The strong early response to Madonna’s Confessions II makes it seem likely that it could win for best dance/electronic album at the 69th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 7 — 20 years after Confessions on a Dance Floor danced off with the honor in 2006. That would make Madonna the first woman ever to win twice in that category (which was introduced in 2005), and would give her the longest span of wins in that category (a title currently held by The Chemical Brothers, whose wins span 14 years).
Confessions II has a solid 83 rating at crit-aggregating website Metacritic, the second-highest rating for any of the 10 post-2000 Madonna albums listed. (The only one with a higher rating is the 2009 compilation Celebration.)
Billboard’s Kate Bain wrote about the album on its Friday (July 3) release day: “Altogether, Confessions II is a stunner, playing as a modern take on club music that simultaneously evokes the genre’s previous eras without ever falling into pastiche.” In a subsequent Billboard ranking of all the album’s tracks, Bain and Joe Lynch, who identify themselves as “two lifelong Queen of Pop acolytes,” write: “Madonna comfortably veers between insecurity and omnipotence, candor and camp, spiritual fortification and libidinous release on her most compelling release since, well, Confessions on a Dance Floor.”
Madonna could also win Grammys for individual tracks on the album. Warner Records is tentatively planning to enter “I Feel So Free” for best dance/electronic recording and either “Dancerteria” or “Bring Your Love” (feat. Sabrina Carpenter) for best dance pop recording. The latter hit may be submitted for pop duo/group performance. If it is accepted there, it cannot also compete for best dance pop recording.
The project will also compete for album, record and song of the year; best music film for Confessions II: The Film; and best music video for “Bring Your Love.”
If Madonna wins in all three dance categories, it will be the second time she has won three Grammys in one night (after 1999) and it would take her career tally of Grammy wins into double digits. To date, Madonna has won seven Grammys, a healthy total, but one that may be lower than you would expect for an artist of her stature and longevity. Grammy voters took their time warming up to Madonna.
Madonna wasn’t even nominated for best new artist in 1984 or 1985. She wasn’t nominated in any of what are often called the Big Four categories – album, record or song of the year plus best new artist – until 1999, when Ray of Light was up for album of the year, and its title track competed for record of the year. She was nominated for record of the year again two years later for “Music” – her only other nod in a Big Four category to date.
This mirrors the early-industry view – which clearly turned out to be wrong – that Madonna might prove to be a flash in the pan. Madonna wasn’t asked to be part of the all-star “We Are the World” recording session on Jan. 28, 1985, even though she had landed her first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 – “Borderline” – more than seven months previously. Madonna, not for the first or last time, had the last laugh: Her “Crazy for You” dislodged USA for Africa’s “We Are the World” from the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 in May 1985.
Madonna had more bumps on the road to eventual acceptance from Grammy voters. Such landmark Madonna singles as “Like a Prayer” (1989) and “Vogue” (1990) weren’t nominated for Grammys in any category, even best female pop vocal performance. Madonna has never been nominated for song of the year, even though she wrote or co-wrote 32 of her 38 top 10 hits on the Hot 100.
Madonna has also yet to win a Grammy in a vocal performance category. Grammy voters have long been drawn to singers with big voices in performance categories – think Whitney Houston and Celine Dion. Madonna herself has said that she doesn’t fit in that mold. “I know I’m not the greatest singer or dancer, but that doesn’t interest me,” she once said. “I’m interested in being provocative and pushing people’s buttons.”
Madonna isn’t the only pop superstar whose Grammy tally is lighter than you might imagine. Janet Jackson, for instance, has won just five Grammys and has had just one nomination (as a lead artist) in a Big Four category – album of the year for Control. (Her follow-up album, Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814, was not nominated in that category, though it was voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame this year.)
Several factors have played a role here: The Grammys didn’t add “genre album” categories (such as best pop vocal album) until 1995. The Grammys also dropped their best disco recording category after presenting it just once, in 1980, and didn’t re-add a category specifically devoted to dance music until 2005.
The Recording Academy’s focus in recent years on expanding and diversifying its membership, with an eye to adding more younger, female, and non-white members, came too late to benefit Madonna and Jackson at their career peaks. Such artists as KATSEYE, Addison Rae and Tate McRae have been nominated in recent years. The Academy of the 1980s would have probably ignored them.
Madonna won three of her seven Grammys to date in film and video categories. She has won best music film twice: for Blonde Ambition – World Tour in 1992 (her first Grammy win in any category) and The Confessions Tour in 2008. She won best music video once, for “Ray of Light” in 1999 — which is also her lone video to date to take home video of the year at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Two of her other Grammys to date are in dance categories – best dance recording for “Ray of Light” in 1999 and best dance/electronic album for Confessions on a Dance Floor. Her other two Grammy wins to date are best pop vocal album, for Ray of Light in 1999, and best song written for visual media, for “Beautiful Stranger” from Austin Powers – the Spy Who Shagged Me in 2000.
If Confessions II wins best dance/electronic album, this would be the fourth time in the past five years that a woman has won in that category. Beyoncé won in 2023 for Renaissance, followed by Charli xcx in 2025 for Brat and FKA Twigs in 2026 for Eusexua.
Stuart Price, who co-produced every track on Confessions II with Madonna, would also win if the album won best dance/electronic album, just as he did on Confessions on a Dance Floor. (He would also be a co-winner in the other two dance categories.)
Madonna has a mixed record on receiving major institutional honors — though at 67, there’s still time. On the plus side, she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, the first year she was eligible. Her Like a Virgin album was also voted into the National Recording Registry, administered by the Library of Congress, in 2023.
On the other hand, she has yet to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame or to receive the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, which is also administered by the Library of Congress. And none of her recordings have yet been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, though the earliest ones have been eligible since 2008.
But the Grammys are clearly aware of her star power. Madonna has been chosen to open the Grammy telecast three times – as many times as any artist since the first live telecast in 1971. She opened the show in 1999 with “Nothing Really Matters” from Ray of Light; in 2001 with “Music,” along with Lil Bow Wow; and in 2006 with a mash-up of her “Hung Up” and Gorillaz’ “Feel Good Inc.” on which the two acts were joined by De La Soul.
The only other acts to open the telecast three times are Houston, Paul Simon (counting an opener by Simon & Garfunkel) and U2 (counting a guest spot in an opener by Kendrick Lamar). All three of those artists are certified Grammy royalty. Simon and U2 have each won multiple Grammys for both record and album of the year. Houston also won in both of those marquee categories, albeit just once in her case.
