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." Commonly known as "The Big Award", Album of the Year is the most prestigious category at the Grammy Awards and is one of the general field categories that have been presented annually since the 1st Annual Grammy Awards in 1959 alongside Best New Artist, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year.
Credit rules
Over the years, the rules on who was presented with an award have changed:- 1959–1965: Artist only.
- 1966–1998: Artist and producer.
- 1999–2002: Artist, producer, and recording engineer or mixer.
- 2003–2017: Artist, featured artist, producer, mastering engineer, and recording engineer or mixer.
- 2018–2020: Artist, featured artist, producer, songwriter, mastering engineer, and recording engineer or mixer
- 2021–2023: Artist, featured artist, producer, songwriter, mastering engineer, and recording engineer or mixer
- 2024–future: Artist, featured artist, producer, songwriter, mastering engineer, and recording engineer or mixer
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.
Achievements
is the most frequent winner in this category with five awards. Taylor Swift ; John Hanes ; and Tom Coyne and Randy Merrill have won the award four times. They are followed by Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, and Paul Simon ; Jack Antonoff, David Foster, Daniel Lanois, Phil Ramone, and Ryan Tedder ; Tom Elmhirst and Mike Piersante and Laura Sisk ; and Bob Ludwig with three victories each. Coyne, Ghenea, Hanes, and Ludwig are the only people to win the award in three consecutive years. Paul McCartney leads all performers with nine nominations: five as a member of The Beatles, three for solo albums, and one as a member of Wings. McCartney's former bandmate George Harrison has a total of eight nominations: five as a member of The Beatles, one for a solo album, one for a live album with friends, and one as a member of the Traveling Wilburys. Sinatra leads solo performers with eight nominations: seven for solo albums and one for a duet album. Taylor Swift has the most nominations amongst female artists with seven, followed by Barbra Streisand with six.The first woman to win the award was Judy Garland in 1962, for Judy at Carnegie Hall. Taylor Swift is the first solo female artist to win the award two, three, and four times. Adele has won twice as main credited artist, and Lauryn Hill, Norah Jones, and Alison Krauss also won two times each, first as lead artists for their respective albums, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Come Away with Me, and Raising Sand ; Hill won her second Album of the Year as a producer of her collaboration on Santana's Supernatural, while Jones won again as a featured artist on Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters, and Krauss won again having been a featured artist on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? – Soundtrack.
Billie Eilish is the youngest main credit artist to win in the category, winning for her debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? in 2020 at age 18. The Peasall Sisters, Sarah, Hannah, and Leah, are the category's youngest credited winners, winning for their contributions to the O Brother, Where Art Thou? – Soundtrack at ages 13, 9, and 7 respectively. Leah Peasall is the youngest winner of any Grammy in any category. The youngest person to make an appearance on an Album of the Year is Stevie Wonder's daughter Aisha Morris, who appeared as an infant for "Isn't She Lovely?" on the album Songs in the Key of Life.
Christopher Cross and Billie Eilish are the only artists to receive Grammys for Album of the Year as well as Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist, each winning all four "general field" categories in a single ceremony year. Adele was the first artist to win awards for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist on separate occasions. Five artists have won both Album of the Year and Best New Artist in the same year: Bob Newhart, Lauryn Hill, and Norah Jones along with Christopher Cross and Billie Eilish mentioned above.
Frank Sinatra's Come Dance with Me! was the first album by a traditional pop artist to win, Stan Getz's & João Gilberto's Getz/Gilberto was the first by jazz artists, The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was the first by rock and roll artists, Glen Campbell's By the Time I Get to Phoenix was the first by a country artist, Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was the first by a hip hop artist, Santana's Supernatural was the first by a Hispanic artist, Arcade Fire's The Suburbs was the first by indie rock artists, and Daft Punk's Random Access Memories was the first by electronic music artists. Un Verano Sin Ti and Debí Tirar Más Fotos by Bad Bunny are the only Spanish-language albums to be nominated.
Only Frank Sinatra and Stevie Wonder have won in two consecutive years as main artists: Sinatra won in 1966 and 1967 and Wonder won in 1974 and 1975. Lauryn Hill and Bruno Mars have also won in consecutive years, with one win credited as producer rather than artist. Hill won as a producer in 2000 after winning in 1999 as artist and producer. Bruno Mars won as a producer in 2017 before winning as both artist and producer in 2018.
The Beatles were the first and only artists to date to receive Album of the Year nominations in five consecutive years. Frank Sinatra was the first to receive four nominations in consecutive years, 1959 - 1961, receiving 3 more consecutive nominations for 1966–1968. Barbra Streisand and Kendrick Lamar also received nominations in four consecutive years while Lady Gaga was nominated in three consecutive years.
Kendrick Lamar is the only performer with Album of the Year nominations for five consecutive studio albums, for good kid, M.A.A.D. City, To Pimp a Butterfly, Damn., Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers and GNX. Beyoncé, Billy Joel and Taylor Swift follow with four nominations; while The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Bonnie Raitt, Dixie Chicks, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Adele and Billie Eilish each received nominations for three consecutive studio albums.
Stevie Wonder and Adele are the only artists to win the award for consecutive studio albums in this category, winning for Innervisions and Fulfillingness' First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life; and 21 and 25, respectively.
Quincy Jones, Lauryn Hill and Bruno Mars are the only performers to win the award both as main-credit artists and as record producers, winning as lead artists for their albums Back on the Block, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and 24K Magic, and as producers for Thriller by Michael Jackson, Supernatural by Santana, and 25 by Adele, respectively. Mars' work on the album 25 is credited under his production team name The Smeezingtons.
To date, there have been four "live" albums to win the award: Judy at Carnegie Hall, The Concert for Bangladesh, and two MTV Unplugged albums, which were performed in front of a small live audience. One television soundtrack recording,The Music from Peter Gunn, has won. Two comedy albums have also won this category: The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart and The First Family.
Artists and bands with multiple wins
Eight artists have received the award more than once.| Artist/Band | Number of Victories | Albums | Number of Nominations |
| Taylor Swift | 4 | Fearless, 1989, Folklore, Midnights | 7 |
| Frank Sinatra | 3 | Come Dance with Me!, September of My Years, A Man and His Music | 8 |
| Paul Simon | 3 | Bridge over Troubled Water,'' Still Crazy After All These Years, Graceland | 7 |
| Stevie Wonder | 3 | Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale, Songs in the Key of Life | 3 |
| George Harrison | 2 | Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Concert for Bangladesh ) | 8 |
| John Lennon | 2 | Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Double Fantasy | 6 |
| U2 | 2 | The Joshua Tree, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb | 4 |
| Adele | 2 | 21, 25 | 3 |
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