sleeping,” “Chemistry,” and the aforementioned “Fable” are among the strongest of the year, exploring grief, sexuality (and the religious guilt that stems from it, as Perez is a lesbian), as well as personal growth. The title track is in contention for my favorite of the year, an emotional acoustic ballad about an intense, whirlwind relationship. Despite it all, the track (and the album) ends on a hopeful note. Two years ago, I had no idea who Gigi Perez was. Now, I find myself eagerly anticipating whatever she does next.

2. Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out

I don’t think hip-hop produced a greater story this year than the reunion of Clipse. Pusha T and Malice, the legendary brothers out of Virginia Beach, came back out for their first full-length album since 2009’s Til The Casket Drops. Every step that led to the release Let God Sort Em Out (as well as every step that followed) was masterful. In a world of album rollouts that are either truncated or non-existent, Clipse opted for a full cycle. They stopped by almost every major hip-hop outlet fans could think of for wide-ranging interviews about the choice to come back now and the creative process, dropped singles and music videos, and performed at events around the country. It felt very classical in its execution, and it successfully built hype.

When the album finally dropped, it exceeded every expectation that even the most optimistic Clipse fan could have had. Push and Malice sound every bit as energized as they did on their mid-2000s cuts, with Malice in particular making a very compelling case for being the best rapper of 2025 just from the strength of his performances across this album alone.

There’s the cerebral “Chains & Whips,” with a killer Kendrick Lamar verse that led to the duo’s Def Jam departure just for its existence. “P.O.V.” comes with a slick performance from Tyler, The Creator, who got to check off a bucket list item by rapping alongside one of his favorite hip-hop acts of all time. Pharrell, who produced this album alone after falling out with former Neptunes other half Chad Hugo, delivers some of his most chilling beats to date, seemingly taking any criticisms of his recent output to heart.

Elsewhere, tracks like “So Be It” and “Ace Trumpets” are a razor-sharp one-two punch, with the former standing out as one of the coldest performances on a hip-hop song this year. And of course, I would be remiss if I neglected to mention the emotional opening track, “The Birds Don’t Sing,” where the Thornton brothers pay tribute to their late parents with soul-baring and touching verses, including a moment where Malice reveals that he asked for their blessing before coming back to rap. Overall, Let God Sort Em Out is nothing short of a triumphant return and the culmination of decades of dedication to the art of rapping from two of the game’s greatest MCs. We should all be grateful that this album even exists at all, all things considered. At this point, anything else they drop from here on out feels like a bonus.

1. Hayley Williams - Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party

On July 28, Hayley Williams surprised fans by uploading 17 standalone singles to her website. Because the singles were released without any order, it led to fans piecing together their own tracklists, which Williams then used to help finalize the order of what has since become her third solo album (and first independent release since finally fulfilling her obligations to Atlantic Records in 2023), Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party. The result was her most complete solo outing to date.

Ego Death covers topics including grief, heartbreak, self-loathing, religion, and in some respects, self-acceptance. It would be easy to write it off as a “sad” album. Some may do that, but for someone like Williams, who’s grown up in the public eye as Paramore’s leading woman since she was just 14 years old and has used music to convey her emotions in ways that simply going to therapy may not be able to do, it feels as if we’re listening to her go through the healing process, coming to terms with the messiness that life has thrown out her. Does that mean she’s healed? Not quite, but it feels like she’s on that path.

Tracks like “Glum” and “Kill Me” are emotional lows, despite the more upbeat production choices on both of those tracks. On the former, she sings about loneliness, while the latter details generational trauma and repeating the mistakes her mother made. “Love Me Different” and “I Won’t Quit On You” see Williams yearning for a partner who can reciprocate the love she’ll show to them.

Then there’s “True Believer,” where Williams delivers a scathing critique of racist southern Christians and the very idea of “megachurches,” as well as the acts of gentrification that have stripped her hometown (Nashville) of its vibrancy. When Williams appeared on The Late Show with Jimmy Fallon, “True Believer” was the track she brought to the show, making quite the statement.

And of course, we have “Parachute,” one of the rawest tracks Williams has ever made, where she appears to directly reference the end of her romantic relationship with Paramore bandmate Taylor York. It’s a brutal listen for anyone familiar with the band’s history, and one where she essentially confirms that she would not have gone through with her marriage to ex-husband Chad Gilbert had York confessed his feelings for her.

Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party is not an album anyone expected this year, but one the world needed to hear. It is my pick for the best album of 2025. As we head into 2026, all I can hope for is that we have another year half as good as this one.

I complain about awards season every year, but still find myself locked in to watch the ceremonies. However, the one award show I’ve become more invested in over the last several years is the Grammys. Despite its complex history, the Golden Gramophone remains a goal for many in the industry. And last Friday, the Recording Academy unveiled the nominees in all 95 categories.

Kendrick Lamar led the field with nine nominations, including nods for Song and Record of the Year, as well as Album of the Year. Lady Gaga is not far behind with seven more nominations to her name, and Bad Bunny rounds out the top three with six nods of his own. However, some of the biggest names in the world will be absent.

Taylor Swift’s Grammy dominance will be put on hold for a year as The Life of a Showgirl missed the eligibility period entirely. Just a year after making peace with the Academy following Dawn FM receiving no nominations in 2023, The Weeknd was once again shut out, this time for Hurry Up Tomorrow. Others like Morgan Wallen have decided to stop submitting their work to the Academy, while $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, the joint album between Drake and PARTYNEXTDOOR, also went scoreless in the Academy’s eyes.

But today, I want to take a look at the nominees in all four major categories. Of course, that means we’re breaking down the selections for Song and Record of the Year, as well as Best New Artist and Album of the Year. Despite being imperfect (as they always are), the nominees are ultimately still pretty fun this year, and I don’t have many big problems with them this time around. Let’s get into it.

Best New Artist:

Olivia Dean
KATSEYE
The Marias
Addison Rae
Sombr
Leon Thomas
Lola Young
Alex Warren

Olivia Dean has had an even bigger year than anyone could have predicted. Her sophomore effort, The Art of Loving, was an instant hit in the United States, thanks in part to the tremendous success of “Man I Need,” which has been climbing the Billboard Hot 100 every week since its release in August (currently sitting at #5). It also helps that the album is pretty great, with Dean’s approach to pop and smooth soul feeling very much like Amy Winehouse in execution. Her stock rose so much that she even joined Sabrina Carpenter on the road for the first nine dates of the Short ‘n Sweet tour’s latest leg. I’d love to see her win the award, and would not be surprised if she did, but I do think others in this category have had years that the Academy may view more favorably.

I’d been hopeful that KATSEYE, the girl group brought to the world via Netflix’s Pop Star Academy, would get a Best New Artist award, but I didn’t know how likely it would be. “Gabriela,” the Latin-tinged pop hit, has been their focus song for the last four months, and it has resulted in the sextet nabbing their first top 40 placement. Aside from their music, they had an unbelievably viral campaign with GAP in the middle of what turned into a minor skirmish between jean companies, with their choreography to Kelis’ “Milkshake” accruing nearly 200 million views on TikTok and YouTube alone (not counting the many reposts across outlets). As the group gets ready to embark on their first headlining tour together, they’ve had about as perfect a first year as it gets, culminating in a Grammy nomination for one of the biggest categories of the night. Like Olivia Dean, I would absolutely love to see them take the win.

Alex Warren, Lola Young, sombr, and Addison Rae all receiving nominations is a massive win for TikTok as a platform for music discovery. The four of them have been darlings on the app for years, with Warren and Rae being among the biggest creators the site had to offer prior to pivoting into music. The former has produced the biggest song of the year in “Ordinary,” while the latter produced a shockingly high-quality debut album that takes inspiration from some classic late-90s trip hop releases (namely Madonna’s Ray of Light and Massive Attack’s Mezzanine). Young’s track “Messy” went viral in 2024 for its playful video and nonsensical lyrics, and Sombr’s brand of 2010s indie rock revivalism has turned him into a top choice for background music on melodramatic video edits and SNL’s most recent musical guest.

Leon Thomas, the former teen actor known for his role as Andre on Victorious, has developed into a formidable songwriter since leaving Nickelodeon behind. He has credits on songs from artists like Drake, Bryson Tiller, and SZA, winning a Grammy for Best R&B Song for his contributions to the latter’s hit “Snooze.” I think he has a real chance at winning here, especially considering how recognizable “Mutt” has been this year.

The Marias, a band I love, feel like the odd group out this time around. They’re popular, but relative to their peers in this category, they feel a lot more niche. I don’t see them winning Best New Artist (though I’d welcome it wholeheartedly), but I could see Maria Zardoya & Co. coming back in a few years with an Album of the Year bid, as they are talented enough to make an album that can resonate with both the public and Recording Academy voters in a big way. Ultimately, if Olivia Dean doesn’t win the award outright, it would not be surprising to see Warren take it home, considering how big his 2025 has been.

Song/Record of the Year:

Lady Gaga - “Abracadabra”
Doechii - “Anxiety”
Rose & Bruno Mars - “APT.”
Bad Bunny - “DtMF”
HUNTR/X - “Golden”
Kendrick Lamar & SZA - “Luther”
Sabrina Carpenter - “Manchild”
Billie Eilish - “Wildflower”
Chappell Roan - “The Subway” (replaced “Golden” in Record of the Year)

There’s a tremendous amount of overlap between the Song and Record of the Year categories this year, so I am lumping them together. I am also having a hard time predicting where the Recording Academy will lean in its winners. First, the biggest shock out of the way: “Golden” receiving a nod for Song of the Year. “Golden,” the track performed by EJAE, REI AMI, and Audrey Nuna (and credited to HUNTR/X, the name of the fictional girl group that K-Pop Demon Hunters focuses on), is one of the best pop songs of 2025, with its catchy hook and soaring vocal highs. It’s so good that I believe it could have stood on its own, but it helps to be tied to the biggest film of the year. Still, I struggle to see a world where it wins the award it’s up for, though a win would be history-making.

As for the actual winner of Song of the Year, it feels like we have a few options. Sabrina Carpenter had a massive coming-out party in 2024, emerging as pop royalty thanks to the success of Short n’ Sweet and its inescapable mega-hit, “Espresso.” Both the album and the single led to her first two Grammy wins, and now she’s up for six more this time around, with Man’s Best Friend and “Manchild” just barely meeting the eligibility window for 2026 (as the former released only a day before the window closed). Her whirlwind last couple of years could reasonably end in another big night for her, and it would not be a left-field win.

Doubly so for Billie Eilish, who, despite going scoreless earlier this year, is among the most awarded young artists in music today. She already has two Song of the Year wins, for “Bad Guy” in 2020, and again for “What Was I Made For?” just last year. She missed out on the award earlier this year, as “Birds of a Feather” was a victim of the bomb that was Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” Without a song as undeniable as Lamar’s unfathomably popular battle ending (and lawsuit-inducing) diss track in the mix, Eilish certainly feels like someone who can stand alone as the first singer to win the award three times.

The last major possibility I can see is the aforementioned Kendrick Lamar continuing his run of Grammy dominance with back-to-back wins in this category. “Luther,” the GNX standout featuring former Top Dawg Entertainment labelmate SZA, has become one of Lamar’s most popular tracks to date. It is also Lamar’s strongest attempt at making a “song for the ladies,” which is something he has not always been the best at. Lamar leads the pack with nine nominations, and though I don’t think he’s due for another sweep, I think there’s a very good chance he wins more than he loses on the night, and “Luther” winning Song of the Year feels like the safest bet. I think he will also come away with Record of the Year, though I would love to see the Cocteau Twins-esque balladry of Chappell Roan’s “The Subway” take the win there.

Album of the Year

Bad Bunny - Debí Tirar Más Fotos
Justin Bieber - Swag
Sabrina Carpenter - Man’s Best Friend
Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out
Lady Gaga - Mayhem
Kendrick Lamar - GNX
Leon Thomas - Mutt
Tyler, the Creator - Chromakopia

Historically speaking, hip-hop isn’t a genre that’s looked to Grammy voters for approval. And why would it? It’s a genre and culture that was born from revolutionary, anti-establishment ideals, despite its immense commercialization over the last three decades. Still, even with hip-hop’s historical context, it’s hard to look at Album of the Year winners since Lauryn Hill’s win in 1999 and not feel as if there should have been many others. OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below double disc is the most recent hip-hop album to win the big one at the Grammys, and even that was over 20 years ago now. But with three of the eight nominees this year being rap acts (the most in a single AOTY field in Grammy history) and a lack of Taylor Swift, it almost feels as if this is the genre’s “last chance” to take the win.

Clipse receiving an Album of the Year nomination was particularly surprising to me, as I anticipated the success of their comeback bid to end with a Best Rap Album look (and victory). But Let God Sort Em Out has somehow been even more successful than previously thought possible. Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, The Creator’s nods are much less surprising considering Lamar’s lengthy history and Tyler’s recent wins. I expect that the former will end the drought and become the first rapper to win Album of the Year in over two decades, but it would not be surprising if hip-hop got shut out once again.

If Lamar doesn’t win, all eyes will be on Lady Gaga. Mayhem, Gaga’s return to her dark pop roots, is an album that feels like a guaranteed win… had it been released in any other year within the last decade. Gaga has never won Album of the Year, a stat that almost feels unbelievable given how important she is to mainstream musical developments over the last quarter century.

Despite my belief that Lamar will win Album of the Year, I think seven of the eight nominees in this category have approximately the same chance at winning. Justin Bieber’s own comeback bid after the disastrous rollouts that came with Changes and Justice in 2020 and 2021 has been quite the success. Swag, Bieber’s foray into R&B, went over well, though I was much more lukewarm on it than some. Bad Bunny’s latest album is excellent, and the Puerto Rican superstar could very well become the first artist to win AOTY with an album entirely in Spanish. As previously mentioned, Sabrina Carpenter is pop royalty now and could be the heir apparent to Taylor Swift when it comes to wins in this particular category. Will Man’s Best Friend be her first? I wouldn’t count on it, but I would not bat an eye if she took the win.

Unfortunately, I do not feel nearly as optimistic about Leon Thomas’s chances as I do the rest. Of course, his work with SZA has already netted him a Grammy. With six nominations as a solo artist in 2026, he could end the night with some new hardware, likely for his hit single “Mutt.” I just don’t think he’s established enough on his own yet to think that any of his wins will come in the biggest category of the night.