The Biggest Grammy Snubs of All Time
Some Grammy snubs still start arguments decades afterwards; rank how badly voters got each wrong. A record qualifies if nominated and lost, Album of the Year only, since 1959, and if, of the 9 counted mastheads, at least 2 eligible to judge it named it among the records that should have beaten that night's winner. A masthead is one piece from one publication, dated on the page, by its URL or after the last ceremony it names, and counts for a record only if it ran after that ceremony, its span covers that ceremony (The Washington Post runs the 1980 to 2017 ceremonies, The Ringer 2000 to 2021) and its scope does (Vibe and hiphop24x7 are rap-only); each item prints its count. Upper tier: 3 or more eligible mastheads, lower tier the rest, and inside both the vote decides the order; none of the nine yet gives any post-2018 loss a second naming, and one gets in once two eligible pieces name it. Links are Spotify's oldest carriers, chosen on their track count and track names, never their printed year.
Radiohead — Kid A (2000) is #1 on “The Biggest Grammy Snubs of All Time”.
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Radiohead — Kid A (2000)
Radiohead put out no singles from it, and it still opened atop the Billboard 200 on first-week sales above 207,000. The National Anthem puts Jonny Greenwood's ondes Martenot and radio-station samples over a bass riff. It lost to Steely Dan's Two Against Nature at the 2001 ceremony; Newsweek called it "an album that reset the course of Radiohead's career...", and 5 of 7 eligible mastheads named it.
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Eminem — The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
It sold 1.76 million US copies in its first week, then the second-highest SoundScan week, behind NSYNC's No Strings Attached. The Real Slim Shady pokes at Britney Spears; Spotify's cut runs nineteen tracks, The Kids tacked on after Criminal, the original's eighteenth and last. It lost to Steely Dan's Two Against Nature at the 2001 ceremony, the night Eminem sang Stan with Elton John. 6 of 9 eligible mastheads named it, two of the nine rap-only.
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Prince and the Revolution — Purple Rain (1984)
When Doves Cry has no bass line and was still Prince's first Hot 100 number one, five weeks there. The album ran 24 consecutive weeks as the Billboard 200's number one, and its last three songs were cut live at First Avenue on 3 August 1983. It lost to Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down at the 1985 ceremony; Newsweek's verdict: "this was the year Prince's Purple Rain opus was nominated." 5 of 6 eligible mastheads named it.
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Frank Ocean — channel ORANGE (2012)
Thinkin Bout You started as a song Ocean wrote for Bridget Kelly, and his own early take went up on his Tumblr before it became the record's first full song. It lost to Mumford & Sons' Babel at the 2013 ceremony, Newsweek calling it "the obvious critics' choice" and Consequence writing in 2026 that Babel "had very little cultural impact compared to Frank Ocean's Channel Orange"; 5 of 7 eligible mastheads named it.
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Beyoncé — BEYONCÉ (2013)
XO opens on six seconds of NASA's Steve Nesbitt, recorded moments after Challenger broke apart in January 1986; NASA said the accident "should never be trivialized". Ryan Tedder and The-Dream co-wrote it; the album sold 828,773 digital copies in three days. It lost to Beck's Morning Phase at the 2015 ceremony, and Consequence wrote in 2026 that she "quite literally changed the mechanics of the music industry" with it; 4 of 6 eligible mastheads named it.
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Kendrick Lamar — To Pimp a Butterfly (2015)
Alright took two Grammys, Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song, out of the eleven nominations Kendrick carried into the night the album lost, seven of them for this record. Pharrell Williams and Sounwave produced it, and by the summer of 2015 protesters against police brutality were chanting its chorus in the street. It lost to Taylor Swift's 1989 at the 2016 ceremony, and 4 of 7 eligible mastheads named it, the two rap-only pieces among them.
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Amy Winehouse — Back to Black (2006)
You Know I'm No Good was the second UK single, number 18 there, then led the American release as a remix with Ghostface Killah rapping on it. Britain bought 1.85 million copies that year, the country's best-selling album of 2007. It lost to Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters at the 2008 ceremony, and 4 of 7 eligible mastheads named it, Consequence among them in 2026: "Hancock beat out Amy Winehouse's lauded effort Back to Black".
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The Beatles — Revolver (1966)
Capitol cut it to eleven songs in North America and moved three tracks onto Yesterday and Today, so the fourteen-song sequence here is the British one, in the 2009 remaster that is the earliest carrier Spotify has of it, and Tomorrow Never Knows - Remastered 2009 closes it on a tambura drone and tape loops. It lost to Frank Sinatra's A Man and His Music at the 1967 ceremony, and 3 of 5 eligible mastheads named it.
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Pink Floyd — The Wall (1979)
Bob Ezrin co-produced and wanted Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2 out as a single with a disco beat; Gilmour didn't, and it topped the singles charts in Britain and America, children from the nearby Islington Green school singing on it. It lost to Christopher Cross's Christopher Cross at the 1981 ceremony, and Newsweek paired it with London Calling: "Two double-LP masterpieces finished off the punk era in style"; 3 of 6 eligible mastheads named it.
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Fugees — The Score (1996)
Killing Me Softly With His Song, the Roberta Flack cover, topped the charts in 20 countries and won the Fugees a Grammy in the R&B duo-or-group performance field. It lost to Celine Dion's Falling into You at the 1997 ceremony; Newsweek's line on hip hop that night was "a genre which wouldn't take Album of the Year until Lauryn Hill won in 1999". The count here is 3 of 8 eligible mastheads.
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Outkast — Stankonia (2000)
Ms. Jackson is a plea addressed to his partner's mother, Andre 3000's history with Erykah Badu behind it, and Outkast's first Hot 100 chart-topper. The album opened at number two with 525,000 copies sold in week one. At the 2002 ceremony the single won Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group while the album lost to the various-artists soundtrack O Brother, Where Art Thou? It was named by 3 of 9 eligible mastheads.
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Kanye West — Late Registration (2005)
Heard 'Em Say follows the opening skit, Adam Levine on the hook over a Natalie Cole sample from Someone That I Used to Love. First-week sales were 860,000, close to double The College Dropout's. It lost to U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb at the 2006 ceremony. Newsweek, one of the 3 of 9 eligible mastheads that named it, called it his "gorgeously orchestrated 2005 masterpiece".
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Lil Wayne — Tha Carter III (2008)
Lollipop was Wayne's first single to top the Hot 100, cut with Static Major, who died in February 2008 and is credited posthumously. Most of it leaked in mid-2007, so the leaked songs plus four new ones went out as The Leak and the album slipped to June 2008. It lost to Robert Plant and Alison Krauss's Raising Sand at the 2009 ceremony, where Lollipop took Best Rap Song, and 3 of 9 eligible mastheads named it.
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Radiohead — OK Computer (1997)
Capitol lowered its sales forecast from two million to half a million, and in America the record debuted at number 21. Karma Police takes its title from a band in-joke about who would catch up with anyone behaving badly, and it ends in feedback run through a delay effect. It lost to Bob Dylan's Time Out of Mind at the 1998 ceremony, having won Best Alternative Music Performance the same night, and 2 of 6 eligible mastheads named it.
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The Beatles — Abbey Road (1969)
Recorded after Let It Be but released before it, so it is the last album the four of them made. Come Together - Remastered 2009 opens it, a song that grew out of a campaign piece Lennon started for Timothy Leary's run against Ronald Reagan. The 17 tracks are the 2009 remaster, the oldest form Spotify has of it. It lost to Blood, Sweat & Tears, band and album alike, at the 1970 ceremony; 2 of 5 eligible mastheads named it.
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Bruce Springsteen — Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
Jon Landau wanted one more single and Springsteen brought in Dancing In the Dark the next day; it stalled at a Hot 100 number two, and the album itself went on to seventeen times platinum in the US. It lost to Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down at the 1985 ceremony; Consequence's 2026 read: voters "apparently wanted something a little less defiant and a little more groovy". 2 of 6 eligible mastheads named it.
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Kendrick Lamar — DAMN. (2017)
HUMBLE. reached the Hot 100's number one, his first as a lead artist, on a beat Mike Will Made It built, and a year after release the record took the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first time the prize went to anyone outside classical and jazz. A Collectors Edition that December reversed the running order under new artwork. It lost to Bruno Mars's 24K Magic at the 2018 ceremony, and the count is 2 of 5 eligible mastheads.
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Beck — Odelay (1996)
That dog on the cover is a Komondor clearing a hurdle, shot by Joan Ludwig for a 1977 issue of the American Kennel Club's Gazette. The Dust Brothers' home studio in Silver Lake is where most of it got made, and The New Pollution became a single in February 1997. It lost to Celine Dion's Falling into You at the 1997 ceremony ("too weird for Grammy voters", per Newsweek), and 2 of 6 eligible mastheads named it.
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The Smashing Pumpkins — Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995)
Corgan pitched it as The Wall for Generation X, and the double's first week, 246,500 copies, put it at number one, their only Billboard 200 chart-topper. 1979 became their highest-charting American single at number 12 and was nominated for Record of the Year. Newsweek's 2016 reading was "too messy for Grammy voters"; it lost to Celine Dion's Falling into You at the 1997 ceremony; Newsweek is one of the 2 of 6 eligible mastheads that named it.
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Kendrick Lamar — good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012)
Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe is a Sounwave beat built on Tiden Flyver by Boom Clap Bachelors, and it reached number 32 on the Hot 100. In October 2022 it became the first hip-hop studio album to spend ten years on the Billboard 200. It lost to Daft Punk's Random Access Memories at the 2014 ceremony, the night The Heist beat it for Best Rap Album and Macklemore apologised over iMessage; 2 of 9 eligible mastheads named it.
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The Chicks — Home (2002)
Dixie Chicks was still the band's name when they cut it, an acoustic bluegrass record after two country-pop ones. Long Time Gone peaked at number two on Hot Country Songs and reached seven on Billboard's Hot 100. That night the record took four Grammys, Best Country Album and Kevin Reagan's packaging award included, and it lost to Norah Jones's Come Away with Me at the 2003 ceremony all the same; 2 of 7 eligible mastheads named it.
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Justin Timberlake — FutureSex/LoveSounds (2006)
Rick Rubin produced the closer, (Another Song) All Over Again, a ballad with none of the Timbaland sound that runs through the singles. It sold 684,000 copies in its opening week and debuted at number one. It lost to the Dixie Chicks' Taking the Long Way at the 2007 ceremony, the band that sits on this list as The Chicks with a loss of their own, and 2 of 7 eligible mastheads named it.
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