Casual music fans always have one big question every time the Grammy Awards roll around: What’s the difference between Record of the Year and Song of the Year?
These two awards have been confusing observers for years, because they both reward individual tracks. For instance, in 2025, Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” won both Record and Song of the Year.
Why are there two awards for “best track?” What is the distinction between the two? Let’s break it down.
Record of the Year vs. Song of the Year: The Basic Differences
The short answer: Song of the Year is awarded to the songwriters, while Record of the Year is awarded to the performer, producers, mixers, recording engineers, and mastering engineers.
Song of the Year is intended to reward the composer. It’s essentially an award for best lyrics and melody. In theory, a track nominated for Song of the Year should sound good no matter who sings it.
Think of a song like Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” That is the perfect example of a great song, since it was a huge hit when Dolly did it as a country ballad, and then became an even bigger smash when Whitney Houston did it as a soulful pop song.
Unfortunately, “I Will Always Love You” was never nominated for the Song of the Year Grammy. Dolly’s only SOY nomination came in 1982 for “9 to 5.”
Record of the Year, meanwhile, depends largely on the performance of the artist and the full production team. Record of the Year takes into account the entire track — including the lyrics and melody, but also the vocal performance, the instrumentation, the production, the mixing, and the overall finished sound.
Think of a track like Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk,” which won Record of the Year in 2016. That song is brilliant because of the slick production and the way the brass instruments meld with Mars’ voice.
“Uptown Funk” might not have been a hit if it had been performed by someone else. It’s a better record than a song. Accordingly, it was not nominated for Song of the Year.
Why is There Confusion Between the Two Awards?
Very often, the nominations for Record of the Year look the same as the nominations for Song of the Year. In 2026, for instance, seven of the eight nominees in each category were identical. The only difference was Chappell Roan’s “The Subway” appearing in Record of the Year, and the KPop Demon Hunters song “Golden” appearing in Song of the Year.
Anothe reason for the confusion: The Recording Academy doesn’t necessarily do a good job of explaining the difference. Usually. on the Grammy broadcast, they’ll make a reference to the fact that Song of the Year is “a songwriter’s award,” but that’s the only mention.
Even Grammy voters are often unable to recognize the distinction — and that’s a problem. Ideally, voters should be savvy enough to understand which tracks are excellent because they are outstanding songs, and which are excellent because they are outstanding overall productions. They shouldn’t be nominating identical tracks in both categories.
Wait, What is Album of the Year?
Album of the Year is the other one of the “Big Three” Grammy categories, along with Record and Song of the Year.
Album of the Year rewards an entire album, or collection of tracks. These are complete records, featuring usually 10 to 15 individual songs. Think about iconic records like Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Taylor Swift’s 1989, Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, George Michael’s Faith, and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors.
It is obviously possible for individual tracks from an album to be nominated for Record or Song of the Year.
Who’s Eligible for the Song of the Year Grammy?
Song of the Year goes to the songwriters involved in creating the track. That means that if the artist didn’t write the track, they won’t be nominated.
This has happened many times, most recently in 2003, when Norah Jones’ “Don’t Know Why” won Song of the Year. Jones didn’t actually win the Grammy — instead, it went to songwriter Jesse Harris.
Unlike the Oscars, which limits the number of songwriters to four for its Best Original Song category, the Grammys have no such limit. Every songwriter credited on the track can be recognized.
In recent years, as songs are increasingly written by committees, this has led to some massive nominee lists. Justin Bieber’s “Peaches” currently holds the record, with 11 different songwriters sharing its Song of the Year nomination.
One other important note: the Grammys stipulate that songs using samples or interpolations are eligible for Song of the Year, but the writers of the original samples are not. So when Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” got nominated, the writers of the sampled track (J-Kwon’s “Tipsy”) were not included in the nomination.
Tracks That Have Won Both Record and Song of the Year
As noted, very often, the same songs are nominated in both categories. In the Grammys’ nearly 70-year history, the same track has won both awards 34 times.
Here’s the full list of tracks that have won the Grammy for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The performing artist is listed first, followed by the songwriters in parenthesis.
1959: Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare), Domenico Modugno (Domenico Modugno)
1962: Moon River, Henry Mancini (Henry Mancini & Johnny Mercer)
1964: Days of Wine and Roses, Henry Mancini (Henry Mancini & Johnny Mercer)
1968: Up, Up and Away, 5th Dimension (Jimmy Webb)
1971: Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon & Garfunkel (Paul Simon)
1973: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Roberta Flack (Ewan MacColl)
1974: Killing Me Softly With His Song, Roberta Flack (Charles Fox & Norman Gimbel)
1979: Just the Way You Are, Billy Joel (Billy Joel)
1980: What a Fool Believes, Doobie Brothers (Michael McDonald & Kenny Loggins)
1981: Sailing, Christopher Cross (Christopher Cross)
1982: Bette Davis Eyes, Kim Carnes (Jackie DeShannon & Donna Weiss)
1985: What’s Love Got to Do With It, Tina Turner (Terry Britten & Graham Lyle)
1986: We Are the World, USA for Africa (Lionel Richie & Michael Jackson)
1989: Don’t Worry Be Happy, Bobby McFerrin (Bobby McFerrin)
1990: Wind Beneath My Wings, Bette Midler (Larry Henley & Jeff Silbar)
1992: Unforgettable, Natalie Cole (Irving Gordon)
1993: Tears in Heaven, Eric Clapton (Eric Clapton & Will Jennings)
1996: Kiss From a Rose, Seal (Seal)
1997: Change the World, Eric Clapton (Gordon Kennedy, Wayne Kirkpatrick & Tommy Sims)
1998: Sunny Came Home, Shawn Colvin (Shawn Colvin & John Leventhal)
1999: My Heart Will Go On, Celine Dion (James Horner & Will Jennings)
2000: Smooth, Santana & Rob Thomas (Itaal Shur & Rob Thomas)
2001: Beautiful Day, U2 (U2)
2003: Don’t Know Why, Norah Jones (Jesse Harris)
2007: Not Ready to Make Nice, the Chicks (The Chicks & Dan Wilson)
2008: Rehab, Amy Winehouse (Amy Winehouse)
2011: Need You Now, Lady A (Lady A & Josh Kear)
2012: Rolling in the Deep, Adele (Adele & Paul Epworth)
2015: Stay With Me, Sam Smith (Sam Smith, James Napier & William Phillips)
2017: Hello, Adele (Adele & Greg Kurstin)
2019: This is America, Childish Gambino (Donald Glover, Ludwig Goransson & Jeffery Lamar Williams)
2020: Bad Guy, Billie Eilish (Billie Eilish & Finneas)
2022: Leave the Door Open, Silk Sonic (Anderson .Paak, Bruno Mars, Christopher Brody Brown & Dernst Emile II)
2025: Not Like Us, Kendrick Lamar (Kendrick Lamar)
Many of these songwriters have been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Artists Nominated for Record and Song of the Year for Different Songs
In most years, artists choose the same song to submit for ROY and SOY. But occasionally, when they’re not sure which song Recording Academy voters prefer, an artist will submit one song for ROY and a different song for SOY.
Here are all of the instances in which an artist was nominated for different tracks for Record and Song of the Year at the same Grammy ceremony.
1965: John Lennon & Paul McCartney
ROY for “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (Beatles)
SOY for “A Hard Day’s Night”
1972: Carole King
ROY for “It’s Too Late” (WINNER)
SOY for “You’ve Got a Friend” (WINNER)
1985: Cyndi Lauper
ROY for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”
SOY for “Time After Time”
2000: Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins
ROY for “No Scrubs” (TLC)
SOY for “Unpretty”
2002: U2
ROY for “Walk On” (WINNER)
SOY for “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of”
2010: Beyonce
ROY for “Halo”
SOY for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” (WINNER)
2018: Jay-Z
ROY for “The Story of O.J.”
SOY for “4:44”
2018: Bruno Mars
ROY for “24K Magic” (WINNER)
SOY for “That’s What I Like” (WINNER)
2021: Roddy Ricch
ROY for “Rockstar”
SOY for “The Box”
2024: Jon Batiste
ROY for “Worship”
SOY for “Butterfly”
See which of these records actually deserved to win Record of the Year in our in-depth analysis.
Last Updated on July 8, 2026