How Grammy voting works: from entry to winner, explained

How Grammy voting works is simpler than the Oscars in one way and stricter in another. Only working music creators vote, and they are told to stick to the genres where they are peers of the nominees. This guide follows a record from entry to trophy, with the Recording Academy’s rules and dates for the 2027 Grammys, as of September 2026.

By Editorial Team

The short answer

• Who votes: Recording Academy voting members: artists, songwriters, producers and engineers. The Academy had nearly 15,000 voting members before this year’s intake, Billboard reported in July 2026.
• How many rounds: two. First Round Voting decides the nominees and Final Round Voting decides the winners.
• Limits: voters can choose the six General Field categories plus up to ten others across no more than three genre fields. An opt-in “Ballot Plus” allows up to 15 peer categories for members with verified credits.
• Counting: ballots are tabulated by the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche, according to the Academy’s awards process page.
• The public: fans do not vote, and sales or streams do not decide winners.

Step 1: entries and screening

The process starts with submissions. For the 69th Grammys in 2027, recordings had to be released between 31 August 2025 and 28 August 2026, and the entry window ran from 7 July to 21 August 2026. The Academy says around 20,000 entries are submitted each year, by members and registered media companies such as record labels.

The Academy’s awards team then checks each entry’s eligibility. Genre screening committees, made up of more than 300 experts, check that each recording is in the right category. The Academy stresses that these committees do not make artistic judgments. Their job is category placement, and the result is the First Round ballot.

Step 2: how Grammy voting works in the first round

First Round Voting for the 2027 Grammys runs from 12 to 22 October 2026. It decides the nominees in every category.

The main restriction is the “10/3” rule. Every voting member can vote in the six General Field categories: Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist, Producer of the Year (Non-Classical) and Songwriter of the Year (Non-Classical). Beyond those, members can vote in up to ten categories spread across at most three genre fields. The idea is that a jazz engineer votes on jazz rather than rap. For 2027 the Academy added Ballot Plus, an opt-in alternative that lets members vote in up to 15 categories in any field, if their professional credits support it.

Most categories end up with five nominees. Record, Album and Song of the Year and Best New Artist have eight. Producer and Songwriter of the Year have five.

What about committees?

Until 2021, secret “nomination review committees” could shape the final nominees in major categories. The Academy scrapped them in April 2021, so general and genre nominees are now decided by members’ votes. Specialist “craft” categories still have their nominations decided by committees of members working in those crafts, according to the Academy’s voting process page.

Step 3: nominations day

The 2027 nominations will be announced on Monday 16 November 2026. This is when artists find out whether they made the shortlist, and when categories such as Best African Music Performance get attention. For Nigeria’s history in that race, see our guide to Nigerian Grammy winners.

Step 4: final round and the ceremony

Final Round Voting runs from 10 December 2026 to 7 January 2027. Members vote in the same pattern as before: the General Field plus up to ten categories in three fields, or the categories on their Ballot Plus list. The winners are revealed at the 69th Grammy Awards on Sunday 7 February 2027 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. It will be the first Grammys shown on ABC since 1972, and it will also stream on Disney+ and Hulu.

Many categories are handed out at a separate Premiere Ceremony before the main telecast.

Key dates for the 2027 Grammys

Source: Recording Academy key dates (12 May 2026).

What changed for 2027

The Academy announced several rule changes in June 2026, Billboard reported:

• Five new categories: Best Asian Pop Music Performance, Best Latin Song, Best R&B Collaboration or Duo/Group Performance, Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance and Best Traditional Folk Album. That brings the total to 100.
• Best New Artist: an artist can now be entered up to four times, up from three.
• Albums: at least 66% of an album must be new recordings, down from 75%.
• Songwriters: songwriters and composers of new material on winning albums in most genre album categories will receive statuettes, as producers and engineers already do.

Who can become a voting member

Membership is not open to the public; the Academy invites a new member class each year. In July 2026 it invited more than 4,000 people, over 3,100 of them as voting members. Invitations only count once accepted. Voting members must be active music creators. Music business professionals can join as non-voting “professional” members.

Common questions

• Do chart hits automatically get nominated? No. Commercial success, including on the Billboard charts, may raise a record’s profile, but nominees are chosen only by members’ votes.
• Is the Grammys like the VMAs? No. The MTV VMAs are run by a broadcaster with its own categories; its Best Afrobeats award was dropped in 2026. The Grammys are a peer vote.
• How is it different from the Oscars? Oscar voters can vote in every category in the final round, provided they have seen the nominees. See how Oscar voting works.

What to watch

Now you know how Grammy voting works, the calendar is simple to follow. First Round Voting opens on 12 October. Nominations follow on 16 November, including the first nominees for Best Asian Pop Music Performance. More in our Music and International Entertainment sections.

Sources

• Recording Academy: Awards process
• Recording Academy: Grammy Awards voting process
• Recording Academy: 2027 Grammys date and key dates (12 May 2026)
• Recording Academy: 2026 membership invitations (9 July 2026)
• Billboard: 2027 Grammy rule changes (16 June 2026)
• Billboard: Recording Academy invites more than 4,000 (9 July 2026)
• Variety: Grammys eliminate nominating committees (April 2021)

Featured image: Photo: David Jones / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0