Golden Globes 2026 – Culture, Recognition and What Comes Next

Awards season 2026 officially began with the 83rd Annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 11. With the ceremony now behind us, we’re going to dive straight into how the Golden Globes set the mainstream tone and taste for the rest of the season, signalling the direction of all early-year talk in the world of Hollywood.

This year, those signals showed up everywhere. The red carpet was less chaotic and more controlled. Music played a bigger role in the ceremony itself. Certain wins, formats and crossover moments stood out as possible indicators of what carries forward to the rest of the season. What follows are our most important takeaways from the Golden Globes and the conversations they spark: from shifts in fashion to standout wins, to early questions about prestige, including what Timothée Chalamet’s win could mean heading toward the Oscars and how all this could play out once Grammy night rolls around.

The Best Dressed: From Teyana Taylor’s Schiaparelli to Selena Gomez’s Feathers

At the 2026 Golden Globes, the red carpet signalled a decisive shift away from the chaotic maximalism of recent years, leaning instead into a theme of structured restraint. While black and white dominated the evening, most notably with Ariana Grande ditching her signature pink for a sculptural Vivienne Westwood and Selena Gomez in an impeccable, feather-trimmed Chanel. Instead, celebrities treated fashion as a posture of control. We saw a return to Old Hollywood silhouettes, but with architectural twists: think sharp, razor-edge bobs, slender scarf necklines that cascaded into trains and a surprising revival of the structured corset.

However, the night was not without its high-fashion provocations. Teyana Taylor stole the show (and the internet) in a custom Schiaparelli gown that featured a diamond-encrusted thong detail, proving that naked dressing has evolved into something far more ornamental and intentional. Meanwhile, a few daring stars broke the monochrome mould with dopamine dressing in its most sophisticated form: Tessa Thompson in a glittering chartreuse Balenciaga and Wunmi Mosaku radiating in a canary yellow column gown. For the men, the message was clear: the standard tuxedo is no longer enough. From Colman Domingo’s cascading diamond lily brooches, Hudson Williams’ white Giorgio Armani peak-lapel dinner jacket, to Michael B. Jordan’s cacao-brown Prada suit, the 2026 Globes proved that the most golden looks are those that balance timeless elegance with a sharp, modern edge.

From Prestige to Pop: The 2026 Golden Globes unveils new ceremony playlist

As we move away from the night’s fashion, we allow music to take centre stage in our impressions of the cinema showpiece evening.

What stood out was how the 2026 Golden Globes took the use of music in a whole new direction. Rather than playing the classic, instrumental tracks associated with awards ceremonies, the Golden Globes boasted a playlist that left some viewers at home wondering, “Who’s on aux?”

Host, comedian and self-proclaimed Swiftie, Nikki Glaser, hosting for the second year in a row, walked out to Taylor Swift’s 2014 hit “Style”. Hailee Steinfeld, who plays Mary in Sinners, presented alongside The Bear star Ayo Edibiri, both walking out to Steinfeld’s major 2016 hit “Starving” featuring Grey and Zedd.

Actors Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, who made their Golden Globes debut this year after the resounding success of their show Heated Rivalry, were accompanied by Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club”, blasting a queer anthem for a queer show. The two presented the award for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role – Television.

Glaser even put on her own performance, a spoof of “Golden” by HUNTR/X (KPop Demon Hunters) with lyrics based on Timothée Chalamet’s latest film, Marty Supreme.

The music extended far beyond Glaser’s comedy bits and presenter entrances, with winners walking to the stage also backed by contemporary hits from the ‘90s, 2000s and 2010s.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s win of best screenplay of a motion picture for One Battle After Another was aptly paired with LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem.” For Stellan Skarsgård’s acceptance of Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for the complex, familial drama Sentimental Value, crowds watched as he slowly made his way to the stage to Usher, Lil Jon and Ludacris’ “Yeah!”

It’s an abrupt change from years past, but not a bad one. In fact, some might say it’s a step up. Sure, swapping out the orchestral tracks for pop anthems diminishes the “prestige” of the ceremony in a way, but it makes it more digestible for casual fans and a more enjoyable experience overall. For a ceremony awarding prominent figures in pop culture, it only seems appropriate that the music matches the demographic of watchers and performers alike.

A Snapshot of This Year’s Standouts

In terms of the recipients of the awards, a common theme emerged across the 2026 Golden Globes, namely one that reflected an industry attentive to how stories circulate across platforms and audiences, rewarding work shaped by clear artistic vision and cultural relevance. On the film side, Hamnet took home Best Motion Picture – Drama, with Jessie Buckley earning Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her emotionally grounded performance. In the Musical or Comedy categories, One Battle After Another dominated, winning Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy as well as directing and screenplay honours for Paul Thomas Anderson. Timothée Chalamet also received the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for Marty Supreme, and used his acceptance speech to warmly acknowledge his partner, Kylie Jenner, telling the audience, “For my parents, for my partner, I love you,” a moment that quickly became one of the night’s most commented-on highlights across major outlets.

Photo Credits: Rich Polk Variety

Television awards mirrored this pattern. The Pitt won Best Television Series – Drama and The Studio secured Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy, while Adolescence stood out in the limited series field by collecting multiple honours, underscoring a preference for focused storytelling and standout performances. Acting wins for established performers like Jean Smart and Rhea Seehorn reinforced an awards season favouring nuanced, sustained character work. 

One of the most telling moments of the evening came with the introduction of the Golden Globes’ first-ever Best Podcast category. Awarded to Good Hang with Amy Poehler, the addition acknowledged podcasting as a central space for contemporary storytelling rather than a peripheral one. Its inclusion signalled an awards landscape increasingly shaped by how audiences engage with culture today, not confined to a single format, but defined by reach, resonance and longevity.

A Prediction For The Grammys

Reaching into the future, we expect the Grammy ceremony to build on the momentum of the Golden Globes and culminate in a typically electric and slightly chaotic night. Set to take place on February 1st, the Grammys have become a game of tug of war between legacy dominance and new-era disrupters. As expected, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, Doechii and Sabrina Carpenter have all received nominations this award season. As the genre of pop music is once again on top, it is unsurprising to see a list of pop stars make a grand sweep across the categories. As in every year, there is a healthy mix of both new and old faces. However, what makes this year interesting, not just for the viewers but for the long-time critics as well, is the strengthened presence of musical theatre at the awards. While the idea of musical theatre at the Grammys is not new, the growing support and popularity behind these soundtracks from a mainstream audience is. 

What sets this year apart has to be the rise in newcomers from the musical theatre world. This 2026 Grammys highlight a new trend where musicals are not only showing up on Playbills for the Tonys, but for mainstream audiences as well. Wicked has been nominated for four awards this season. The same can be said about K-pop Demon Hunters, which has also been nominated for several awards. Funktasy predicts that Wicked: For Good is bound to take home a few trophies this year and can place some of the blame on the already famous popstar Ariana Grande, who plays Glinda. Regardless of which way it is framed, having more than one musical compete with the likes of Lady Gaga or Kendrick Lamar is new and shows a cultural shift away from music in its purest form and towards a world built from social media marketing. Without the help of social media apps such as TikTok or Instagram, shoving various ads down our throats and making room for musical theatre songs to go viral and be used in the background of TikTok videos, it is unlikely that the musical would have made it this far. While the musicals reached initial fame on Broadway with the theatre crowd, the intense popularity of Wicked: For Good with a mainstream audience is not something typical of a Broadway production. The Wicked franchise has proof that soundtracks have evolved from background noise to cultural events in their own right. 

The 2026 Grammy nominations show an incredibly interesting shift in the cultural view of music and how it is received. With MTV officially dead and the rest of radio going with it, music has changed the ways in which it has always been viewed and is now held to a new standard: how well it can do in a video online. Can a trend be made from it? Can it become a meme? The answer lies entirely within the academy member’s choice to reward artistic evolution or cultural dominance, and what that choice says about where music is headed next.

Looking forward to the rest of the awards season

The 2026 award season will continue through March. Some of the upcoming award shows to watch include the Grammy Awards Feb. 1, BAFTA Film Awards Feb. 22, BRIT Awards Feb. 28, SAG Awards Mar. 1 and the Oscars Mar. 15.

For now, the Golden Globes set a clear early tone, revolving around a stronger pull toward pop-cultural fluency. As for the fashionistas for the remainder of awards season, we at Funktasy similarly expect to see continued red carpet competition from designers. For those of us who had grown accustomed to watching for the most meme-worthy outfits, this first checkpoint in the 2026 award season may suggest that we’re in for a big disappointment. 

Concerning the standouts from the Golden Globes awards slate, expect most of them to put on monumental showings for the fast-approaching award ceremonies. The ones to look out for include Timothée Chalamet for his performance in Marty Supreme and Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal’s Hamnet. These are expected to dominate the upcoming Grammys with major nominations in each category.