The eligibility year for the 2020 Grammy Awards will close on Aug. 31, one month earlier than usual, the Recording Academy announced today in a letter to members.
The change is due to next year’s telecast taking place on Jan. 26, around two weeks earlier than usual (although the 2018 awards took place on Jan. 28), in an effort to avoid going up against the Academy Awards. In September, the Motion Picture Academy announced that it is moving the date of their 2020 Oscar telecast up by two weeks, from the previously announced Feb. 23 to Feb. 9.
The change will skew the nominees’ list, as the window of eligibility will be just 11 months instead of 12: Eligible recordings must be released between Oct. 1, 2018, and August 31, 2019. It seems likely that the release schedule for late August, which is traditionally a slow period for major artists, will be unusually crowded this year.
Recordings released after Sept. 1, 2019 will be in consideration for the 2021 Grammy Awards.
Members can submit recordings for 2020 awards consideration beginning June 24, 2019.
After a one-year sojourn to New York’s Madison Square Garden in 2018, earlier this year the Grammys returned to their traditional home of the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where they will also be held in 2020.