Hope you like the sound of the name “Olivia,” because you’re going to hear it again and again — and probably again — at the 2027 Grammys ceremony. Ah, now, there’s the rub… and a bet we’re going to hedge, at least until the forecast comes into clearer focus, if indeed it does, when the nominations are announced Nov. 16. But even with the Feb. 7 ceremony still being exactly four months away, some bettors are already laying odds on either Olivia Rodrigo or Olivia Dean to take a lead in the race toward the noms or final wins.
Not that we are ruling out divas who happen to have a different first name, like Taylor Swift and Ella Langley, or a couple of contenders who only carry a single name professionally, Raye and Rosalía. But unless Noah Kahan turns out to be as big of an awards sleeper as he has beena commercial blockbuster, the one thing we can almost conclusively about the top four categories this far out from the ’27 Grammys is that a man will not be winning any of them. The slogan “the future is female” may seem a little overly optimistic when it comes to making a projection about society in general, but when it comes to music, and especially the quality of music rising to the level of Grammy consideration… Welcome to the matriarchy, and may the best woman walk away with an armful.
For this particular column, we’re looking at Album of the Year and who stands the best chance at landing one of the eight slots, from a vast field of hundreds of aspirants. We’ll move on to the other big three — Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist — in the days to come. Voting opens to Recording Academy members on Oct. 12 and closes 10 days later, with the nominations then coming Nov. 16, allowing just enough time for everyone’s nervous stomachs to settle by Thanksgiving.
Although the Grammys have pared the list of nominees in the top categories down to eight, from 10, we’re just tentative enough about our predictions to name an alphabetical field of 10 we think most of those eight finalists will be pulled from. Then we’ve named 10 more we consider close calls that also stand a decent chance of slipping in… followed, in passing, by 20 wild cards, any of which might not come as a complete shock, given how impossible the Grammys are to truly nail down. And 20 more that are also coming up for mention as possibilities, in no particular order: the 2025-26 albums by Geese, Justin Bieber (“Swag II” fell into this eligibility period), Kehlani, Charli xcx (with “Music, Fashion, Film” being her submission, not the also eligible “Wuthering Heights”), Gracie Abrams, Jill Scott, Steve Lacey, A$AP Rocky, Jacob Collier, J.
Cole, Cardi B, Pink Pantheress, the Rolling Stones, Ari Lennox, Mitski, Luke Combs, Mumford and Sons, Foo Fighters and Mavis Staples. First question: Whither the men: You can count the dudes who held a lot of mainstream fan or industry traction going into the fall of ’26 on one hand: Noah Kahan, Bruno Mars, Harry Styles, BTS and Drake. It doesn’t help with the representation here that the latter two artists have officially disqualified themselves from the Grammys — BTS, by backing out in protest of the addition of an Asian pop category, which they apparently understood to be a potential consolation prize for any past or current slights in the big four, and Drake, who just quietly continues not to submit himself.
That leaves Kahan, Mars and Styles as the big male qualifiers… along with Paul McCartney, whose extremely well-reviewed album would have been a shoo-in in the decades when the Grammys leaned toward respect for the elders, but is a longer shot to squeeze in now that ageism is more in play. Kahan and Mars look like shoo-ins for noms, at least — and Harry fans may feel that he ought to be, too, especially considering that his last album, “Harry’s House,” actually won this prize. But as singles go, “Aperture” was far from an “As It Was”-level grabber, and that may factor into how the album has been and is being perceived, with the lion’s share of goodwill swarming the lion’s share of goodwill swarming around his live global residencies more than the likeably vibey record he is ostensibly touring behind.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
