2027 Grammys First-Round Voting Opens: How Nominees Are Chosen by Oct. 22
First-round voting for the 69th Grammy Awards (February 7, 2027) opened on October 12 at 9 a.m. PT (1 a.m. on October 13 in Japan) and closes on October 22 at 6 p.m. PT (10 a.m. on October 23 in Japan). This round decides the nominees in all 100 categories.
Who votes, and in which categories
Only Voting Members in good dues standing receive a ballot. The Recording Academy's official guide asks members to vote only in their areas of expertise, where they are a peer.
Standard "10/3" ballot: up to 10 categories across three genre fields, plus the six General Field categories
General Field: Record, Album and Song of the Year, Best New Artist, Producer of the Year (Non-Classical) and Songwriter of the Year (Non-Classical)
New this year, Ballot Plus: members who opted in and passed credit verification can vote in up to 15 peer-related categories regardless of field
How nominees are decided
The top five finalists in each category become nominees
Record, Album and Song of the Year and Best New Artist have eight nominees
Ballots are tabulated by the independent accounting firm Deloitte
Eligible works were released between August 31, 2025 and August 28, 2026 and entered during the Online Entry Period that closed on August 21. During voting, members can stream submitted recordings on select services, and the Academy encourages them to listen to every submission in the categories they vote in.
Dates ahead
Oct. 22: first-round voting closes
Nov. 16: nominations announced
Dec. 10 – Jan. 7, 2027: final-round voting
Feb. 7, 2027: 69th Grammy Awards on ABC, Disney+ and Hulu
The GAJ view
Entries closed in August, so there is no way to add new music for this year. What Japanese teams can do now is watch the November 16 announcement and get next year's basics in place: commercial availability in the US and an ISRC on every track. The first nominees in the new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category will also come out of this vote.
The Academy's voting and solicitation guidelines ask members to vote only on artistic and technical merit. Final voting decisions belong to each voting member. Rules, deadlines and fees change every year; always check grammy.com before applying or submitting.
Sources: GRAMMY.com, first-round voting guide / GRAMMY.com, voting and solicitation guidelines / GRAMMY.com, new categories and rule updates for 2027
Published by BRUSH MUSIC Inc. / G Association Japan (GAJ)
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