When the winners are announced for the 61st annual Grammy Awards on Sunday (February 10), it will be the final stage in a voting process that began more than three months ago. The recording academy hands out Grammys in a whopping 84 categories spread out across 30 fields.
The eligibility period ran from Oct. 1, 2017 to Sept. 30, 2018. This year, there were a record number of submissions for Grammy Awards consideration. A group of 350 artists and expert sorted these entries, topping more than 23,000, into their respective fields.
First-round ballots were sent to approximately 13,000 voting members on Oct. 17 and were due back on Oct. 31. Academy members were asked to vote only in their areas of expertise and could cast ballots in up to 15 categories in the genre fields plus the four General Field awards (Album, Record and Song of the Year, Best New Artist.)
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In eight fields — Alternative, Comedy, Musical Theater, Pop, Reggae, Spoken Word, Traditional Pop and Visual Media — these first-round ballots were used to determine the nominees.
In the General Field as well as 15 others — American Roots, Children, Classical, Contemporary Instrumental, Country, Dance/Electronic, Gospel/CCM, Jazz, Latin, Music Video, New Age, Rap, R&B, Rock and World Music — nominations were determined by review committees comprised of voting members from all of the academy’s chapter cities who also considered the first-round ballot results.
Nominations in two fields — Composing/Arranging and Engineering (as well as Producer of the Year, both classical and non-classical) — were decided upon by craft committees of voting members who receive the results of these first-round ballots.
And four fields — Album Notes, Historical, Package, Immersive Music and Remixed Recording — were not included on this first-round ballot. Rather, nominations came directly from craft committees of voting members.
SEE 2019 Grammys: Full list of nominations for the 61st Grammy Awards
The 61st Grammy Awards nominations were announced on December 7. Final ballots were sent out on Dec. 13. Eligible voters had until January 9 to send in their picks, again with the limitation of voting in up to 15 categories in the genre fields plus the four General Field awards.
Winners were revealed on February 10 in a two-part ceremony with the majority of the 84 awards handed out in a non-televised event that afternoon while a dozen or so are doled out on the CBS telecast that evening.
SEE 2019 Grammys online: How to watch Grammy Awards live stream without a TV
