Grammy Awards Introduce Best Album Cover Category

When Sabrina Carpenter unveiled the cover this past summer for her latest album, Man’s Best Friend, she got a lot of attention — and not in a good way. Depicting the pop star on her knees in a dog-like pose while her hair is presumably being pulled by a male, the cover caused a stir on social media for what many felt looked like objectification. In response, Carpenter released an alternative cover but defended the image as satire.

Ironically, the controversy arose just as the Recording Academy decided to put the spotlight on album cover art again. On June 12, just a day after Carpenter’s cover was revealed, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. announced that the 2026 Grammys would give an award for best album cover as a stand-alone category, something it hasn’t done since 1973. The category existed when the first Grammys took place in 1959 (Frank Sinatra won) but was renamed best album package in 1974 and then best recording package in 1994, both efforts to encompass a release’s full and vibrant visual presentation.

“Having things that solely exist now in the digital space as just a singular image, I think it’s really cool to celebrate and recognize album covers,” says Frank Maddocks, vp creative at Warner Records. “Now that these images don’t actually end up being physical pieces when many people see them, it only makes sense that there would be something to acknowledge this.”

Indeed, streaming services and social media dominate music discovery these days, so many fans only see a thumbnail when they’re listening or shopping for music. A separate best recording package category will now include tangible boxed or special limited-edition releases, leaving covers to be judged on their own.

“A lot of my favorite musicians growing up built an entire visual world around their albums,” Perfume Genius, aka Michael Alden Hadreas, says about album cover art. “It’s a way to get closer; it made you feel like you knew where the songs lived, and you could go there too.”

Perfume Genius’ latest, Glory, is a strong contender for the new category, depicting an artful yet curious scene: Hadreas laying contorted in what looks like a home studio as a mysterious figure stands outside a window. It makes you ponder what exactly is going on in the moment captured.

“I wanted [it] to have a balance between high and low, deep meaning and absurdity,” he says of the image. “The record is an attempt to externalize complicated, contradictory feelings I have trouble articulating in my everyday life. The art feels like an extension of that — a way to try to squeeze out as much as possible.”

Maybe you can’t judge a book by its cover, but when it comes to great albums, there’s usually a deeper connection between what’s on the outside and the music on the inside. Lady Gaga’s Mayhem, for example, melds her image with the foreboding aesthetic of her tour and gothy moods of the songs within. It’s surely another contender for a nod this year.

On the other hand, sometimes album art is so powerful and eye-catching, it doesn’t necessarily need to reference the creative expression it envelops, or even the artist. Like other Grammy categories, what’s “best” is subjective, but no one would argue that exemplary album cover art engages fans and beckons new ones.

Charli XCX‘s Brat, the winner of best recording package last year, went viral for its distinctive bright green hue and simplistic typeface, which put all the attention on the title and turned it into a cultural moment that everyone wanted to identify with.

“Brat was super impactful,” says Maddocks, who worked on the two album covers his label hopes will be nominated this year — Linkin Park’s From Zero (a photo of layers of paint and glass) and Deftones’ Private Music. “It showed that you can do something simple but with a thought process that, coupled with a great album, really works.”

Of his striking work on Linkin Park’s and Deftones’ releases this year, which are art-driven (and not AI, by the way), Maddocks says: “It’s really about pushing against what we’ve already done and also pushing against what’s popular or trending. We’re always trying to do something left of center and kind of unexpected … to create images that are striking and memorable.”

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THR Picks the Best Album Covers That Would Have — and Should Have — Been Winners

Duran Duran, Rio (1982)

Patrick Nagel’s clean, modern, color-drenched portraiture brought an air of mystery and exotic allure to the U.K. new wave sensation’s debut and made the artist’s stark yet sensual female illustrations synonymous with the decadence of the 1980s.

Michael Jackson, Dangerous (1991)

Mark Ryden’s surrealist circus-themed album cover is the King of Pop’s most artful and beautiful ever, chock full of symbolic Easter eggs, evocative elements and personal themes that bring dimension to his personal experience and the music it inspired.

Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

Minimalistic yet vibrant, the now-iconic prismatic spectrum image and contrasting black background designed by Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis is eye-catching and eerie. It also evokes the complex and cosmic themes of Floyd’s music as well as its most ominous moods and subjects.

The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers (1971)

Craig Braun and Andy Warhol’s provocative crotch shot with working zipper design and underwear inner sleeve was nominated for best “package” in 1972, but it was probably too risqué to win back then. The main image alone has inspired many below-the-belt covers to come — though none were ever as cool. Today, it’d be no contest.

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This story appeared in the Oct. 1 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.