Zach Top is truly unstoppable– and I’m not mad about it at all.
Last night, February 1, marked the Washington native’s first appearance at the Grammy Awards, where he received three nominations in the categories of Country Song, Country Solo Performance, and Traditional Country Album. Fittingly, it was the latter, also a brand-new category, that went to the standout rising star.
Top took home the gilded gramophone for his 2026 album, Ain’t In It For My Health, setting the standard for this newly introduced award. Previously, traditional country albums were grouped under Best Country Album, but the category has now been split into Best Contemporary Country Album, won by Jelly Roll’s Beautifully Broken, and Best Traditional Country Album. This change reflects the growing diversity within country music and aims to better recognize projects that fall outside the mainstream.
Top sat alongside a class of some pretty fierce competition for this award, with fellow nominees including Margo Price (Hard Headed Woman), Willie Nelson (Oh What a Beautiful World), Lukas Nelson (American Romance), and Charley Crockett (Dollar a Day). While each project made a name for itself this past year, it’s no surprise that fan favorite Zach Top took home this award, given his cult following in country music and the success of singles like “South of Sanity” and “Good Times in Tan Lines.”
While on the carpet before the show, Rolling Stone stopped by to ask him about the differentiation between what these two newly separated categories mean to him. “I wanna ask you about the division of the category, we have traditional and contemporary, what does that mean to you, and how do you feel about it?”
Top responded, “I wouldn’t call it a division as much as, I don’t know, country is such a wide umbrella right now, it’s fun, it’s exciting, there’s so many things that fall into that genre, so you know, having a couple different ways to classify stuff, I think is cool.”
He also noted the new doors it’s opened for more artists in the genre, “And I mean it gives me a chance to get in on something for a little bit. I don’t know if I’d call myself an outsider necessarily, but you know, a little different than what most of the mainstream is doing and other guys like Charley Crockett and Tyler Childers. You know, like the same sort of thing where they don’t fit right in down the middle as far as like the contemporary category would go. So I think it’s cool for guys like us.”
This progressive shift has been a long time coming. Many other genres already divide their album awards into separate categories, such as Best Rock Album and Best Alternative Music Album, or Best R&B Album and Best Progressive R&B Album. With country music’s growing influence and popularity, the Grammys’ decision to follow suit feels timely. Top’s breakout year as a leader in the classic country revival likely helped highlight the need for this change.
With many fans claiming that country music was “snubbed” this year, after no country artists were nominated in major all-genre categories like Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, or Best New Artist, it will be interesting to see how the Recording Academy responds in 2027.
Personally, I’m petitioning for a Zach Top performance next year and more country artists on the Grammy stage in general, especially considering Reba was the only country star to perform last night.
Watch the interview here: