GRAMMY Folk Category Announcement: Best Traditional Folk Album & Best Contemporary Folk Album

Scott

McDowell

June 16, 2026

resource

Update

event

FAI 2024

NEWS

Partner

Region

As you may recall, Folk Alliance International initiated a proposal to the GRAMMYs to re-establish the Traditional Folk Album award and reclassify the current Folk Album award as Contemporary Folk Album. So many members of our Folk Alliance community were instrumental in supporting this initiative.

We are thrilled to announce that the new category has been accepted, and it will be a part of the 69th Annual GRAMMY Awards!

The new category is Best Traditional Folk Album. According to the Recording Academy, this category recognizes excellence in albums of traditional folk recordings. Traditional folk includes folk recordings with folk song structures, harmonic structures, and rhythms, including traditional folk instruments such as piano, harmonica, traditional woodwind, strings, and percussion from around the world. It also includes song types such as old time, a capella, work songs, shanty, protest, call and response, ballad, and other traditional folk song structures created in and/or passed through community-rooted tradition distinct from Regional Roots. Awards are presented to artists, producers, engineers/mixers, and songwriters of new songs (if other than the artists) who are credited with more than 50% of the album's playing time.

With the addition of this new category, Best Folk Album has been revised and renamed Best Contemporary Folk Album.

We are thrilled to see the return of separate Traditional and Contemporary Folk award categories, a change our membership has long called for, and one that addresses a significant representation and credibility gap in the genre. This reinstatement also challenges the long-held stereotype that folk music is exclusively Eurocentric. Traditional Folk is, in fact, a genre of rich cultural diversity that extends far beyond any single culture, and we're excited that more of that diversity will now have the chance to be celebrated on a global stage.

Special acknowledgement to the following individuals who were instrumental in advancing this initiative:

Ayappa Biddanda

Mariah Czap

Cathy Fink

Anna Frick

Brad Kolodner

Art Menius

Jennifer Roe

Ashley Shabankareh

MarySue Twohy

Reid Wick

This is a huge win for our community and we are grateful for all of the individuals who supported this proposal and helped make it a reality!

Want to learn more about the new category, including member benefits around GRAMMY submission? Join us for Roe on the Record next Tuesday.

And don’t forget! As a member benefit, FAI can submit your recording for the Best Traditional Folk and Best Contemporary Folk categories on your behalf. If you are not a member of the Recording Academy, you'll need a Recording Academy member, such as a label or agency, to submit your music for consideration. As an FAI member, you have the option of asking FAI to handle this for you instead. More information on GRAMMY submissions will be available later in the summer.

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