When Grammy contenders also compete for Emmys, Oscars and Tonys: Could a single production ever win EGOT?
Music is important to most spheres of media, and that is made clear by its presence in each of the big four entertainment awards. While the Grammy is ostensibly the highest honor a musician can get, a fair share of Grammy-winning material makes a splash in other formats too.
The most obvious example of this is the Tonys, which have a lot of categories for musicals. The Grammys have a specific category for musicals too: Best Musical Theater Album. As such, the Tonys and Grammys have an annual connection, often sharing winners. Most of the great musicals of the past and present have gotten Grammy nominations, and the majority of the Best Musical Theater Album contenders are also Tony-nominated. The extensive pack of Grammy/Tony winners includes but is not limited to “Kinky Boots,” “The Wiz,” “Into The Woods” and most recently “Some Like It Hot.”
There are also the Oscars, which intertwine with the Grammys mostly in the Best Original Song and Best Original Score categories. Winners of those awards have scored at the Grammys, like Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were,” which won the Song of the Year Grammy in addition to the Oscar. Other Oscar and Grammy winning songs include Celine Dion‘s “My Heart Will Go On,” Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” H.E.R.’s “Fight For You” and Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s “Shallow,” to name a few. Some contenders at both awards have gotten their Oscars in non-musical categories too. “Summer of Soul” recently won both the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature and the Grammy for Best Music Film, a combination also achieved by “20 Feet from Stardom.”
The Emmys and the Grammys have a significant relationship as well. The first Album of the Year winner ever, “Music from Peter Gunn,” was the soundtrack for the hit TV series “Peter Gunn,” composed by Henry Mancini. While Mancini never won an Emmy, he did get a nomination for that soundtrack, nominated at the 1959 Emmys for Best Musical Contribution to a Television Program. In the years to follow other Emmy contenders also crossed over to the Grammys, mostly in the visual media field. These include Bo Burnham’s “Inside” (Grammy winner for Best Song Written for Visual Media and Emmy winner for Best Variety Special Writing, Best Variety Special Directing and Best Music Direction), Beyoncé’s “Homecoming” (Grammy winner for Best Music Film and six-time Emmy nominated), and “Stranger Things” (12-time Emmy winner and two-time Grammy nominated for both Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media and Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media), while both “Chernobyl” and “The Queen’s Gambit” won Emmys and Grammys for their scores.
A special shoutout to John Gielgud’s “Ages of Man,” which was nominated for Best Musical Theater Album at the Grammys, got a special Tony Award, and a couple of years later won an Emmy for a recording of the show aired on TV. Gielgud eventually won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word, Documentary or Drama Recording for “Ages of Man: Readings from Shakespeare.” The Tony/Emmy/Grammy winner package has also gone to a few other works, including “The Color Purple,” “The Band’s Visit,” “Hamilton” and “Dear Evan Hansen.” Another interesting triple contender is Lady Gaga’s “Til It Happens to You” from the documentary film “The Hunting Ground.” It was nominated for a Grammy (Best Song Written for Visual Media) and an Oscar (Best Original Song), and won an Emmy (Best Music and Lyrics). It is to date the only song to be nominated at all three.
Has anything competed at all four awards? Well, not for the same recording or production, but yes for adaptations. “Gypsy,” for instance, was nominated for eight Tonys and won the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album in 1960, then a film adaptation was up for three Oscars in 1963, and a made-for-TV adaptation got 12 Emmy noms in 1994, including a win for Best Music Direction. Likewise, adaptations of “Annie” have also won at the Grammys, Emmys and Tonys, and been nominated at the Oscars. There have also been adaptations of “Beauty and the Beast,” which have won all four.
Can the same film or recording get nominated at all four, though? It would be a tall order. Certain films are eligible for both the Oscars and Emmys, as long as they only spend a week or so in theaters before streaming online or airing on TV. However, the Emmys have a rule that says, “Any non-documentary film placed on the AMPAS viewing platform will be deemed a theatrical motion picture and thus ineligible for the Emmy competition,” while the Oscars currently stipulate, “Submissions which are essentially recordings of performances that were originally produced for another medium are not eligible for awards consideration.” Such rules are in place to make it harder for a piece of media to compete at awards as film, theater and TV. “Hamilton,” for instance, was deemed ineligible by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Perhaps a loophole will emerge that will allow a single work to win EGOT, but we’ll have to wait and see.
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