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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]

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

A man holding a guitar, wearing a blue shirt and a dark vest
Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters were the inaugural winners of the award.
A man holding a guitar, wearing a blue shirt and a dark vest
David Bowie was posthumously honoured in 2017.
A man holding a guitar, wearing a blue shirt and a dark vest
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 had previously won the Best Female Rock Vocal Performance trophy with “Criminal” in 1998.

2010s

Year Artist Work
2012
[6]
Foo Fighters “Walk”
Coldplay “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall”
The Decemberists “Down by the Water”
Mumford & Sons “The Cave”
Radiohead “Lotus Flower”
2013
[7]
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”
2014
[8]
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’”
2015
[9]
Jack White “Lazaretto”
Ryan Adams “Gimme Something Good”
Arctic Monkeys “Do I Wanna Know?”
Beck “Blue Moon”
The Black Keys “Fever”
2016
[10]
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”
2017
[11]
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”
2018
[12]
Leonard Cohen “You Want It Darker”
Chris Cornell “The Promise”
Foo Fighters “Run”
Kaleo “No Good”
Nothing More “Go to War”
2019
[13]
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”

2020s

Year Artist Work
2020
Gary Clark Jr. “This Land”
Bones UK “Pretty Waste”
Brittany Howard “History Repeats”
Karen O and Danger Mouse “Woman”
Rival Sons “Too Bad”
2021
[14]
Fiona Apple “Shameika”
Big Thief “Not”
Phoebe Bridgers “Kyoto”
Haim “The Steps”
Brittany Howard “Stay High”
Grace Potter “Daylight”
2022
[15]
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”
2023
[16]
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”
2024
[17]
Boygenius “Not Strong Enough”
Arctic Monkeys “Sculptures of Anything Goes”
Black Pumas “More Than a Love Song”
Foo Fighters “Rescued”
Metallica “Lux Æterna”
2025
[18]
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”
2026
[19]
Yungblud featuring Nuno Bettencourt, Frank Bello, Adam Wakeman and II of Sleep Token “Changes (Live from Villa Park) Back to the Beginning”
Amyl and the Sniffers “U Should Not Be Doing That”
Linkin Park “The Emptiness Machine”
Turnstile “Never Enough”
Hayley Williams “Mirtazapine”

^[I] Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year.

Artists with multiple nominations

See also

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.
  19. ^ Faulkner, Clara (November 7, 2025). “2026 Grammys: See The Full Nominations List”. The Recording Academy. Retrieved November 8, 2025.