The Grammy nomination process is famously complex

The duties and importance of Grammy expert panels have shifted over the years

The anonymous expert panels were first introduced into the Grammys voting process in the '90s to counteract claims that the awards weren't "with it" anymore—basically, that they were biased toward more traditional music acts. Of course, that was also the argument for disbanding some of them in 2022: Many people thought the panels were introducing their own bias into the nominations. Now, they exist mainly to ensure genre nominations are correctly categorized. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

How the Grammy Awards are made

The Grammy Awards aren’t just trophies—they’re handcrafted works of art. Since 1959, each Grammy has been meticulously made from a custom metal alloy called “grammium.” From its origins to the process behind every award, here’s a look at the craftsmanship behind music’s most prestigious honor.

People have tied for Grammy Awards at least 34 times

Because of the Grammys voting structure, it's possible for two artists (or songs or producers, etc.) to receive the same vote totals. What happens then? Two Grammys! It has led to some funny moments, including in 1981, when classical musician Itzhak Perlman tied with … himself, for best classical performance as a soloist.

Winning (or losing) a Grammy can impact the music an artist makes

A group of sociologists wanted to understand the impact the Grammys have on artists' musical output. They discovered that winning a Grammy often emboldens artists to release music that deviates from their own previous work and others. Nominees who lose do the opposite and trend toward the mainstream.

Grammy snubs and losses have generated controversy over the years

While there’s always some friction when major award nominees are announced from those who believe a favorite has been snubbed, the Grammys have attracted quite a bit of pushback in the last few years. Much of the controversy centers around the show’s purported unequal treatment of artists of color, particularly Black artists.

The album of the year award is the most prestigious Grammy

The Big Four awards—song of the year, album of the year, record of the year, and best new artist—are the only Grammy categories that are genre-agnostic. Some people are confused by the difference between awards, especially song and record. The record of the year primarily honors the performing artist. Song of the year honors the songwriter. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Oscar winners are selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

The organization includes over 10,000 members who work in various aspects of the film industry. Specific branches nominate for relevant categories, but once nominees have been selected, all members can vote for the award winners. For most categories, the nominee with the most votes wins. Best picture, however, uses ranked-choice voting.

The Latin Grammys first began in 2000

For many years, the Grammy Awards honored Spanish-language artists during the main ceremony. Over time, though, these artists became so popular that the decision was made to spin off a separate awards show: the Latin Grammys. The Latin Grammys honor music recorded in Spanish or Portuguese, but the voting process is much the same as it is for the traditional Grammys.

Some critics argue that Grammys favor commercially successful artists

For this two-part series of Slate’s pop music podcast "Hit Parade," pop critic Chris Malanfi looks into the relationship between commercial and critical success and how the Grammys are affected by outside influences like the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Best new artist can include performers who have been working in the industry for years

As long as they haven’t been nominated for a Grammy previously, anyone who releases a recording that “establishes their public identity” can be eligible.

Roughly 830 people are invited to anonymously vote for winners

These anonymous voters must see every show in order to weigh in with their vote, meaning a big part of being a voter is a time commitment: Every season has at least 30 unique productions to see.

How AI helped the Beatles win their eighth Grammy

It’s been decades since the legendary British rock band broke up, yet they still managed to snag a Grammy at the 2025 awards ceremony. This feat is thanks to AI, specifically machine-learning technology, to isolate and clean up different components of a late 1970s recording. This mini-documentary shows how the band's surviving members crafted “Now and Then” with the modern technology.

The awards focus on three categories: performance, show and technical, and special honors

While marquee awards like best musical attract the most attention, the Tonys award the many elements that contribute to American theater. This video breaks down the various award categories, including the ones retired over the years, as well as eligibility requirements, how nominations are decided, and, of course, how the winners are selected.

Dolly Parton declined her nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

The country icon was nominated in 2022 but bowed out, saying, “I don’t feel I have earned that right” and that she didn’t want votes split because of her inclusion on the ballot, though the Hall of Fame inducted her anyway. Interestingly, she also mentioned that the nomination motivated her to release a rock ‘n’ roll record in the future. She released “Rockstar,” a double-album featuring several duets and covers of popular rock songs, in 2023.

The presidential election process continues for weeks after Election Day

Even after a winner is projected, the election is not complete. Between Election Day and Inauguration Day, electors formally cast votes and Congress meets in a joint session to certify the results, following a constitutionally defined timeline.

'Saturday Night Live' parodied the jury selection process in 2025

This "SNL" sketch lampoons the lengths people go to avoid jury duty, with prospective jurors claiming that a Kardashian hit them with a car, that they are from the future and already know the verdict, and that they should be the judge instead.

A former grant recipient and reviewer explains how the NSF decides what research to fund

Every year, approximately 50,000 research proposals are evaluated against two merit review criteria approved by the National Science Board: the quality of the project and its potential societal impact. These evaluations are conducted by experts in the fields related to each proposal, identified by NSF program officers from a list of about 50,000 volunteers.

Being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize is easy—winning one is not

Hundreds of people are nominated yearly, including controversial figures like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, since nominations can come from professors or politicians worldwide. Le Duc Tho refused the 1973 prize jointly awarded to him and Henry Kissinger, citing ongoing conflict in Vietnam.

Professional vocalists explain the mechanics of singing

Ever wonder how your favorite singer hits those high notes? Have you been amazed at someone bringing down the house at karaoke? The secret behind singing is that it's more technical than most realize. In this video, a handful of professional vocalists break down the basics to demonstrate how you can develop a more musical voice.

How March Madness Selection Sunday works

March Madness is one of the most popular American sporting events, but most viewers aren't aware of how its 68 teams are selected for the prestigious national tournament. This official process overview breaks down how the teams are selected, seeded, and placed into the bracket. Knowing the ins and outs might not stop you from disputing the committee's selections, but at least you'll understand how they came to those decisions.

How Nashville became Music City

Nashville didn’t just earn the nickname “Music City”—it grew into it. From early settlers and the Fisk Jubilee Singers to the Grand Ole Opry and Jefferson Street’s R&B scene, this breakdown looks at how a city on the Cumberland River became a global center for music across every genre.

How algorithmic redistricting works

Computational methods are convincing a number of judges that some state district maps are drawn illegally. Here's a simple overview of how it works.

The complicated use of rap lyrics as legal evidence

Rap artists are known for their vivid imagery, which can sometimes include gruesome acts of violence. That style has led to legal trouble for some artists (including popular acts like Young Thug) when songs are admitted as evidence in court cases. This legal analysis breaks down a history of the trend and explains why people are trying to stop it.

Netflix has sometimes struggled with technical aspects of live-streaming

Anne Aaron, Netflix’s senior encoding tech director, spent a decade improving how Netflix streams its content. Then came the challenges of live events. Netflix has experimented with live content like stand-up comedy and sporting events. In this interview with The Verge, Aaron walks through the associated technical and coding challenges.

Napa Valley, explained

Some of the most valuable agricultural land in the US is in California's Napa Valley. Located about an hour's drive north of San Francisco, Napa has more than 400 wineries employing upward of 44,000 people and drawing in nearly 4 million annual visitors. The price per acre in the valley can exceed $500K because some of the best wines in the world are grown and produced in the roughly 30-mile-long area.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

See how each of the more than two million known species relates to each other—and to common ancestors—in this zoomable tree of life.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

Astronauts have repaired genetic damage in space using CRISPR—a molecular tool that can make precise changes to DNA and is used in single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'