Irish Grammy nominee celebrates Kendrick Lamar's historic win at 2026 awards
Kendrick Lamar nabbed five wins at this year's Grammy Awards, dethroning Jay-Z as the most-awarded rapper in Grammy history.
Mastering engineer Ruairi O’Flaherty from Killarney is sharing in the glory of singer and rapper Kendrick Lamar’s wins at the 2026 Grammy Awards on Sunday night.
O’Flaherty, originally from Killarney, is a senior mastering engineer at the acclaimed Sterling Sound studio in the United States, and was among those celebrating on Sunday, following Kendrick Lamar’s win for record of the year.
O’Flaherty received credits across several of the ceremony’s most prestigious categories, including album of the year nominations for by Kendrick Lamar and by Sabrina Carpenter, and was also associated with record of the year nominations for by Sabrina Carpenter and by Kendrick Lamar and SZA, and best rap album of the year for Lamar’s
The latest nomination and win for the Killarney man follow a successful 2025 Grammy season, during which he was recognised for his work on Sabrina Carpenter’s and St. Vincent’s
Kendrick Lamar made significant history at the awards, where he won the record of the year, best rap album, best melodic rap performance, and best rap song, his victories making him the first male artist to win consecutively in the record of the year category and the first rapper to win twice in this category.
Cork’s Elaine Kelly was among the hopefuls at this year’s ceremony after being nominated for a best opera recording award for Emma O’Halloran’s opera double bill,
But it wasn’t to be for the Cork opera conductor this year, as the winner of the category was announced as by conductor Kwamé Ryan.
It was not Kelly’s first time being nominated for a Grammy, making history last year as the first Irish conductor to be nominated when she was nominated in the best choral performance category for
Also nominated was Dublin composter Donnacha Dennehy, who was nominated under the best contemporary classical composition for and American songwriter Aoife O’Donovan, whose father was born in West Cork, who was nominated with co-writers Sarah Jarosz and Sara Watkins for best American roots song for their track
Puerto Rican global star Bad Bunny took home the coveted album of the year award, marking the first time a Spanish-language album has won.
In total, the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show performer, who has sold out stadiums across the globe, took home three awards.
The other big awards went to Olivia Dean for best new artist and Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell for song of the year for
