The Recording Academy has announced major changes to the 2027 Grammy Awards, including five new categories, revamping the rules for Best New Artist and giving greater influence to songwriters and composers.

The United States organization responsible for organizing and awarding the Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy, has announced new changes that will take effect at the 69th Grammy Awards, scheduled to be held on February 7, 2027.

These changes include increasing the categories of the awards, changing the rules for the Best New Artist category, revamping the way members vote and increasing the value of songwriters and composers.

The total number of Grammy Awards categories reached 100, a number that was last achieved in 2012, when the Recording Academy reduced the number of categories from 109 to 78. Since then, it has gradually increased to a new number of 100.

Best New Artist featured

One of the most important changes was made to the rules of the Best New Artist category, which is contested by artists who are emerging and emerging internationally.

Previously, an artist who was presented in this category three times and failed to win the award was automatically disqualified from competing again.

New rules have increased that number, where an artist can be awarded four times before being disqualified from competing for this award again.

This gave new opportunities to artists including Ella Langley, Megan Moroney, Ken Carson and Ravyn Lenae, who had already been nominated three times. The band Geese and its singer Cameron Winter also benefited from this change.

The CEO of the Recording Academy, Harvey Mason Jr., said that these changes are based on the fact that the way artists build their careers has changed. He explained that today artists can spend years releasing music before reaching the level that gives them the opportunity to be recognized internationally.

There are five new categories

Among these changes are five new categories that will compete for prizes.

Best Asian Pop Music Performance

This category will focus on Pop songs based in Asian markets, including K-Pop, J-Pop and C-Pop.

The song must have prominent use of at least one Asian language. English-only songs are not eligible for this category, but will continue to compete in other Grammy categories.

According to the Recording Academy, this category was established in order to appreciate the important role that Asian music has played in the world music market.

Best Latin Song

There will also be a Best Latin Song category, which will reward writers of songs written primarily in the Spanish language.

A song must have at least 51% of its lyrics in Spanish to be eligible to compete for this award.

This award will be given to songwriters, rather than singers, unless the singer also contributed to the writing of the song.

Best R&B Collaboration or Duo/Group Performance

In R&B music, the category of Best R&B Collaboration or Duo/Group Performance has been added, which will award songs made by collaborative artists or groups.

Due to these changes, the category that used to be Best R&B Performance has been renamed to Best R&B Solo Performance, to distinguish it from the new category.

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance

This category will reward traditional Pop acts, which include songs based on past artists or have a unique singing style that differs from contemporary Pop.

Best Traditional Folk Album

Folk music also includes Best Traditional Folk Album.

In the meantime, the category that used to be Best Folk Album has been renamed Best Contemporary Folk Album, in order to distinguish traditional folk from contemporary folk music.

Members will be given extended voting powers

Recording Academy has also changed the way its members will submit their recordings.

With the new system called Ballot Plus, some members will be allowed to vote in up to 15 categories, depending on their experience and involvement in the music industry.

Previously, most of the members were only allowed to vote in 10 categories, in order to keep each member voting in categories with knowledge and experience.

Albums will be allowed even if there are few new songs

There are also changes to the number of new songs that must be on an album to be eligible for Grammy competition.

This number has been reduced from 75% to 66%.

According to the Recording Academy, this change will help many artists, especially nowadays where many artists release single songs for a long time before putting them together on albums.

Most Valuable Songwriters and Composers

In other changes, songwriters and composers will receive Grammy awards on the same level as record producers and other artists for albums that win in different categories.

This change was seen as important in re-emphasizing the role of writers and composers in making musical works accessible to the public and in the market.

Online-only albums are also eligible

The Recording Academy also allows albums published only on the internet to compete for Best Album Notes and Best Historical Album awards.

Previously, these categories required that the album be released in physical form, but the new rules will allow artists released digitally to have equal opportunities.

Overall, the changes announced by the Recording Academy show how the Grammy Awards continues to update its rules to keep up with the development of the global music industry.

Grammy Awards 2027 will be held on February 7, 2027, where artists and music industry players will compete for awards under the new rules.