Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance

The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards.^[1] According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guide it is designed for solo, duo/groups or collaborative (vocal or instrumental) rock recordings and is limited to singles or tracks only.^[2]

Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance
"Now and Then" by The Beatles is the most recent recipient
Awarded for	quality vocal or instrumental rock recordings
Country	United States
Presented by	National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
Currently held by	The Beatles – "Now and Then" (2025)
Website	grammy.com

This award combines the previous categories for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Rock Instrumental Performance. The restructuring of these categories was a result of the Recording Academy's wish to decrease the list of categories and awards and to eliminate the distinctions between solo and duo/groups performances. The Academy argued that any distinction between these performances is difficult to make, as "four-fifths of rock acts are groups, and even solo rock acts tend to be backed by a band".^[3]

The award goes to the artist. The producer, engineer and songwriter can apply for a Winners Certificate.^[4]

From 2014, this category has also included hard rock performances that were previously screened in the Best Hard Rock Performance and Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance categories, which are now defunct.

Recipients

Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters were the inaugural winners of the award

David Bowie was posthumously honoured in 2017

Leonard Cohen posthumously won in 2018

2021 recipient Fiona Apple was the first solo female artist to win this category, in a line-up featuring only female performers for the first time.^[5] She previously won the Best Female Rock Vocal Performance trophy with "Criminal" in 1998

Year[I]	Performing artist(s)	Work	Nominees	Ref.
2012	Foo Fighters	"Walk"	Coldplay – "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall" The Decemberists – "Down by the Water" Mumford & Sons – "The Cave" Radiohead – "Lotus Flower"	[6]
2013	The Black Keys	"Lonely Boy"	Alabama Shakes – "Hold On" Coldplay – "Charlie Brown" Mumford & Sons – "I Will Wait" Bruce Springsteen – "We Take Care of Our Own"	[7]
2014	Imagine Dragons	"Radioactive"	Alabama Shakes – "Always Alright" David Bowie – "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" Led Zeppelin – "Kashmir (Live)" Queens of the Stone Age – "My God is the Sun" Jack White – "I'm Shakin'"	[8]
2015	Jack White	"Lazaretto"	Ryan Adams – "Gimme Something Good" Arctic Monkeys – "Do I Wanna Know?" Beck – "Blue Moon" The Black Keys – "Fever"	[9]
2016	Alabama Shakes	"Don't Wanna Fight"	Florence + The Machine – "What Kind of Man" Foo Fighters – "Something from Nothing" Elle King – "Ex's & Oh's" Wolf Alice – "Moaning Lisa Smile"	[10]
2017	David Bowie	"Blackstar"	Alabama Shakes – "Joe (Live from Austin City Limits)" Beyoncé featuring Jack White – "Don't Hurt Yourself" Disturbed – "The Sound of Silence" Twenty One Pilots – "Heathens"	[11]
2018	Leonard Cohen	"You Want It Darker"	Chris Cornell – "The Promise" Foo Fighters – "Run" Kaleo – "No Good" Nothing More – "Go to War"	[12]
2019	Chris Cornell	"When Bad Does Good"	Arctic Monkeys – "Four Out of Five" The Fever 333 – "Made an America" Greta Van Fleet – "Highway Tune" Halestorm – "Uncomfortable"	[13]
2020	Gary Clark Jr.	"This Land"	Bones UK – "Pretty Waste" Brittany Howard – "History Repeats" Karen O & Danger Mouse – "Woman" Rival Sons – "Too Bad"
2021	Fiona Apple	"Shameika"	Big Thief – "Not" Phoebe Bridgers – "Kyoto" Haim – "The Steps" Brittany Howard – "Stay High" Grace Potter – "Daylight"	[14]
2022	Foo Fighters	"Making a Fire"	AC/DC – "Shot in the Dark" Black Pumas – "Know You Better (Live From Capitol Studio A)" Chris Cornell – "Nothing Compares 2 U" Deftones – "Ohms"	[15]
2023	Brandi Carlile	"Broken Horses"	Bryan Adams – "So Happy It Hurts" Beck – "Old Man" The Black Keys – "Wild Child" IDLES – "Crawl!" Ozzy Osbourne featuring Jeff Beck – "Patient Number 9" Turnstile – "Holiday"	[16]
2024	Boygenius	"Not Strong Enough"	Arctic Monkeys – "Sculptures of Anything Goes" Black Pumas – "More Than A Love Song" Foo Fighters – "Rescued" Metallica – "Lux Æterna"	[17]
2025	The Beatles	"Now and Then"	The Black Keys - "Beautiful People (Stay High)" Green Day - "The American Dream Is Killing Me" Idles - "Gift Horse" Pearl Jam - "Dark Matter" St. Vincent - "Broken Man"	[18]

Artists with multiple nominations

6 nominations Brittany Howard (4 with Alabama Shakes) 5 nominations Foo Fighters 4 nominations Alabama Shakes The Black Keys 3 nominations Arctic Monkeys Chris Cornell Jack White

2 nominations Beck Black Pumas David Bowie Coldplay Idles Mumford & Sons Phoebe Bridgers (1 with Boygenius)

See also

• Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance
• Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance
• Grammy Award for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance
• Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
• Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance
• Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance
• Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance
• Grammy Award for Best Rock Song

References

1. "Grammy Awards at a Glance". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
2. "Category Mapper". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on June 4, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2011.
3. "Grammy Awards restructuring". Archived from the original on December 3, 2011. Retrieved April 7, 2011.
4. Grammy Blue Book
5. Nuggent, Annabel (November 24, 2020). "All Grammy nominees for Best Rock Performance are women for the first time in award's history". The Independent. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
6. "2011 – 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards Nominees And Winners: Rock Field". The Recording Academy. November 30, 2011.
7. "Grammys 2013: Complete list of nominees and winners". Los Angeles Times. February 10, 2013. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
8. "2014 Nominees" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 16, 2013. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
9. Grebey, James (December 5, 2014). "Grammys 2015 Nominees: Sam Smith, HAIM, Iggy Azalea, and More". Spin. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
10. "Awards Nominations & Winners". April 30, 2017.
11. "59th Annual GRAMMY Awards Winners & Nominees". GRAMMY.com. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
12. "60th Grammy Nominees". Grammy.com. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
13. Grammy.com, 7 December 2018
14. 2021 Nominations List
15. "2022 GRAMMYs Awards: Complete Nominations List". GRAMMY.com. November 23, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
16. "2023 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Complete Nominees List". GRAMMYs. November 15, 2022. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
17. "2024 Grammy Nominations: See The Full Nominees List". The Recording Academy. November 10, 2023. Archived from the original on November 10, 2023. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
18. "2025 GRAMMYs: See The Full Winners & Nominees List". The Recording Academy. November 8, 2024. Retrieved February 2, 2024.

External links

• Official Site of the Grammy Awards