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Margo Price is true to this, not new to this.
That’s precisely why the singer-songwriter relished being able to live in the moment upon learning that she had received not one but two nominations at the 2026 Grammy Awards following the 2025 release of her acclaimed album Hard Headed Woman,
“I was so shocked and surprised and happy when I got my Grammy nomination,” Price, 42, told PEOPLE during an interview at Nashville’s Warner Chappell Music office in December. “It really is something that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. Last time I was nominated for a Grammy, I was also pregnant, and so I feel like I’m kind of able to be really fully present this time around.”
Indeed, in 2019, Price was nominated for Best New Artist alongside Dua Lipa, Chloe x Halle, Luke Combs, Greta Van Fleet, H.E.R., Bebe Rexha and Jorja Smith. Though Lipa ultimately took home the award that year, Price’s return to the Grammys in 2026 comes hot on the heels of two major nominations: Best Traditional Country Album for Hard Headed Woman, and Best Country Duo/Group Performance for her Tyler Childers duet “Love Me Like You Used To Do.”
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“When I got the news that I was nominated for the Grammy, I had stayed up pretty late the night before. I was on tour and my phone just kept ringing and ringing despite having it on Do Not Disturb,” Price recalls. “My sister came in, and she woke me up, and she’s like, ‘You have to get up right now. Somebody has some news for you.’ I immediately started jumping up and down.”
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Amid the joyous moment, Price jokes that she wasn’t about to lose any sleep over it. “I went back to bed to take a nap after I found out, too — slept about four more hours, and then I woke up and fully celebrated,” she says.
Once fully awake, Price’s first phone call was to her husband and fellow musician, Jeremy Ivey. Calling him “my closest, longest collaborator,” Price and her husband have been making music together for 22 years. As a result, they can create “really special” bodies of work “because he knows so much about me, and so he has a talent for writing things that seem like they would come from me,” Price says. Case in point, Hard Headed Woman, on which Ivey has eight cowriting credits.
“Of course, it’s a balance. When you’re married and you have children and you also work together, but I’m really grateful that we’ve managed to keep it going over a couple decades. It just gets stronger with time,” she adds.
Hard Headed Woman is, in a way, a compendium of Price’s journey as an artist up until this point.
“I feel like I’ve been kind of preparing my whole life to make this record,” she says of the project, recorded in Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A. “This was the first album that I got to make in Nashville with a proper budget. And it’s such a historic studio. I mean, Dolly Parton recorded ‘9 to 5’ and ‘Jolene’ in there, and she’s one of my greatest influences. Loretta Lynn also recorded in RCA Studio A. Willie [Nelson], Waylon [Jennings], Leon Russell. They’re all massive influences of mine, and all the records that they made. So I feel like everything from the ’60s and ’70s kind of came into that melting pot to help make Hard Headed Woman.”
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Speaking of the Nelson family, Price’s nomination for Best Traditional Country Album makes her a direct contender against the legendary artist, whom she refers to as a “guiding light” and close kin, as well as his sons, Micah Nelson, nominated with Willie for the album Oh What a Beautiful World, and Lukas Nelson, nominated for his debut solo album American Romance.
Ultimately, “No matter who wins the category of traditional country, I’m going to be happy because I love everybody in that category,” adds Price, who is also nominated alongside Charley Crockett (Dollar a Day) and Zach Top (Aint in It for My Health).
“I’ve only got to beat three Nelsons to win it, but I’m not really concerned about winning,” she jokingly adds.
Price’s second nomination, alongside Childers, is the product of a longterm friendship-turned collaborative effort that speaks to both artists’ singular country sensibilities.
“When Tyler and I went into the studio to record ‘Love Me Like You Used to Do,’ I knew immediately that it was going to be not only a fan favorite, but one of my favorite recordings,” Price says. “That song just really means a lot to me and being able to record it with my longtime friend was really special.”
As for what’s next after the Grammys: “This chapter of my life is finally about stepping into my own power,” she says. “I’ve spent a lot of my life being a people pleaser, which still may come [as] a shock to a lot of folks, but I think I’m really able to be in my body [and] be aware of everything that’s going on around me in a way that I just wasn’t able to do in my 20s and 30s.”
The 2026 Grammy Awards will air live on CBS and Paramount+ on Sunday, Feb. 1.
