It's a nice day for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominations; it's a nice day to start again on the lobbying, handwringing and arguing over which of the nominees deserves to make the Rock Hall's Class of 2026.
On Wednesday (February 25), the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced a hefty list of 17 nominees for this year's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony - a slightly larger number of names than in recent years, which have put 14 or 15 artists up for the honor.
Of those 17 nominees (18 different artists, technically), we have a sizable number of first-time nominees (10) and a decent showing of artists who have been nominated for this honor at least once before (seven).
The artists nominated for the 2026 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame are: Southern blues-rockers The Black Crowes; haunting singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley; powerhouse pop singer-songwriter Mariah Carey; innovative pop-rock hitmaker Phil Collins; rootsy singer-songwriter mainstay Melissa Etheridge; R&B/rap trailblazer Lauryn Hill; New Wave punk Billy Idol; charismatic '80s hitmakers INXS; heavy metal gods Iron Maiden; post-punk-turned-dance pioneers Joy Division/New Order; R&B vocal group standard-bearers New Edition; Britpop icons Oasis; gutsy pop star P!NK; sophisticated R&B group Sade; Colombian pop juggernaut Shakira; smooth R&B legend Luther Vandross; and culture-shifting hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan.
An artist becomes eligible for Rock Hall nomination 25 years after the release of their first commercial recording. This means that of the first-time nominees, P!NK - whose debut album Can't Take Me Home dropped in 2000 - is the most recent name; Lauryn Hill's solo debut, the Grammy album of the year winner The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, came out in 1998; the late Jeff Buckley's revered debut (and sole) album Grace came out in 1994; Wu-Tang Clan's monumentally important debut Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) hit in 1993; and while she broke internationally in the mid-to-late '90s, Shakira technically debuted in 1991 when she was just a teenager with Magia.
Of the other first timers: Melissa Etheridge's stunning self-titled debut dropped in 1988; before evolving into a mature force in R&B, New Edition made their debut in 1983 with the teen-pop LP Candy Girl; after spending the '70s as one of the most sought-after backup singers, Luther Vandross struck out on his own and hit gold with his 1981 debut Never Too Much; 1981 is also the year Phil Collins' solo debut, Face Value, came out after his exit from Genesis; the oldest of the new noms, as it were, is INXS, whose self-titled debut came out in 1980.
Collins, it should be mentioned, is a first-time nominee as a solo artist but is already in the Rock Hall as a member of the prog-rock outfit Genesis. If Collins is inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2026, he will become the 29th artist to be inducted in the Rock Hall at least two times.
But enough about these fresh-faced youngsters: what about those who are up for the Class of 2026 but have been through this song and dance before? This is the third nomination for Mariah Carey (previously up in 2024 and 2025), the third for Iron Maiden (previously up in 2021 and 2023), the third for Joy Division/New Order (previously up in 2023 and 2025) and the third for Oasis (previously up in 2024 and 2025). It's the second go-round for the Black Crowes and Billy Idol, who were both up in 2025, and the second try for Sade, who were nominated in 2024.
In terms of hits, Mariah Carey is far and away the biggest commercial force here: she ranks fifth on Billboard's Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Artists list and has earned 19 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s, more than any other solo artist (and the second-most of all time, after the Beatles). Phil Collins is no slouch either: he's 27th on our chart-based Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Artists tally and has netted seven Hot 100 toppers as a solo act (plus one with Genesis). P!NK, meanwhile, is 51st on our Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Artists list and has four Hot 100 No. 1s.
The 2026 inductees will be decided by ballots cast by an international panel of more than 1,200 artists, historians and music industry professionals. The Rock Hall's Class of 2026 will be revealed in April with the induction ceremony taking place this fall.
(Billboard)
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