Most Grammy awards won by a male artist

Conductor/musical director Sir Georg Solti (UK, b. György Stern in Hungary, 1912–97) won a total of 31 Grammy awards between 1963 and 1998. His first success was in the Best Opera Recording category, for conducting the Rome Opera House Orchestra’s rendition of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida. His 31st and most recent triumph was confirmed five months after his death, when his conducting of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in their performance of Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg won Best Opera Recording at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards on 25 February 1998.

Solti’s 31 Grammys came from 74 nominations. Up to and including the nominations for the 65th Annual Grammy Awards on 5 February 2023, only Beyoncé (88), Jay-Z (88), Paul McCartney (81), Quincy Jones (80) and Kanye West (75) had received more, with Stevie Wonder tied with Solti on 74 nominations.

Budapest-born Solti was leader and musical director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra between 1969 and 1991, and the orchestra’s director laureate from 1991 until his death. Among the numerous other orchestras he recorded with during his career were the Berliner Philharmoniker, Orchestre de Paris, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Wiener Philharmoniker. The celebrated performer, who was knighted in 1972, is reported to have made more than 250 recordings, including 45 complete opera sets.

Solti received the Grammys’ Lifetime Achievement award at the 39th Annual Grammy Awards in 1996 and has two works in the Grammy Hall of Fame: his complete set of recordings of Richard Wagner’s four-cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, and his conducting of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No.8.