These 4 Albums Won Grammys for Album of the Year After Losing in Their Genre Album Categories

What Happened: The Suburbs was nominated for best alternative music album, but lost to The Black Keys’ Brothers. The Suburbs went on to win album of the year, beating albums by Eminem, Lady Antebellum, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. (Note that The Black Keys weren’t even nominated for album of the year. Would they have won album of the year if they’d been nominated? We’ll never know, but it seems entirely possible. As you’ll see from the next entry here, The Black Keys’ follow-up album, El Camino, was nominated for the top award.)

What Happened: Babel was nominated for best Americana album, but lost to Bonnie Raitt’s Slipstream. Babel went on to win album of the year, beating albums by The Black Keys, fun., Frank Ocean and Jack White. (Note that Raitt wasn’t even nominated for album of the year.)

Raitt, of course, is a long-time Grammy favorite. She won album of the year in 1990 for Nick of Time and song of the year in 2023 for “Just Like That.” Would she have won a second album of the year prize for Slipstream if only she’d been nominated in that top category? Again, we’ll never know, but it seems quite possible.

What Happened: Folklore was nominated for best pop vocal album, but lost to Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia. Both albums were also nominated for album of the year, but this time Swift came out on top. It’s as if the voters were saying that Lipa’s album was a better pop album, but Swift’s pandemic-era pivot to what was variously described as indie-folk or chamber pop represented a more significant album achievement overall.

What Happened: We Are was nominated for best R&B album, but lost to Jazmine Sullivan’s Heaux Tales. We Are went on to win album of the year, beating albums by Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Doja Cat, Billie Eilish, H.E.R., Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and Kanye West. (Note that Sullivan wasn’t even nominated for album of the year, even in this expanded – some would say bloated – field of 10 nominees.)

It’s as if Grammy voters were saying Sullivan’s album was more R&B – both of its other nominations were in R&B categories – best R&B song and best R&B performance for “Pick Up Your Feelings.” Only one of Batiste’s other nominations came in an R&B category – best traditional R&B performance for “I Need You.” His other nominations for this wide-ranging album included best American roots song and performance for “Cry” and best contemporary classical composition for “Movement 11’.”

It’s telling that Batiste’s equally wide-ranging follow-up album, World Music Radio, wasn’t entered in any genre album category. It was nominated for album of the year, but wasn’t placed in a genre album category.

According to Grammy rules, albums entered in most categories in a specialized genre field must consist of 50% or more playing time of the specified genre. If an album doesn’t meet that threshold – if it is so varied that it isn’t 50% or more of any one genre – it can only be entered in album of the year.