Recording Academy Expands R&B Field for 69th Grammy Awards

The Recording Academy is making more changes to the Grammy Awards, following proposals from its membership body. The organization announced new categories and rule amendments for the 69th Grammy Awards, taking place Feb. 7, 2027.

The Academy has introduced five new categories, including Best R&B Collaboration or Duo/Group Performance. Per the Academy, “This Category recognizes excellence in contemporary R&B performances for works by established duos or groups, as well as collaborative works between solo artists, duos and groups. Awards are presented to the performing artist(s).” With the new addition, the Best R&B Performance category has been renamed to Best R&B Solo Performance.

Speaking on the change, the Academy’s CEO/president, Harvey Mason Jr., says, “Adding Best R&B Collaboration or Duo/Group Performance helps establish a dedicated space to recognize that collaboration is a defining element of R&B, while reimagining Best R&B Performance as Best R&B Solo Performance ensures that those creators are also represented in our process.”

It’s worth noting that the Grammys previously awarded a similar category, Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, from 1967 through 2011. After it was discontinued, with Sade’s “Soldier of Love” being the final winner, the award was renamed to Best R&B Performance in 2012.

The other new Grammy categories include Best Asian Pop Music Performance, Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, Best Latin Song and Best Traditional Folk Album. In relation to the latter, the Best Folk Album category has been renamed Best Contemporary Folk Album.

Aside from the category additions, the Academy has made updates regarding the voting process, as well as criteria for Best New Artist, Best Album Notes and Best Historical Album. Further, it has redefined album eligibility in general, lowering the threshold of new recordings required on an album from 75% to 66%.

Lastly, the Academy has expanded recognition to songwriters and composers. The org notes: “Songwriters and Composers of new material on the winning albums in most genre album Categories will now receive Grammy statuettes and Achievement Certificates in parity with the recognition currently afforded to Producers and Engineers in those Categories.”

The latest updates follow a string of changes the Academy has made over this decade. In 2020, it announced its renaming and redefining of Best Urban Contemporary Album, now known as Best Progressive R&B Album. The modification was to acknowledge “artists whose music includes the more progressive elements of R&B and may include samples and elements of hip-hop, rap, dance, and electronic music.” (Thundercat was the first artist awarded in this category for It Is What It Is.)

“To me, the most important part of the GRAMMYs is to appropriately honor artists and ensure the categories reflect how music evolves, so artists can continue to create freely,” Recording Academy member Chris McClenney said of the category change. “Of all genres today, R&B and Rap are among the fastest evolving and progressing. ‘Progressive R&B’ and ‘Melodic Rap’ are wide-ranging terms that reflect the present state of music and leave room for the future; it feels good to move forward from the word ‘Urban’ and embrace a more inclusive future for these categories.”

Before the changes were announced, Rated R&B asked Mason, then interim president/CEO, about the constant pushback on the Urban label. “This is something that lands right on my desk and on my plate of things that we’re going to take a look at,” Mason told Rated R&B. “All of our categories and awards and processes around The Academy are generated by our members. So, members propose changes or categories or procedures, and they go to the board room, and the trustees vote on what they are going to call a category or how they are going to regulate submissions or how they’re going to do X, Y, and Z.”

Then in summer 2022, the Recording Academy introduced five new Grammy categories, including Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical and Producer of the Year, Non-Classical. The following year, both were moved to the General Field, where highly coveted categories, including Album of the Year and Best New Artist, are awarded. The Academy also established the Best African Music, Best Pop Dance Recording and Best Alternative Dance categories.

Last year, the Academy added two new categories (Best Traditional Country Album and Best Album Cover) and expanded eligibility for Best New Artist, among other changes.

Mason concludes, “2027 is going to be an amazing year for the Grammy Awards, and one that reflects the extraordinary growth we’re seeing across music. The changes advanced by our Academy members speak to the breadth of today’s music industry and the many genres, crafts and creators shaping it. We’re excited to see these updates come to life in the year ahead as we celebrate the music people who are driving music forward.”

The 69th Grammy Awards airs live Sunday, Feb. 7, 2027, across ABC, Disney+ and Hulu.