Cypto.com<\/a> Arena, where the televised ceremony is held.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cI almost didn\u2019t make it up here in time, I\u2019m winded,\u201d Top joked after hauling it up to the stage from the back of the Peacock Theater, huffing like he just ran from first to third on a single. \u201cThis is insane. I feel like I watched the Grammys on TV when I was a little kid and (they) looked like superheroes up on TV. So to be here and be a little part of the whole thing is insane.\u201d<\/p>\n
As award shows go, Sunday\u2019s Grammys weren\u2019t the first rodeo for the 28-year-old songsmith, who grew up on a 40-acre farm in Eastern Washington. But after edging out country icon Willie Nelson, country\/Americana stars Charley Crockett and Margo Price, and Willie\u2019s son Lukas Nelson for his first Grammy win, Top has another mantelpiece to go alongside his 2025 Country Music Award for new artist of the year and the new male artist of the year prize he picked up at 2024 Academy of American Country Music Awards.<\/p>\n
Top\u2019s other two nominations stemmed from his biggest hit to date, \u201cI Never Lie\u201d off his debut country album, 2024\u2019s \u201cCold Beer & Country Music.\u201d Perennial award show favorite Chris Stapleton claimed best country solo performance with \u201cBad as I Used to Be\u201d from the \u201cF1\u201d movie soundtrack, while best country song went to Tyler Childers\u2019 exceptional \u201cNose on the Grindstone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cBad Luck\u201d singer wasn\u2019t the only Washingtonian with good fortunes on Sunday, although Seattle\u2019s Grammy slayer in chief Brandi Carlile was unable to add to her 11 career wins. The folk rock star\u2019s twin nominations hailed from her recent collaboration with her childhood hero-turned-close friend Elton John. Their song \u201cNever Too Late\u201d ran into impossible competition in the best song written for visual media category, which predictably went to smash hit \u201cGolden\u201d from the inescapable \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d soundtrack.<\/p>\n
Carlile and John\u2019s kaleidoscopic duo album \u201cWho Believes in Angels?\u201d earned a nod for best traditional pop vocal album, with arena-packing pop\/jazz artist Laufey winning for \u201cA Matter of Time.\u201d Carlile will assuredly have another crack at bolstering her Grammys collection next year, when her latest solo album \u201cReturning to Myself\u201d becomes eligible.<\/p>\n
Beyond Carlile and Top, the Seattle jazz scene was well represented in the arrangement categories this year. Seattle-reared brass quartet The Westerlies, frequently part of Fleet Foxes touring band, earned their first Grammy nomination for best arrangement, instrumental or a cappella with \u201cFight On,\u201d losing to the 8 Bit Big Band\u2019s head-spinning \u201cSuper Mario Praise Break.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the third year in a row, Seattle-oriented vocal group s\u00e4je won the best arrangement, instrument and vocals award for the angelically nimble \u201cBig Fish\u201d off progressive jazz drummer Nate Smith\u2019s \u201cLive-Action\u201d LP, which also won best alternative jazz album.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my goodness. I want to thank these four geniuses here for taking a pretty good idea and making it epic,\u201d Smith said, turning the microphone over to s\u00e4je’s Amanda Taylor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat an honor to be here and to have our work celebrated by our peers,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cAnd to share this moment with the absolute force that is Nate Smith. Creating this music with someone so open and fearless was nothing short of magical.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Taylor and the women of s\u00e4je celebrated their latest Grammy win at the Los Angeles ceremony, they\u2019ll be back in Seattle later this month for a six-show run at Jazz Alley (Feb. 26-March 1).<\/p>\n
Decorated classical producer Dimitriy Lipay was the only other Seattle-area musician to net a prize, winning best classical compendium for \u201cOrtiz: Yanga.\u201d The eight-time Grammy winner was also up for classical producer of the year for the fifth time, though the award went to Elaine Mortone.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, jazz fusion group Shakti \u2014 featuring Bellevue violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan \u2014 lost in the best global music album and performance categories to Caetano Veloso and Maria Beth\u00e2nia and Bad Bunny, respectively.<\/p>\n
Seattle experimental pop stalwart Perfume Genius, now living in the Los Angeles area, was up for best album cover for his seventh studio album, \u201cGlory,\u201d depicting the real-life Mike Hadreas unconscious on a living room floor. The newly created award went to Tyler, the Creator\u2019s \u201cChromakopia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Early in the day, acclaimed video game scorer Wilbert Roget II went 0-2 in the category for best score for video games and other interactive media category, where he was nominated twice for \u201cHelldivers 2\u201d and \u201cStar Wars Outlaws: Wild Card & a Pirate\u2019s Fortune.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 68th Annual Grammy Awards continue Sunday night, where Seattle rock great Duff McKagan and Morton-raised country\/America vet Brandy Clark are slated to perform.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yakimaherald.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a moment, it looked as if country music star (and noted baseball fan) Zach Top was on the verge of striking out at his first Grammy Awards ceremony on Sunday.\u00a0 The first-time nominee \u2014 and pride of Sunnyside, Yakima County \u2014 was down 0-2, having lost in the best country song and solo performance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2261968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[21741],"class_list":["post-2261967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Zach-Top-leads-WA-Grammys-2026-winners-Entertainment.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2261967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2261969,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261967\/revisions\/2261969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2261968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2261967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2261967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2261967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}