The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has announced 17 nominees for its class of 2026, with one of its most widely genre-spanning lists of contenders ever:
The Black Crowes
Jeff Buckley
Mariah Carey
Phil Collins
Melissa Etheridge
Lauryn Hill
Billy Idol
INXS
Iron Maiden
Joy Division/New Order
New Edition
Oasis
Pink
Sade
Shakira
Luther Vandross
Wu-Tang Clan
The 10 nominees appearing on the ballot for the first time are Jeff Buckley, Phil Collins, Melissa Etheridge, Lauryn Hill, INXS, New Edition, Pink, Shakira, Luther Vandross and Wu-Tang Clan.
The seven returning to the ballot after previous tries at getting elected are the Black Crowes, Mariah Carey, Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis and Sade.
“We are honoured to be included in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees, amongst this incredible group of artists,” INXS told Variety Australia on Thursday.
If that seems like a large crop of nominees, it is. For 2025, the total number of contenders stood at 14, three fewer than this year’s roster.
Of the seven returning to the ballot, five were on it just last year and make an instant return: the Black Crowes, Carey, Idol, Joy Division/New Order and Oasis. The singer for the latter band, Liam Gallagher, disavowed the Rock Hall when his band was previously twice nominated, but the nominating committee did not hold his recalcitrance against him this year.
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The third time being nominated could be the charm for four of the artists: Carey, Iron Maiden, Joy Division/New Order and Oasis. The three second-time nominees, meanwhile, are the Black Crowes, Idol and Sade. The Hall is not going back into its ancient history to find return nominees: All of the prior nominations for all of these artists occurred since 2021.
This year’s list has what some might consider a recency bias, relatively speaking. All of the 10 first-time nominees having debuted on the scene in the 1980s, 1990s or, as with Pink, 2000, despite the annual cries from fans of older rock bands of the ’60s and ’70s that their favorites are still overdue.
Collins is the only 2026 contender who already has a spot in the Rock Hall, having been inducted as a member of Genesis.
Buckley is the rare artist getting a shot at being elected on the basis of releasing only one album in his lifetime. “Grace” came out in 1994; the singer/songwriter died in 1997. Something similar could be said of Hill, who is alive and well and has enjoyed a long performing career, but as a solo artist has had only one studio album, 1998’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”
Artists who have been in the headlines recently sometimes find the winds in their favor. That could hold true for artists ranging from Collins, who has been candid in recent stories about debilitating health conditions that prevent him from recording, to Idol, who has a new documentary about to come out. Oasis may also find stronger momentum for getting in than with the group’s past nominations, because of a sellout world tour that generated a wave of fresh mania last year. And Hill may be enjoying some current good will for her recent appearance at the Grammys.
Those who can be counted on to complain every year that the Hall should limit itself to actual rock ‘n’ roll will have plenty to gripe about this year, although others will be grateful for the wide gamut of genres spanned. Only roughly half of the 17 nominees would be considered “rock” per se: the Crowes, Buckley, Etheridge, Idol, INXS, Iron Maiden, Joy Division/New Order and Oasis… with Collins perhaps straddling the line as a recognized superstar of pop, apart from his duties in the rock band Genesis. That leaves plenty of room in this crop for a sizable representation of pop, with Pink, Carey, and Latin-pop crossover favorite Shakira, and R&B and/or hip-hop, with Hill, New Edition, Vandross and Wu Tang in the mix.
The vote will take place over the next two months, with those selected by the Hall’s 1,200 voters revealed in April. At that time, further Inductees will also be named who are entering the Hall under three special committee categories: Musical Influence, Musical Excellence and the Ahmet Ertegun Non Performer Award.
From Variety US