The NAACP Image Awards have added 10 new categories to recognize the achievements of African artists. Previously, there were no dedicated African categories. The new categories are:

Here’s how the NAACP framed these new categories in a statement: “With ten new African categories, the NAACP Image Awards expands its historic mission of recognizing Black excellence, building a cultural bridge between Africa and the global Black diaspora while celebrating the continent’s growing influence across film, television and music—and establishing the Image Awards as a global standard-bearer for Black creative achievement.”

Submissions for nomination consideration in 108 categories spanning motion picture, television + streaming, recording, literature and podcasts are now open on the NAACP Image Awards website.

The 58th NAACP Image Awards will also mark the return of four daytime drama categories: outstanding daytime drama series, outstanding actor in a daytime drama series, outstanding actress in a daytime drama series and outstanding supporting actor in a daytime drama series.

Nominees will be announced on Jan. 7, 2017. That is also the date that public voting opens. Public voting closes on Feb. 1. The date of the awards ceremony will be announced later. The 2026 show, hosted by Deon Cole, was held on Feb. 28 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, Calif.

A performance or project that occurs between Jan. 1, 2026 and Dec. 31, 2026 qualifies to be submitted this year. Information and guidelines for submitting are available on the website. 

Here’s a full list of recording categories for the 58th NAACP Image Awards:

It was anything but an ordinary Tuesday night (Aug. 27) in Sydney as Darren Hayes was feted with the Excellence in Community Award at the 17th annual Music In The House event.

The ex-Savage Garden singer and songwriter was on hand at the Support Act fundraiser, presented at The Linseed House, The Grounds of Alexandria, where he doubled up with induction into APRA AMCOS’s Billions Club — recognition of the pop group’s Billboard Hot 100 leader from 1997, “Truly Madly Deeply,” one of their two U.S. No. 1s.

Savage Garden, the pairing of Hayes and Daniel Jones, was one of Australia’s biggest exports of the 1990s. Their self-titled debut album — which houses “Truly Madly Deeply” and top 10 hit “I Want You” — peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, while sophomore and final release Affirmation, which houses No. 1 smash “I Knew I Loved You,” reached No. 6. The group split in 2001.

For the past quarter century, Hayes has enjoyed a solo career, one that has yielded five studio albums, most recently the 2022 release Homosexual.

Across his career, Hayes has sold over 35 million albums worldwide, and collected 14 ARIA Awards and 10 APRA songwriting awards.

Away from the studio and the stage, Hayes has been a tireless leader of community, a stance that saw him appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his services to the music industry in 2019.

The Queenslander has candidly shared his personal journey with mental health, resilience, and LGBTQIA+ representation, Support Act explains, and used his global platform to break stigmas and foster safer, more supportive spaces across the creative industries.

“I’m deeply honored to be recognized by Support Act for my achievements beyond commercial success and chart statistics in the Australian music industry,” he remarked on receiving the Music In The House award. “I’m grateful to have been a voice advocating for an end to violence against women, homophobia, and racism, and I’m a passionate advocate for removing the stigma associated with mental health.”

Longtime friend Claire Marshall presented Hayes with his Excellence in Community Award, with television presenter Osher Günsberg serving as emcee of the celebration.

Hayes added, “Receiving any recognition from Support Act is an extreme honor. I hope that by highlighting my career, we can shine some of that spotlight on the much-needed funding crucial to the survival of this essential organization.”

On the night, a lineup of guests performers covers of Hayes and Savage Garden songs, including including Tania Doko, Electric Fields, Meg Mac, Michael Paynter, and Sister2Sister.

“Darren Hayes is not only one of the greatest songwriters and performers Australia has ever produced, but he is also a beacon of courage, openness, and empathy,” comments Clive Miller, CEO of Support Act. “His bravery in speaking out about mental health, trauma, and identity has paved the way for healthier, more compassionate conversations across the music community. We are thrilled to present him with this year’s Excellence in Community Award.”

Hayes left with his hands full, his APRA AMCOS prize for entry into the 1,000,000,000 List with “Truly Madly Deeply,” which has surpassed one billion streams across major services including Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube. APRA chair and ARIA Hall of Fame inductee Jenny Morris presented the Billions Award to Hayes.

“When APRA’s founding publishers first met 100 years ago in 1926, they could never have imagined we’d be here in 2026 celebrating songwriters and publishers for reaching one billion streams,” Morris said. “It’s an extraordinary achievement, a testament to the staying power and connection of the song. I’m thrilled to announce that Savage Garden’s ‘Truly Madly Deeply’ has reached that major milestone and will be added to our coveted Billions List.”

Established in 2006, Music In The House gathers the nation’s music industry to salute leaders in music for both their artistic achievements and their broader contributions.

Previous recipients include Troy Cassar-Daley, Powderfinger, Marcia Hines, Midnight Oil, Tina Arena, and the late Archie Roach.

All proceeds raised on the night go to Support Act’s much-needed initiatives, which include the charity’s Wellbeing Helpline, Crisis Relief grants, and mental health prevention programs for struggling music workers. Visit supportact.org.au for more.

When I first heard that people were criticizing the Recording Academy’s new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category, my honest reaction was surprise. I didn’t understand why people were upset.

From where I stood, I saw an organization trying to recognize music, languages and cultures that have historically received less attention within the American music industry. Why wouldn’t we welcome that?

Then I started reading more about the concerns, and I began to understand where some Asian artists and fans were coming from. If you have spent years fighting to have Asian artists recognized simply as pop artists, the creation of a separate category can raise an uncomfortable question: Is this opening another door for us, or building another room that people expect us to stay inside?

The language requirement raises questions of its own. An artist can be Asian and create music that does not prominently use an Asian language. Does that make the music less Asian? Should language define genre or identity?

Those are legitimate questions, and I still decided to enter.

That choice is not because I think every detail of the new category is perfect. I don’t. I think the Recording Academy could have benefited from hearing from a wider group of Asian and non-Asian musicians while developing the rules and explaining the intention behind them. (I’m glad the Academy is doing that now.)

I’m entering because I see another possibility in this category, one that I don’t want us to lose sight of while debating its shortcomings: discovery.

As a Recording Academy voting member, I imagine listening to the entries and hearing artists from Japan, China, Korea and other parts of Asia whom I have never encountered before. I might discover a kind of J-pop I never knew existed or hear an independent Mandarin artist who otherwise may never have crossed my path. Even within K-pop, there are many different musical approaches that American listeners rarely encounter because our image of an entire country’s music can become defined by the few artists who achieve enormous global fame.

That matters, because some of the criticism surrounding the category seems to assume that it exists primarily for the Asian superstars we already know. But Asian pop is much larger than the handful of names that have broken through internationally.

For an independent artist working in Mandarin, Japanese, Korean or another Asian language, this category could provide something that is extraordinarily difficult to obtain: the attention of thousands of music professionals who might otherwise never press play.

At the same time, I don’t believe Asian artists should stop competing everywhere else. An Asian artist belongs in record of the year, song of the year and album of the year. Creating a place where Asian-language music can receive additional recognition should never become an argument for excluding those artists from the rest of the music world.

Both things can be true.

That tension feels especially personal to me because I have never thought of language as the thing that defines my music. I was born in China, but I began my professional music career in the United States. I reached the top 25 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary Airplay chart, yet I have recorded in Mandarin, English, Spanish, Italian and many other languages.

When I write, I don’t begin with nationality. I begin with emotion. Love does not become a different emotion when I sing about it in Mandarin. Heartbreak does not change because the words are Spanish. Fear, hope, loneliness and joy belong to every culture.

But language still matters deeply.

As a native Mandarin speaker, I know there is a difference between understanding words and feeling them. When I hear an important idea in English, I understand it, but sometimes I am translating it internally or processing exactly what it means. When I hear that same idea in Mandarin, it can reach me immediately. It goes directly to the heart.

That realization is one reason I have recorded so much multilingual music. When I released “Could You Lend Me a Smile” in 16 language versions, I didn’t want people around the world simply to receive a literal translation. We worked to adapt the message so listeners could experience it naturally within their own language and culture.

To me, that distinction is important. Translation tells someone what the words mean. Adaptation gives the listener a chance to feel what I felt when I wrote them.

That philosophy is also why I am submitting the Chinese-English version of “It’s Too Late to Love You,” my duet with three-time Grammy winner Narada Michael Walden.

Narada and I come from very different backgrounds. We grew up with different cultures, musical influences and life experiences, yet those differences have never created a barrier in the studio. If anything, they made the music richer.

Narada is extraordinarily open to sounds outside his own experience. When I first brought him songs influenced by the emotional storytelling I grew up hearing in Chinese music, he did not ask me to make them sound less Chinese or more American. He heard something beautiful in the difference and encouraged it.

That, to me, is what cultural exchange should look like. You don’t have to erase where you came from in order to connect with somebody from somewhere else.

I have spent much of my life moving between cultures, and over time I stopped thinking of that as something I needed to resolve. I began taking what I valued from each place I had lived and allowing those influences to become something new.

My Chinese identity is in me. It shapes how I communicate, how I approach people and how I create. But it does not require me to build a wall around myself.

That is also how I hope we eventually think about this Grammy category.

I understand why some artists may decide that the strongest statement they can make is refusing to participate, and I respect that choice. Mine is different. I would rather participate and help demonstrate what this category could become.

Five years from now, I hope voting members approach it with excitement because they know they are about to discover artists, languages and musical traditions that might otherwise have remained outside their world. I hope Mandarin pop meets J-pop and creates something neither culture would have made independently. I hope artists hear each other, collaborate and bring those discoveries back into the wider music landscape.

Most of all, I hope the category becomes a doorway rather than a destination.

I also hope the Recording Academy continues listening to the artists it is trying to recognize. If the rules need to evolve, let them evolve. If the language needs to become clearer, make it clearer. Inclusion works best when the people being included have a voice in shaping what inclusion looks like.

If Harvey Mason jr. were sitting across from me, I would tell him not to be discouraged by the controversy. The fact that people care enough to argue about this means the question matters.

Listen to the criticism. Learn from it. Improve what needs improving. But don’t lose sight of the possibility.

There are musicians across Asia, including independent artists whosebehin names American audiences have never heard, creating extraordinary work right now. Giving those artists another opportunity to be heard does not have to diminish anyone else. It can expand the conversation.

That is why I am entering.

To me, “It’s Too Late to Love You” can be Chinese and American at the same time. It is also, at its heart, simply a story about love.

And the heart does not need a translation.

Miist is a Chinese-born, U.S.-based singer-songwriter and bestselling author who began her music career in 2022, at 34 — as a wife, mother, and bookkeeper who had never written a song. She has written more than 80 songs since and is also the author of Make Me Smile with Miist. Entirely self-taught, she caught the ear of Grammy-winning producer Narada Michael Walden, and their work together became the album The Songs From the Living Room. With “It’s Too Late To Love You,” Miist hit the top 25 of Billboard‘s Adult Contemporary Airplay chart.

Earlier this year, Diane Warren became the first songwriter in Oscar history to be nominated for best original song nine years in a row. Can she possibly extend that streak to 10 consecutive nominations?

We won’t know for sure until the nominations are announced on Jan. 21, but as of today (Aug. 21), you can hear the song that she hopes will make it happen: “By Any Means,” which she wrote for a feature film of the same name starring Mark Wahlberg. The soulful, midtempo ballad is performed by David Kushner, whose “Daylight” reached No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023, in tandem with the legendary The Isley Brothers, who have had 40 Hot 100 hits, including three that made the top 10: “It’s Your Thing,” “That Lady (Part 1)” and “Fight the Power Part 1.”

Here’s a link to the soundtrack version of the song, which is available on all streaming platforms. The music video will be released on Aug. 28. Here’s a link to the slightly longer film version.

Warren has amassed 17 Oscar nominations for best original song, more than any other woman. One more nod and she will tie the legendary Johnny Mercer for second place on the all-time leaderboard. Another all-time great, Sammy Cahn, has long led the list with 26 nods.

Warren has yet to win a competitive Oscar, but in 2022 she received an honorary award which was inscribed: “To Diane Warren, for her genius, generosity and passionate commitment to the power of song in film.”

By Any Means is directed by Elegance Bratton with a script written by Sascha Penn. Inspired by a true story and set in the 1960s, a young Black FBI agent (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is sent to Mississippi to investigate a wave of brutal killings targeting civil rights leaders.  He is forced to work alongside notorious hitman Greg Scarpa (Wahlberg).

Two of Warren’s recent Oscar nominations are for songs from period films that dealt with the civil rights struggle. She and co-writer Common were nominated in 2018 for “Stand Up for Something” from the film Marshall, which starred the late Chadwick Boseman as Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court Justice. She was nominated in 2025 for “The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight, which told the story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, an all-Black, all-female battalion in World War II.

In a statement, Warren explained her inspiration in writing the song, “I wanted to write a song that captured the spirit of the film which is about those who go beyond the rules to do what is necessary. My idea was to take an iconic artist who came from that era and pair them with an artist from this current era. Having the legendary Isley Brothers come on board was a dream come true. They are as amazing today as they were when they were performing during the time of these events, they are so authentic to this story. David Kushner is a great young singer who sounds like he could have come from that era too.  He is a young guy with an old-soul voice. The combination of him and the Isleys is pure magic, and together they have created a song that could live in many eras to come. I’m proud to be a part of it.” 

Ronald Isley explained his connection to the story. “Having lived through the Civil Rights era, this story is personal. We saw firsthand the courage, sacrifice and struggle it took for change to come. Music has always had the power to speak to what people are going through, and Diane Warren has written a song that carries that kind of meaning. It was an honor for Ernie and me to be a part of it and to lend our voices to a film that remembers this history while reminding a new generation why it still matters.”

Ernie Isley further explained, “I believe the film and the song will have a major impact. Ronald and I are happy to be involved with this project.” 

Kushner, 25, added: “It’s an honor to be a part of the music that soundtracks a powerful film like By Any Means. I’m a huge fan of Mark Wahlberg and being part of this song alongside Diane Warren, a songwriter I’ve looked up to since I fell in love with music and began writing songs, as well as musical legends like The Isley Brothers, is beyond surreal and has been an incredible experience.”

By Any Means, The Album soundtrack is being released by AB Records/The Orchard on Sept. 18 and features two versions of the original song. The single version is produced by Jacob Olofsson, with Ron Isley’s vocals produced by PooBear. Veteran music supervisor Bonnie Greenberg served as executive music producer for the song.  By Any Means is distributed domestically by Paramount Pictures and is scheduled for theatrical release on Sept. 4.