Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is an award presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales, chart position, or critical reception."[1] Commonly known as "The Big Award", Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammy Awards, and is one of the four general field categories alongside Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year that have been presented annually since the 1st Annual Grammy Awards in 1959. Taylor Swift is the most frequent winner of the award with four wins and also the most nominated woman in the category with six nominations.
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
Quality vocal or instrumental recording albums
United States
1959
Over the years, the rules on who was presented with an award have changed:
The category expanded to include eight nominees in 2019[2] and ten in 2022.[3] Beginning with the 2024 ceremony, the number of nominees has been reduced back to eight.[4]
Album of the Year is awarded for a whole album, and the award is presented to the artist, featured artist, producer, songwriter, mastering engineer, and recording engineer or mixer with significant contributions to that album. The similarly titled Record of the Year is awarded for a single or for one track from an album. This award goes to the artist, producer, mastering engineer, and recording engineer or mixer for that song.[5]
Process[edit]
From 1995 to 2021, members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences nominated their choices for album of the year. A list of the top twenty records was given to the Nominations Review Committee, a specially selected group of anonymous members, who then selected the top five records to gain a nomination in the category in a special ballot.[14] The rest of the members then voted on a winner from the five nominees.[15] In 2018, it was announced the number of nominated albums would be increased to eight.[16] In 2021, it was announced that the Nomination Review Committees would be disbanded, and the final nominees for album of the year would be decided by votes from members.[17] Starting in 2022, the number of nominees in the category increased to 10.[18] However, the decision to expand the number of nominees in this category was made 24 hours before the nominees were announced after an early version of the nominations list had already been circulated. This allowed Taylor Swift's Evermore and Kanye West's Donda to be nominated as they were the albums that received the highest number of votes besides the other eight nominees.[19] As of the 2024 ceremony, the number of nominees has been reduced back to eight.[4]