In this post, you can find our 2026 Grammy Album of the Year prediction, along with the betting odds and favourites to win the most prestigious prize in music.
Among the artists vying for the award this year are music megastars like Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, and Sabrina Carpenter ahead of music’s biggest night.
The Album Of The Year award is one of the most prestigious categories at the Grammy Awards, often reflecting a balance of critical acclaim, commercial success, and Academy voting trends.
Whoever takes home the golden gramophone at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards will do so as a first-time Album Of The Year winner, adding an extra layer of intrigue to one of music’s most closely watched betting markets.
Album of the Year Odds
Album Of The Year Odds – 2026 Grammy Awards
Album | Artist | Odds | Chance |
|---|---|---|---|
Debí Tirar Más Fotos | Bad Bunny | 8/11 | 57.9% |
GNX | Kendrick Lamar | 11/4 | 26.7% |
Mayhem | Lady Gaga | 11/4 | 26.7% |
Man’s Best Friend | Sabrina Carpenter | 20/1 | 4.8% |
At the head of the Album Of The Year betting market is Bad Bunny, with Debí Tirar Más Fotos installed as the clear favourite at 8/11.
Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga sit just behind as joint second favourites, with GNX and Mayhem both priced at 11/4, while Sabrina Carpenter rounds out the market as the outsider, with Man’s Best Friend available at 20/1 for prospective Grammy Awards bettors.
Grammy Album Of The Year Betting Favourites 2026
Debí Tirar Más Fotos (Bad Bunny)
Debí Tirar Más Fotos – Bad Bunny
The market leader for Album Of The Year, Bad Bunny, arrives at the 2026 Grammys with significant momentum. This year, he has received six Grammy nominations, while Debí Tirar Más Fotos ("I Should Have Taken More Photos") has already picked up major recognition across multiple award ceremonies, including wins at the American Music Awards, Billboard Latin Music Awards, Heat Latin Music Awards, and the Latin Grammy Awards.
Musically, Debí Tirar Más Fotos is a wide-ranging project rooted primarily in reggaeton and house, while incorporating elements of traditional Puerto Rican music such as bomba, jíbaro, plena, and salsa. The album spans seventeen tracks and features production from long-time collaborators Tainy, La Paciencia, and MAG alongside newer contributors.
In addition to awards success, Debí Tirar Más Fotos has received widespread critical acclaim. It was ranked as the top album of 2025 by several major publications, including Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Variety, reinforcing its standing as a consensus critical favourite.
Who Will Win Album Of The Year At The 2026 Grammys?
Beyond the Grammys, Bad Bunny’s profile remains exceptionally high. He is set to headline the Super Bowl LX Halftime Show a week after the awards at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, adding to an already remarkable run of mainstream visibility.
A win for Bad Bunny in this category would also be historically significant. As of 2026, the Grammy for Album of the Year has never been awarded to a foreign-language (non-English) album. The Puerto Rican superstar has already been a trailblazer in this category, however, becoming the first artist to receive a nomination for a Spanish-language album with Un Verano Sin Ti in 2022.
With such a short price for the 2026 Album of the Year, the key betting question here is whether the Academy prioritises cultural dominance and historic impact over more traditional Grammy voting patterns, particularly when strong alternative narratives exist elsewhere in the field.
GNX (Kendrick Lamar)
GNX – Kendrick Lamar
Priced as a joint second favourite, Kendrick Lamar enters the Album Of The Year conversation having received nine Grammy nominations this year. His single Not Like Us dominated the previous ceremony, winning 5 Grammys and helping take Lamar’s career total to 22 Grammy wins, alongside 57 nominations.
Historically, the category has proved difficult for hip-hop artists. A rap album has not won the Grammy for Album of the Year since OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2004, and only two rap albums have ever claimed the award in the category’s history.
GNX takes its name from a car model similar to the one Lamar’s father drove when the rapper was a baby, grounding the project in personal history. The album consists of twelve tracks with a running time of 44 minutes and 20 seconds, making it the shortest studio album of Lamar’s career.
Although no tracks from Lamar’s high-profile feud with Drake appear on the album, its influence still looms over the project. Musically, GNX is a West Coast hip-hop record that draws on both classic and contemporary conventions of the genre, with Rolling Stone describing it as a tribute to Lamar’s native Los Angeles.
Is Kendrick Lamar the greatest artist of the 21st century to not win the Album of the Year Grammy?
Beyond awards recognition, GNX achieved platinum certification in New Zealand, Denmark, and Portugal, reinforcing its international commercial appeal. Lamar also headlined the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show, further strengthening his mainstream profile and current cultural relevance.
Kendrick Lamar is Grammys royalty at this stage and undoubtedly one of the most iconic artists to not have won the prestigious Album of the Year Grammy Award. The big question mark around this year's favourite is whether it can overcome the historical trend of no foreign language album ever winning the award. If you want to bet against Bad Bunny based on that trend, then GNX is worth real consideration for a bet on this market.
Beyonce pulled off a similar upset last year as the second favourite and as an artist who had a haul of past Grammy success without having won the Album of the Year award to that point.
Mayhem (Lady Gaga)
Mayhem – Lady Gaga
Also priced at joint second-favourite odds, Lady Gaga arrives with four Album Of The Year nominations already on her résumé. With Mayhem, the Little Monsters (Lady Gaga's fanbase) will be hoping she can finally add the elusive Album Of The Year Grammy to her collection, having already secured 14 Grammy wins from 45 nominations across her career.
Gaga has cited industrial music and various strands of electronic music as key influences on Mayhem, describing the sound as “utter chaos” that “breaks a lot of rules and is a lot of fun”. She has also referenced influences ranging from 1990s alternative and electro-grunge to Prince, David Bowie, French electronic music, and analog synthesizers, explaining that the project is about following one’s own chaos wherever it may lead.
Is a Lady Gaga Album of the Year win overdue?
The album has also received strong critical recognition, ranking second in Rolling Stone’s The 100 Best Albums of 2025, while Billboard and Variety placed it third and fourth, respectively, in their 2025 Album of the Year lists. Mayhem is also nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at this year’s Grammys, further strengthening its awards-season profile.
Commercially, Mayhem achieved double platinum status in Poland, while also going platinum in the United States, Brazil, Canada, Belgium, France, and Italy. The album is comprised of fourteen tracks.
Man's Best Friend (Sabrina Carpenter)
Man’s Best Friend – Sabrina Carpenter
At 20/1, Man’s Best Friend is the outsider among the priced contenders. Sabrina Carpenter arrives at the 2026 Grammys with 2 career Grammy wins and 12 total nominations. Both of her wins came in 2025, when Espresso claimed Best Pop Solo Performance and Short n’ Sweet won Best Pop Vocal Album, alongside earning a nomination in the Album Of The Year category.
From a musical standpoint, Man’s Best Friend is primarily a pop and soft rock record, blending retro-inspired influences.** The album is comprised of 12 tracks with a total running time of 42 minutes and 12 seconds.
The Better Artist: Sabrina Carpenter or Olivia Rodrigo?
Commercially, the album achieved platinum status in five countries — the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Portugal — underlining its broad international reach. Lead single Manchild topped the charts in Ireland, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Critical reception has also been positive, with Rolling Stone ranking the album 13th in its The 100 Best Albums of 2025 list.
At 20/1 in the Album Of The Year market, Man’s Best Friend is priced as a clear outsider. Those odds feel accurate, with an Album of the Year Grammy Award for the album, neither particularly likely nor totally out of the question.
Album of the Year Prediction
2026 Grammy Album Of The Year Prediction: Debí Tirar Más Fotos By Bad Bunny
As the odds-on favourite at 8/11, Bad Bunny enters the 2026 Grammy Awards with a profile that aligns closely with how the Academy has historically rewarded Album Of The Year winners. Debí Tirar Más Fotos combines critical consensus, awards-season momentum, and sustained cultural relevance.
The album’s dominance across major end-of-year lists — where it was ranked as the top album of 2025 by publications including Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Variety — alongside wins at the American Music Awards, Billboard Latin Music Awards, Heat Latin Music Awards, and the Latin Grammy Awards, points to broad industry consensus rather than niche acclaim. That level of cross-genre and cross-market recognition often proves decisive in Album Of The Year voting,
While a win would mark the first time a foreign-language album has claimed the Album Of The Year Grammy, Bad Bunny is already a proven trailblazer, having delivered the first Spanish-language nomination in the category with Un Verano Sin Ti in 2022.
With cultural impact, critical backing, and global visibility converging in the same awards cycle, Debí Tirar Más Fotos has the profile of an awards show favourite more than capable of justifying its odds-on price of 8/11.
Previous Album of the Year Winners
Recent Album Of The Year Grammy Winners
Year | Album | Artist |
|---|---|---|
2000 | Supernatural | Santana |
2001 | Two Against Nature | Steely Dan |
2002 | O Brother, Where Art Thou? | Various Artists |
2003 | Come Away With Me | Norah Jones |
2004 | Speakerboxxx/The Love Below | OutKast |
2005 | Genius Loves Company | Ray Charles |
2006 | How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb | U2 |
2007 | Taking the Long Way | Dixie Chicks |
2008 | River: The Joni Letters | Herbie Hancock |
2009 | Raising Sand | Robert Plant & Alison Krauss |
2010 | Fearless | Taylor Swift |
2011 | The Suburbs | Arcade Fire |
2012 | 21 | Adele |
2013 | Babel | Mumford & Sons |
2014 | Random Access Memories | Daft Punk |
2015 | Morning Phase | Beck |
2016 | 1989 | Taylor Swift |
2017 | 25 | Adele |
2018 | 24K Magic | Bruno Mars |
2019 | Golden Hour | Kacey Musgraves |
2020 | When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? | Billie Eilish |
2021 | Folklore | Taylor Swift |
2022 | We Are | Jon Batiste |
2023 | Harry’s House | Harry Styles |
2024 | Midnights | Taylor Swift |
2025 | Cowboy Carter | Beyoncé |
How to Watch
How To Watch The 2026 Grammy Awards
The 2026 Grammys, hosted by Trevor Noah, will broadcast live from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 1st, at 5pm local time and will be available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.
In the UK and Ireland, the show gets underway at 1am Sunday night/Monday morning and is scheduled to finish at approximately 4.30am. Irish viewers can catch highlights of the show on Monday at 9pm on RTÉ2.
You can also catch the pre-event red carpet action on the official YouTube account of the Grammys.
For a breakdown of how the year’s biggest individual tracks shape the awards picture, you can also explore our 2026 Grammy Song Of The Year betting odds, favourites and prediction.
Bet on Entertainment Odds at BOYLE Sports
Prices are subject to fluctuation
Remember, Always Gamble Responsibly
