2026 in music

2026 in music

This topic covers events and articles related to 2026 in music.

Specific genres

2026 in music

• Country • Heavy metal • Hip hop • Latin • Rock • Jazz • K-pop • J-pop

Bands reformed

2026 in music

• Little Angels • The Pussycat Dolls

Awards

2026 in music

<table><thead><tr><th>68th Annual Grammy Awards (USA)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Record of the Year: "Luther" by Kendrick Lamar and SZA • Album of the Year: Debí Tirar Más Fotos by Bad Bunny • Song of the Year: "Wildflower" by Billie Eilish • Best New Artist: Olivia Dean</td></tr><tr><td>2026 Brit Awards (UK)</td></tr><tr><td>British Album of the Year: The Art of Loving by Olivia Dean • Song of the Year: "Rein Me In" by Sam Fender and Olivia Dean • British Artist of the Year: Olivia Dean • British Breakthrough Artist: Lola Young • British Group: Wolf Alice</td></tr><tr><td>Juno Awards of 2026 (Canada)</td></tr><tr><td>Artist of the Year: Tate McRae • Group of the Year: The Beaches • Album of the Year: So Close to What by Tate McRae • Single of the Year: "Sports Car" by Tate McRae • Breakthrough Artist or Group of the Year: Cameron Whitcomb</td></tr><tr><td>40th Golden Disc Awards (South Korea)</td></tr><tr><td>Album of the Year: Karma by Stray Kids • Song of the Year: "Home Sweet Home" by G-Dragon featuring Taeyang and Daesung • Artist of the Year: Jennie • Rookie Artist of the Year: AllDay Project, Cortis</td></tr></tbody></table>

Bands disbanded

2026 in music

• Amefurasshi • NOMAD • Sepultura • Svalbard • Tokyo Girls' Style • Ukka

Deaths

January

• 2 • Ritva Auvinen, 93, Finnish opera singer. • Tony Carr, 98, Maltese session drummer and percussionist (CCS, Hot Chocolate). • Johnny Legend, 77, American rockabilly musician • 5 • Andrew Bodnar, 71, English bass guitarist (The Rumour) and songwriter ("I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass"). (death announced on this date) • Andrew Carter, 86, English composer and conductor • Mike Embro, 63, Canadian drummer (Razor) (death announced on this date) • Elsje de Wijn, 82, Dutch actress and singer • 6 – Jim McBride, 78, American country music songwriter ("Chasin' That Neon Rainbow", "(Who Says) You Can't Have It All", "Chattahoochee") • 7 • James Bernard, American music journalist and magazine editor (The Source, XXL) (death announced on this date) • Ihor Blazhkov, 89, Ukrainian conductor • 8 - Guy Moon, 63, American television composer • 9 • Dieudonné Larose, 80, Haitian singer • Terry Sullivan, 87, British drummer (Renaissance) • 10 • Yeison Jiménez, 34, Colombian singer, plane crash • Bob Weir, 78, American Hall of Fame musician (Grateful Dead) and songwriter ("Sugar Magnolia", "One More Saturday Night"), complications from cancer • 11 • Prashant Tamang, 43, Indian singer (Indian Idol), cardiac arrest • John Wallace, 76, Scottish trumpeter, composer and arts educator • 12 • Sheila Bernette, 94, English singer (The Good Old Days, The Black and White Minstrel Show) • Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin, 26, British guitarist (Black Midi) (death announced on this date) • 13 – Seán Ó Sé, 89, Irish tenor singer • 14 • Melania Pérez, 76, Argentine singer. • Quemil Yambay, 87, Paraguayan musician and composer. • 15 • Raju Bandara, 65, Sri Lankan singer, kidney disease. • Kenny Morris, 68, English drummer (Siouxsie and the Banshees). (death announced on this date) • Rubén Patagonia, 69, Argentine singer. • 16 • Tony Dallara, 89, Italian singer ("Come Prima", "Romantica"), respiratory illness. • Osvaldo Díaz, 76, Chilean singer. • Joxean Llorente, 63, Spanish choral conductor, composer and musicologist. • Marcel Osztas, 37, Slovak radio presenter and music concert host. • Guillermo Rendón García, 90, Colombian composer and organist. • 17 • Marikena Monti, 82, Argentine singer and actress. • Tucker Zimmerman, 84, American singer-songwriter, smoke inhalation. • 18 • Stephen "Cat" Coore, 69, Jamaican guitarist and cellist (Third World). • Anders Möller, 63, Swedish musician (Black Ingvars, Swedish Erotica), cancer. • Jaan Ross, 68, Estonian musicologist and psychologist. • Ralph Towner, 85, American jazz multi-instrumentalist. • 19 • Mojmír Maděrič, 70, Czech musician, actor and host. • Billy Parker, 88, American country music singer and DJ. • 20 • Rob Hirst, 70, Australian musician (Midnight Oil, Ghostwriters) and songwriter ("Forgotten Years"), pancreatic cancer. (death announced on this date) • Yaw Sarpong, Ghanaian gospel musician and songwriter. • 22 • Francis Buchholz, 71, German bass guitarist (Scorpions). • Guy Hovis, 84, American singer (The Lawrence Welk Show). • 23 • Dalibor Brun, 81, Croatian singer. • Kristinn Svavarsson, 78, Icelandic saxophonist (Mezzoforte). (death announced on this date) • 24 – Yuri Rymanov, 69, Russian guitarist (Lyube). • 25 • Gabe Lopez, 49, American songwriter and producer, lymphoma. • Abhijit Majumdar, 54, Indian composer and music director (Sasura Ghara Zindabad, Balunga Toka, Daha Balunga), liver disease. • Marie Rouanet, 89, French singer and writer. • Lucky Widja, 49, Indonesian singer and songwriter, kidney tuberculosis. • 26 • Richie Beirach, 78, American jazz pianist and composer. • Sly Dunbar, 73, Jamaican drummer (Sly and Robbie), record producer ("Underneath It All"), and songwriter ("Murder She Wrote"). • Béla Lattmann, 60, Hungarian jazz bassist. • 27 • António Chainho, 88, Portuguese fado guitarist. • Vladislav Chernushenko, 90, Russian conductor. • 28 • Maroochy Barambah, 70, Australian Turrbal elder and mezzo-soprano singer. • Nilton César, 86, Brazilian singer. • Bryan Loren, 59, American songwriter ("Do the Bartman"). (death announced on this date) • 29 – Wojciech Michniewski, 78, Polish composer and conductor. (death announced on this date) • 30 • Abdelhadi Belkhayat, 85, Moroccan singer. • Parthenon Huxley, 70, American musician (ELO Part II). • Fatih Ürek, 59, Turkish singer and actor, complications from a heart attack. • 31 • Miklós Fenyő, 78, Hungarian singer, songwriter and musician. • Mingo Lewis, 72, American percussionist and drummer (Santana, Al Di Meola, The Tubes). (death announced on this date) • Billy Bass Nelson, 75, American Hall of Fame bass guitarist (Parliament-Funkadelic).

February

• 1 • Fernando Esteso, 80, Spanish singer, comedian, and actor, respiratory failure. • Steve Washington, 67, American musician (Slave, Aurra). (death announced on this date) • 2 • Chuck Negron, 83, American singer (Three Dog Night), heart failure and COPD. • Ken Peplowski, 66, American jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist. • Yuan Wei-jen, 57, Taiwanese singer-songwriter. • 3 • Ron Kenoly, 81, American Christian singer, worship leader, and songwriter. • Lamonte McLemore, 90, American singer (The 5th Dimension). • S. P. Venkatesh, 70, Indian film score composer (Kilukkam, Spadikam, Rajavinte Makan), cardiac arrest. • 4 • François Beukelaers, 88, Belgian singer, actor and stage director. • Tommy Crook, 81, American guitarist. • Tōsha Meishō, 84, Japanese hayashi musician. • 5 • Helen Micallef, 75, Maltese singer (Helen and Joseph). • Fred Smith, 77, American bassist (Television, Blondie). • Tamás Vásáry, 92, Hungarian pianist and conductor. • 6 – Lynn Blakey, American musician (Tres Chicas, Let's Active). • 7 • Brad Arnold, 47, American singer (3 Doors Down) and songwriter ("Kryptonite", "Here Without You"), renal cell carcinoma. • Greg Brown, 56, American musician (Cake, Deathray) and songwriter ("The Distance"). • Ebo Taylor, 90, Ghanaian musician and producer. • 8 – Matti Caspi, 76, Israeli singer-songwriter, cancer. • 9 – Garland Green, 83, American soul singer and pianist. • 10 • Des de Moor, 64, English writer and musician. (death announced on this date) • Andrew Ranken, 72, English drummer (The Pogues). • 11 • Jerry Kennedy, 85, American record producer, songwriter and guitarist. • Helmuth Rilling, 92, German choral conductor (Gächinger Kantorei, Oregon Bach Festival, Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart). • László Somfai, 91, Hungarian musicologist. • 12 • Saúl Cornejo, 79, Peruvian singer and composer (We All Together). • Milkman, 36, Mexican rapper, producer, and composer. • Michel Portal, 90, French composer, saxophonist and clarinetist. • 13 – Simon Harris, 63, British music producer, DJ and electronic musician. • 14 – Tim Very, 42, American rock drummer (Manchester Orchestra). (death announced on this date) • 15 • Wayne Proctor, American guitarist (We the People). • Leo Rosas, 27, Bolivian singer (The Voice of Mexico). • 16 • Marzio Mazzanti, Italian singer and bassist (Homo Sapiens). • Billy Steinberg, 75, American songwriter ("Like a Virgin", "True Colors", "Eternal Flame"), cancer. • 17 • Jim Čert, 69, Czech singer and accordionist. • Ray Reach, 77, American musician, composer and convicted pedophile. • Shinya, 56, Japanese musician (Luna Sea), cancer. • José van Dam, 85, Belgian operatic bass-baritone. • Veikko Virtanen, 97, Finnish organ builder. • 18 • Béatrice Ardisson, 62, French composer, cancer. • Lil Poppa, 25, American rapper, suicide by gunshot. • 19 – Nikolai Komyagin, 39, Russian singer (Shortparis). • 20 – Zoya Dorodova, 85, Russian singer (Buranovskiye Babushki), cancer. • 21 • John Bertalot, 94, English organist. • Willie Colón, 75, American salsa musician ("Pedro Navaja"), respiratory failure. • Mark Kennedy, 74, Australian drummer (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines) and record producer. • 22 – Luci4, 23, American rapper. • 23 • Oliver "Power" Grant, 52, American executive producer (Wu-Tang Clan). • Sondra Lee, 97, American musical actress (Hello, Dolly!, Peter Pan, Sunday in New York) and singer. • Éliane Radigue, 94, French composer. • Monti Rock III, 86, American singer (Disco-Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes), complications from COPD. • 24 • Rostislav Gepp, 74, Russian musician (Ariel). • Jiří Valenta, 66, Czech keyboardist (Olympic), suicide. • Héctor Zamorano, 47, Mexican singer (La Academia). • 25 – Roman Kofman, 89, Ukrainian conductor (Kyiv Chamber Orchestra) and composer. • 26 – Utsav Charan Das, 80, Indian dancer, lyricist and music composer. • 27 • Neil Sedaka, 86, American singer ("Breaking Up Is Hard to Do", "Bad Blood") and songwriter ("Love Will Keep Us Together"). • Travis Wammack, 81, American rock and roll guitarist. • 28 • John P. Hammond, 83, American blues singer and guitarist. • Boncana Maïga, 77, Malian composer and musician. • Viktor Vassiljev, 71, Estonian guitarist. • Terry Watkinson, 85, Canadian musician (Max Webster).

March

• 1 • Bob Power, 74, American record producer and audio engineer. • J. Strauss, Swedish singer and musician (Morlocks). • Gary Walker, 83, American musician (The Standells, The Walker Brothers), stroke. • 2 • Len Garry, 84, English musician (The Quarrymen), pneumonia. • Mike Vernon, 81, English record producer ("Albatross", "Hocus Pocus"), music executive and recording studio owner (Chipping Norton Recording Studios). • 3 • Roy Book Binder, 82, American blues musician. • Gustav Gunsenheimer, 91, German composer and church music director. • Zsolt Kerestely, 91, Romanian composer and conductor. • 4 - Bernard Rands, 92, British-born American composer. • 5 • Jacques Michel, 84, Canadian musician and songwriter. • Mihail Secichin, 82, Moldovan pianist, director of Maria Bieșu National Opera and Ballet Theatre (1990–1992). • Lee Turner, 89, American musician (The Dream Weavers). • 6 - Franco Vito Gaiezza, 66, Italian musician and writer, heart attack. • 7 • Vidi Aldiano, 35, Indonesian singer-songwriter, kidney cancer. • David Brigati, 85, American singer (Joey Dee and the Starliters, The Rascals). • Donny Fattah, 76, Indonesian bassist (God Bless) and songwriter, sarcopenia, vascular blockage, and autoimmune diseases. • Walter Martino, 72, Italian drummer (Goblin). • Country Joe McDonald, 84, American singer (Country Joe and the Fish) and songwriter ("I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag"). • Augie Meyers, 85, American musician (Sir Douglas Quintet, Texas Tornados). • 8 • Zeph Ellis, 37, British rapper. • Dilworth Karaka, 75, New Zealand musician (Herbs) and songwriter ("Sensitive to a Smile"). • Mantana Morakul, 102, Thai singer and actress. • Shane Rout, 53, Australian drummer (Blood Duster). • 9 • Tommy DeCarlo, 60, American singer (Boston), • Blake Emmons, 81, Canadian country singer. • Gabba, British guitarist (Chaos UK). • 10 • Willie Anthony Waters, 74, American opera conductor and artistic director (Connecticut Opera). (death announced on this date) • Zalek, 30, Colombian reggaeton singer. • 12 • Hjálmar H. Ragnarsson, 73, Icelandic composer. • Iulian Vrabete, 70, Romanian bassist (Holograf), cancer. • 13 • Phil Campbell, 64, Welsh guitarist (Motörhead, Persian Risk, Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons). • Fatma Sarhan, 97–98, Egyptian singer. • 14 – Paul Geremia, 81, American blues musician. • 15 • Irmeli Mäkelä, 83, Finnish pop singer. • Cinzia Oscar, 63, Italian singer. • 16 • Dolores Keane, 72, Irish folk singer (De Dannan). • Wayne Perkins, 74, American guitarist, stroke. • 17 • Dominika Elischerová, 23, Czech singer. • Bettina Köster, 66, German singer, musician and composer. • Rainelle Krause, 37, American soprano. • 18 - Robert White, 89, American tenor. • 19 - Terry Cox, 89, British drummer (Pentangle, The Humblebums). • 20 • Aref, 84, Iranian pop singer. • Louie Louie, 63, American singer ("Sittin' in the Lap of Luxury"). • Richard Phillips, 85, British music promoter. • 17 • Daniel Buira, 54, Argentine drummer (Los Piojos). • Steve Houben, 76, Belgian jazz saxophonist and flutist. • 22 • Ronnie Bowman, 64, American bluegrass guitarist and singer-songwriter • Sylvia Kersenbaum, 84, Argentine pianist, composer and teacher. • 23 • Jerry Dee Lewis, American rapper (The Cold Crush Brothers). • Shinichiro Sato, 61, Japanese rock drummer (The Pillows), esophageal cancer • Chip Taylor, 86, American singer and songwriter ("Angel of the Morning", "Wild Thing"). • 24 • Gameboy Tetris, 40, Estonian rapper (5miinust), suicide. • Gino Paoli, 91, Italian singer-songwriter ("Il cielo in una stanza", "Senza fine", "Sapore di sale") and politician, deputy (1987–1992). • 25 • Dash Crofts, 87, American soft rock singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (Seals & Crofts) • Mick Roberts, 57, English singer (The Bridewell Taxis). • 26 • Ahmad Kaabour, 70, Lebanese singer. • Ross the Boss, 72, American guitarist (Manowar, The Dictators). • 27 • Jon Dee Graham, 67, American musician (The Skunks, True Believers). • Mahbuba Rahman, 91, Bangladeshi playback singer (Mukh O Mukhosh, The Day Shall Dawn). • 28 – Marinella, 87, Greek pop singer