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Callie Ahlgrim
- The Grammy Awards are designed to honor the best and brightest artists in the music industry.
- But in the ceremony's 65-year history, many stars have failed to take home the top prize: album of the year.
- This list includes icons like Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Madonna, Prince, David Bowie, and The Rolling Stones.
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Beyoncé recently lost album of the year for the fourth time.
Despite being one of this century's most creative, consistent, and culturally significant album artists, Queen Bey has never won the top prize at the Grammys.
She was nominated in 2010 for "I Am... Sasha Fierce," 2015 for "Beyoncé," 2017 for "Lemonade," and 2023 for "Renaissance," but lost to Taylor Swift, Beck, Adele, and Harry Styles, respectively.
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Kendrick Lamar also lost his fourth bid for the top prize in 2023.
Save for his debut, all of Kendrick Lamar's studio albums were contenders for the biggest Grammy Award: "Good Kid, M.A.A.D City," "To Pimp a Butterfly," "Damn," and most recently, "Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers."
He has won best rap album three times — not to mentiona Pulitzer Prize — but never album of the year.
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Astonishingly, Björk has never won a single Grammy.
Björk has only received nods in genre-specific categories — most recently best alternative music album for "Fossora" in 2023 — but has lost all 16 of her nominations.
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Drake is one of the best-selling musicians of all time, but he has yet to win album of the year.
Just two albums in Drake's record-breaking catalog have been up for album of the year: "Views" in 2017 and "Scorpion" in 2019.
In fact, the rapper recently pulled his music from Grammy consideration and declined to submit his seventh album, "Honestly, Nevermind," after criticizing the nomination process.
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Only one of Jay-Z's many famous albums has been nominated for album of the year.
"4:44" is the only album in Jay-Z's legendary discography that has been nominated for album of the year. (It lost to "24K Magic" by Bruno Mars in 2018.)
Jay-Z himself has been up for the award five other times as a contributor or producer on other people's albums ("Tha Carter III," "Good Kid, M.A.A.D City," "Beyoncé," "Donda," and "Renaissance"), but he didn't win any of those, either.
Rihanna has only been nominated for album of the year once.
Rihanna's "Loud" lost her sole bid for album of the year to Adele's "21" in 2012. Her eighth and most acclaimed album to date, "Anti," somehow wasn't up for the award.
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Eminem has been nominated three times.
Eminem received his first nod for album of the year in 2001 for "The Marshall Mathers LP," but lost to "Two Against Nature" by Steely Dan."
He has been nominated two more times, in 2003 for "The Eminem Show" and in 2011 for "Recovery," but lost to Norah Jones and Arcade Fire, respectively.
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Mariah Carey has the most No. 1 hits of any solo artist, but she has never won album of the year.
Mariah Carey has been named Billboard's top-selling female artist of all time. She currently boasts 19 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 — just one shy of the all-time record set by The Beatles — and is the only artist to top the chart in four separate decades.
And yet, Carey has lost all three of her bids for album of the year. She received her first nomination in 1991 for her self-titled LP, but lost to Quincy Jones.
She was later nominated for "Daydream" in 1996 and "The Emancipation of Mimi" in 2006, but lost to Alanis Morissette and U2, respectively.
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Bruce Springsteen has lost album of the year twice.
Bruce Springsteen is one of the most-awarded musicians in Grammys history with 20 wins, but he has never won album of the year.
The Boss has been nominated just twice: in 1985 for "Born in the U.S.A." and in 2003 for "Rising."
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Madonna's "Ray of Light" lost in 1999.
Lauryn Hill took home the biggest Grammy Award in 1999 for "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill," becoming the first hip-hop artist to do so.
Many of Madonna's groundbreaking albums, including "Like a Prayer," "Erotica," and "Confessions on a Dance Floor," never received a nod for album of the year — or, for that matter, a nod in any of the high-profile general-field categories.
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Nirvana was never nominated for album of the year.
Nirvana received just five Grammy nominations during Kurt Cobain's lifetime, and none were in the "Big Four" categories.
The groundbreaking band won just one award: best alternative music performance for "MTV Unplugged in New York," bestowed nearly one year after Cobain's death.
Prince's historic albums "Purple Rain" and "Sign o' the Times" both failed to win album of the year.
"Purple Rain" was bested by Lionel Richie's "Can't Slow Down" in 1985, while "Sign o' the Times" lost to U2's "The Joshua Tree" in 1988.
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David Bowie was nominated for album of the year just once.
David Bowie's "Let's Dance" lost to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in 1984.
Many of Bowie's most inventive and beloved albums, including "Hunky Dory," "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars," and "Station to Station," didn't get any Grammy nominations at all.
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Marvin Gaye was never nominated for album of the year.
Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" has been hailed asthe best album of all time, but it didn't get a chance to compete for album of the year.
Gaye only won two Grammys in his lifetime — best R&B vocal performance and best R&B instrumental performance for "Sexual Healing" in 1982 — but was never nominated in a major category. He was posthumously given the Recording Academy's lifetime achievement award in 1996.
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Pink Floyd's "The Wall" lost album of the year to Christopher Cross.
It's hard to believe that Pink Floyd's seminal concept record lost to Christopher Cross, who swept the "Big Four" categories in 1981 with his self-titled album.
Cross became the only artist in Grammys history to win all four general-field awards on the same night and remained the only artist to do so for nearly four decades until Billie Eilish joined the ranks in 2020. He never won another.
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The Rolling Stones lost their sole nomination for album of the year to the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack.
Only one album by the best-selling British band has ever been up for album of the year: "Some Girls" in 1979. It was their first-ever Grammy nomination and they have yet to compete for the top prize again.
In fact, The Rolling Stones have only won three Grammys to date, and none in a major category.
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Elton John has lost album of the year three times.
Elton John received his first nod for album of the year in 1971 for his self-titled LP, but lost to Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water."
He has been nominated two more times, in 1975 for "Caribou" and 1976 for "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy," but lost to Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon, respectively.
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