These 4 Albums Won Grammys for Album of the Year After Losing in Their Genre Album Categories

If you win the Grammy Award for album of the year, it stands to reason that you must have also won whatever genre album award you competed for.

And most album of the year winners since 1995, when the Grammys introduced numerous genre album categories, have won also won in the appropriate genre album categories. At the Grammy ceremony earlier this year, for example, Taylor Swift’s Midnights won best pop vocal album in addition to album of the year. At the ceremony in 2023, Harry Styles’ Harry’s House won in both of those categories. At the ceremony in 2020, Billie Eilish’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? won in both of those categories.

Swift has won both album of the year and the relevant genre album award three times. In addition to winning album of the year, 1989 also won best pop vocal album, while Fearless also won best country album. Adele and Alison Krauss have each won both album of the year and the relevant genre album award twice.

Such other album of the year winners as Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Santana’s Supernatural, OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below and Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories also won in their genre album categories in addition to winning album of the year.

Our focus here is on the album of the year winners that didn’t win in their genre album categories. We try to make sense of something that, on the surface, doesn’t make sense at all.