At the 2026 Grammys, Leon Thomas emerged victorious in the best R&B album category, fending off fellow nominees GIVĒON (Beloved), Ledisi (The Crown), Teyana Taylor (Escape Room) and Coco Jones (Why Not More?). With a Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit (“Mutt”) and a near-perfect campaign under his belt, the award was practically Thomas’ to lose. But this year’s field is a lot more competitive.
Three-time Grammy-winning R&B icon Jill Scott is the frontrunner for best R&B album at the 2027 Grammys. To Whom This May Concern, her first full-length offering in 11 years, debuted in the top 10 of seven different Billboard charts, spawned her first Adult R&B Airplay chart-topper in over a decade (“Pressha”) and gave way to an acclaimed headlining tour.
Scott, who was inducted into Billboard’s R&B Hall of Fame earlier this year, will likely be nominated across the R&B field, with select album tracks having non-zero chances of showing up in the rap and American roots categories. She’s been incredibly visible this year — even reprising her iconic role of Sheila Jackson in Why Did I Get Married Again? — but, more importantly, Concern is one of the year’s best albums. In fact, Scott may well break into the general field with an album of the year nomination: At least one R&B album has made the lineup every year this decade except for 2025, and Scott fits the bill of a respected OG who delivered a project that met the moment with a career-redefining album.
Kehlani, who won best R&B song and performance last year for her Hot 100 top 10 hit “Folded” (No. 6), is neck-and-neck with Scott for a nomination here. Her self-titled set reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Featuring icons like Brandy and Missy Elliott, the set also spawned the Usher-assisted hit “Shoulda Never,” which reached No. 10 on Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay. The Oakland singer has re-established herself as a Grammy darling in recent years (she picked up three nods at the 2025 ceremony after a seven-year absence), and she’s also a frontrunner to win best melodic rap performance this year alongside Cardi B for “Safe.”
PJ Morton is currently the male soloist with the most nominations in this category (four), and he’s poised to extend that lead with Saturday Night, the R&B side of his Juneteenth-released double album. Chris Brown could potentially become the male soloist with the second-most nods in this category if he makes the final lineup with Brown (The Chocolate Edition). He won here just two years ago for 11:11 (Deluxe), but that album had the hits, acclaim and passion that Brown — which Pitchfork infamously scored a 1.3 out of 10 — lacks. Working in Brown’s favor is his stadium-conquering joint R&B Tour with Usher, which has reinforced his status as one of the most lucrative touring acts in Black music history. Nonetheless, the rumored, concert-delaying tension between the two stars, coupled with Brown’s recent multimillion-dollar legal battle with his former housekeeper, could turn off voters.
Enter a trio of acts that could become first-time nominees in this category: Masego, The Womack Sisters and Kenyon Dixon. Masego made a grand return with Fix Your Face, his first album in three years, which had minimal chart impact but won lots of love in R&B circles thanks to his headlining tour, his Herbie Hancock-honoring “Recommend” music video and standout cuts like “Breathe,” “Heaven” and “Hello” (with Buju Banton). The Womack Sisters, a girl group consisting of siblings who are the nieces of Bobby Womack and granddaughters of Sam Cooke, could earn a nod here for their self-titled debut studio album. The focus single “If I Let You” has reached No. 11 on Adult Alternative Airplay, and the trio is set to open for select dates on Harry Styles’ stadium-headlining Together, Together tour next spring. Finally, Kenyon Dixon, a five-time Grammy nominee, is seeking his first nod in this category for Ego Ruins Everything. He’s garnered tons of love from more traditional R&B fans (his first three career Grammy nods were all for best traditional R&B performance), and Ego elegantly blends more contemporary flourishes into his soulful sound.
Three ladies who helped define late-2010s and early-2020s R&B also have albums in contention: Ella Mai has only scored one nod in this category, but she could return with Do You Still Love Me?, which spawned the Hot 100 hit “Little Things” (No. 81) and anchored her headlining tour. Similarly, Summer Walker boasts one previous nomination in this category, but it was for her Clear 2: Soft Life EP, which offered a far more stripped-down sound than the radio-ready Finally Over It. Nonetheless, the conclusion to the Atlanta singer’s Over It trilogy posted the biggest Billboard 200 debut by a female R&B artist in 2025, dominated the set list of its accompanying arena-headlining tour and spawned several Hot 100 hits, including “Go Girl” (No. 60), “Robbed You” (No. 58) and “No” (No. 69). Then again, her campaign could be stunted by her ongoing legal dispute with Interscope. Finally, Ari Lennox has inexplicably never earned a Grammy nomination for her own work (her sole nod came from Dreamville’s 2020 best rap album bid for Revenge of the Dreamers III), but she could finally make it happen with Vacancy. The record reached No. 25 on Top R&B Albums and earned considerable acclaim in R&B circles.
Mariah Carey is one legend to look out for. She’s in contention with Here for It All, an album that reached the Billboard 200 top 10 (No. 7), spawned two Adult R&B Airplay chart-toppers in “In Your Feelings” and “Type Dangerous,” and housed “Nothing Is Impossible,” which she performed at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. With just five wins across her decade-spanning career, Carey is far from a Grammy darling; she hasn’t been recognized by the Recording Academy since 2009, and R&B voters haven’t awarded her since 2006, when she took home best contemporary R&B album for The Emancipation of Mimi and best female R&B vocal performance for “We Belong Together.”
Other titles to look out for include: Heat the Streets (Elmiene), Love Me for Me (October London), God Must Really Love Me (Tori Kelly), Juniper (Joy Crookes), Eric Bellinger (Eric Bellinger) and Ghosted (Saint Harison)
Our Fearless Forecast
We’re predicting: To Whom This May Concern (Jill Scott); Kehlani (Kehlani); Fix Your Face (Masego); Saturday Night (PJ Morton); The Womack Sisters (The Womack Sisters)
This story originally appeared on Billboard
