Why Taylor Swift's 'Life of a Showgirl' Isn't Nominated at 2026 Grammys

07 Nov 2025, 16:37 · The Fresno Bee

For the first time in three consecutive years, Taylor Swift was left off of the Grammy Award nominations list.

The music nominations were announced on Friday, November 7, where stars such as Sabrina Carpenter, Lady Gaga, Chappell Roan and more received nods. Swift's The Life of a Showgirl, however, was excluded from the accolades.

Swift, 35, has won 14 Grammys in years past and received six nominations at the 2024 Grammys for that year's Tortutured Poets Department. However, Showgirl was never eligible for inclusion at the 2026 ceremony. Next year's awards show honor records that were released between August 31, 2024, and August 30, 2025.

Swift dropped The Life of a Showgirl, her 12th studio album, two months later on October 3, 2025. The record will be eligible at the 2027 Grammys instead.

Swift wrote and recorded Showgirl during the European leg of her Eras Tour in 2024, pulling from her experience between concerts and in her relationship with fiancé Travis Kelce. While the pop star called the LP one of her favorites she's ever created, not all fans and critics were on the same page.

"I welcome the chaos," she told Apple Music's Zane Lowe during a lengthy interview last month, addressing the mixed reviews. "The rule of show business is, if it's the first week of my album release and you are saying either my name or my album title, you're helping."

Swift further pointed out that there are many "subjective opinions on art."

"I'm not the art police," she stated. "It's, like, everybody is allowed to feel exactly how they want, and what our goal is as entertainers is to be a mirror. Oftentimes, an album is a really, really wild way to look at yourself [and] what you're going through in your life is going to affect whether you relate to the music that I'm putting out at any given moment."

Despite certain backlash, Showgirl did break all sorts of sales and streaming records.

"I have such an eye on legacy when I'm making my music," Swift said on Apple Music. "I know what I made. I know I adore it."

Kelce, 36, is among one of the biggest supporters of Showgirl.

"I'm just the lucky man that gets to be, you know, the support system for Taylor while she drops one of the coolest albums that I've ever listened to, that the world's seen," he said on his "New Heights" podcast in October. "I'm excited for her. I'm happy for her. Everything seems to have gone perfectly, all this planning. You see it from start to finish. She started this thing in the middle of her tour in Europe."

The Life of a Showgirl features several songs about Swift and Kelce's relationship, including "The Fate of Ophelia," "Opalite," "Wish List," Honey," and the double entendre-filled "Wood" with several allusions to Kelce's "manhood."

"I had this idea about, ‘I ain't gotta knock on wood,' and I would knock on wood and it would be all these superstitions. And it really started out in a very innocent place," Swift said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon about the racy lyrics. "I don't know what happened, man. I got in there, [Max Martin, Shellback and I] started vibing and I don't know, I don't know how we got here, but I love the song so much."

This story was originally published November 7, 2025 at 8:37 AM.