As we all know, Bad Bunny made Grammy history on Sunday Feb. 1, when Debí Tirar Más Fotos became the first Spanish-language album, and more broadly, the first album not recorded in English, to win album of the year. But artists have been making history in that category for decades.
We have rounded up a compendium of albums that broke barriers in that category. But first, here’s a little Grammy album of the year trivia, this time focusing on artists.
First artist to win album of the year twice: Frank Sinatra. He was also the first artist to win it three times.
First artist to win album of the year four times: Taylor Swift.
First artist to win album of the year with back-to-back studio albums: Stevie Wonder. He is also the only artist to win with three consecutive studio albums – Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life. Adele equaled that first achievement (winning with back-to-back studio albums 21 and 25) but failed to equal the second when 30 lost to Harry Styles’ Harry’s House.
First artist to win both as part of a group/duo and solo: George Harrison. He won as part of The Beatles and again when he headlined The Concert for Bangla Desh, a triple-disk album which featured Ravi Shankar, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Eric Clapton and Klaus Voormann.
First artist to win whose parent had been nominated in this category: Natalie Cole, who won for Unforgettable With Love in 1992. The album was a tribute to Cole’s father, Nat King Cole, who was nominated in this category with Wild Is Love in 1961 and The Nat King Cole Story in 1962.
First artist to win whose parent had won in this category: Norah Jones, who won for Come Away With Mein2003. Jones’ father, Indian sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar, won in this category in 1972 as a featured artist on The Concert for Bangla Desh.
Now that you are sufficiently primed, here’s a list of albums that established Grammy precedents with their album of the year wins. The achievements are listed in chronological order.
First & only TV soundtrack to win: Henry Mancini, Music From Peter Gunn
Date awarded: May 4, 1959
Notes: The album is far more famous today than the TV series, which ran for three seasons on NBC. Craig Stevens starred in the detective drama.
First traditional pop album to win: Frank Sinatra, Come Dance With Me!
Date awarded: Nov. 29, 1959
Notes: Sinatra competed with himself at the inaugural Grammys, presented earlier that same year. Both Come Fly With Me and Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely were nominated for album of the year. Even the great Sinatra is going to have a hard time winning when his votes are split between two albums. The rules were subsequently changed so an artist can be nominated as a solo lead artist with only one album.
First comedy album to win: Bob Newhart, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart
Date awarded: April 12, 1961
Other Firsts: First debut album to win.
Notes: Newhart, of course, went on to become a TV legend. He was inducted into the TV Academy Hall of Fame in 1992.
First album by a woman to win: Judy Garland, Judy at Carnegie Hall
Date awarded: May 29, 1962
Other firsts: First live album to win.
First debut album by a musical artist to win: Barbra Streisand, The Barbra Streisand Album
Date awarded: May 12, 1964
Notes: The album included Streisand’s dramatic ballad re-interpretation of the rousing 1930s standard “Happy Days Are Here Again.”
First jazz album to win: Stan Getz & João Gilberto, Getz/Gilberto
Date awarded: April 13, 1965
Other Firsts: First collaboration by two artists who usually recorded separately to win; first album by an artist who was born outside of the U.S. to win. Gilberto was born in Brazil. This was also the first album of the year winner that included that year’s record of the year winner, the global smash “The Girl From Ipanema,” which was credited to Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto (João’s wife).
First rock album to win: The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Date awarded: Feb. 29, 1968
Other Firsts: First album by a group to win; first album by an act from England to win.
First country album to win: Glen Campbell, By the Time I Get to Phoenix
Date awarded: March 12, 1969
Notes: The crossover smash topped Top Country Albums, then called Hot Country LP’s, for four weeks in February/March 1968. Campbell was red-hot at the time. His weekly TV series, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, debuted on Jan. 29, 1969. It ran through June 1972.
First R&B album to win: Stevie Wonder, Innervisions
Date Awarded: March 2, 1974
Other Firsts: First album by a Black lead artist to win. (Billy Preston had won the previous year as a featured artist on George Harrison & Friends’ The Concert for Bangla Desh.)
Notes: Innervisions topped Top R&B Albums, then called Soul LP’s, for two weeks in September 1973.
First album by a mixed-gender group to win: Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours
Date Awarded: Feb. 23, 1978
Other Firsts: The British and American band was also the first mixed-nationality group to win.
First film soundtrack to win: Bee Gees & Various Artists, Saturday Night Fever
Date awarded: Feb. 15, 1979
Notes: John Travolta, the star of Saturday Night Fever, was nominated in the same category that year as artist on the Grease soundtrack.
First album by artists born after the Grammys launched in 1959 to win: U2, The Joshua Tree
Date awarded: March 2, 1988
Other firsts: First Irish act to win.
Notes: All four members were born after the first Grammy ceremony in 1959 – Bono and Adam Clayton in 1960; The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr. in 1961.
First solo debut album to win: George Michael, Faith
Date awarded: Feb. 22, 1989
Notes: This was Michael’s solo debut album following three albums as a member of Wham! Michael received his first two Grammy nods as a member of Wham! – best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal for “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and best music video, long form for Wham! The Video.
First hip-hop album to win: Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Date awarded: Feb. 24, 1999
Notes: The Grammys classified Hill’s album as R&B. In addition to its album of the year win, it won best R&B album. The first album which the Grammys classified as rap to win album of the year was Outkast’s Speakerboxxx: The Love Below in 2004. It won both album of the year and best rap album.
First album by a Latin artist to win: Santana, Supernatural
Date awarded: Feb. 23, 2000
Notes: Group leader Carlos Santana was born in Mexico. The group won eight Grammys that year, tying Michael Jackson’s one-year record. Supernatural won album of the year, while its lead single, “Smooth” (featuring Rob Thomas), took record of the year. The other six awards were split evenly between pop and rock categories.
First & only posthumously released album to win: Ray Charles, Genius Loves Company
Date awarded: Feb. 13, 2005
Notes: The album was released on Aug. 31, 2004, about two and a half months after the music legend die on June 10. The only other album to win posthumously was John Lennon’s collab with his wife Yoko Ono, Double Fantasy, but the former Beatle was still living when it was released on Nov. 17, 1980. He was shot to death three weeks later.
First and only album by an all-female group to win: Dixie Chicks, Taking the Long Way
Date Awarded: Feb. 11, 2007
Notes: In 2020, amid a national reckoning over race, the group removed “Dixie” from its name due to negative connotations.
First indie rock album to win: Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
Date awarded: Feb. 13, 2011
Other Firsts: First and only Canadian group to win. Two Canadian solo artists, Alanis Morissette and Celine Dion, had won previously.
First electronic music album to win: Daft Punk, Random Access Memories
Date awarded: Jan. 26, 2014
Other firsts: First album by a French act to win.
First album by an artist born in the 21st Century to win: Billie Eilish, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Date awarded: Jan. 26, 2020
Notes: Eilish was born on Dec. 18, 2001.
First album not recorded in English to win: Bad Bunny, Debí Tirar Más Fotos
Date awarded: Feb. 1, 2026
Other Firsts: First album by an act from Puerto Rico to win.
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