What’s the difference between record, song and album of the year?
The three most coveted Grammys for any artist are album, record and song of the year. Each comes with prestige but different people can claim the honour, not just the artist.
Here’s how they’re defined:
Album of the year: Per the Recording Academy, this is for either a collection of at least five different tracks that have a combined playing time of at least 15 minutes; or a recording of at least 30 minutes with no minimum track requirement. It’s awarded to the whole team: artists, songwriters, engineers, mixers, etc. — anyone who contributed to at least 20 per cent of the playing time.
Record of the year: Like album of the year, this recognizes performance and production contributions, but for just a single track.
Song of the year: This award is essentially for achievement in songwriting — so it can go to just the artist, if they composed the music and lyrics themselves, or a range of writers. Justin Bieber’s 2022 song Peaches holds the record for most people in a nomination in this category, with 11. This year, Kedrick Lamar and SZA’s track Luther has 10 people on the nomination, ROSÉ and Bruno Mars’s APT. has nine.
