by Nathaniel R
The Grammy Awards aren’t really a crucial topic for The Film Experience. Except when they are. We do love to share the movie adjacent stuff that doesn’t get much press (‘hey, I didn’t know that actor ____ recorded a spoken word album’ etcetera). So herewith some key movie adjacent bits.
Beyonce’s efforts for The Lion King are up for a few pop prizes but that's no surprise since Queen B is a Grammy favourite. Former movie star and still legendary chanteuse Barbra Streisand, another Grammy favourite, has her presumably umpteenth nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for her latest “Walls”... the one with the unexpected unintended Girl-in-the-pit Silence of the Lambs homage cover.
But there are some less expected showings, too.
Iconic cult director John Waters is up for Best Spoken Word Album for “Mr Know-It-All” where he’s competing with Former First Lady Michelle Obama. That juxtaposition is insane and we couldn’t love it more...
Five time Oscar winner John Williams is up for two Grammys for instrumental work with arrangements of previous Star Wars and Harry Potter tracks. And speaking of arrangement Grammys, two oft-covered Oscar winning songs “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz and “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany's have resulted in arrangement Grammy nominations for Jacob Collier and Vince Mendoza respectively.
And here are the Grammy categories in full which relate to the showbiz world outside of music alone...
Best Comedy Album
QUALITY TIME
Jim Gaffigan
RELATABLE
Ellen DeGeneres
RIGHT NOW
Aziz Ansari
SON OF PATRICIA
Trevor Noah
STICKS & STONES
Dave Chappelle
Best Musical Theater Album
AIN'T TOO PROUD: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE TEMPTATIONS
Saint Aubyn, Derrick Baskin, James Harkness, Jawan M. Jackson, Jeremy Pope & Ephraim Sykes, principal soloists; Scott M. Riesett, producer (Original Broadway Cast)
HADESTOWN
Reeve Carney, André De Shields, Amber Gray, Eva Noblezada & Patrick Page, principal soloists; Mara Isaacs, David Lai, Anaïs Mitchell & Todd Sickafoose, producers (Anaïs Mitchell, composer & lyricist) (Original Broadway Cast)
MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL
Danny Burstein, Tam Mutu, Sahr Ngaujah, Karen Olivo & Aaron Tveit, principal soloists; Justin Levine, Baz Luhrmann, Matt Stine & Alex Timbers, producers (Original Broadway Cast)
THE MUSIC OF HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD - IN FOUR CONTEMPORARY SUITES
Imogen Heap, producer; Imogen Heap, composer (Imogen Heap)
OKLAHOMA!
Damon Daunno, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Ali Stroker, Mary Testa & Patrick Vaill, principal soloists; Daniel Kluger & Dean Sharenow, producers (Richard Rodgers, composer; Oscar Hammerstein II, lyricist) (2019 Broadway Cast)
Competitive. And, look at that we actually reviewed every one of those shows. Among these nominees though we admit we’re rooting hard for Oklahoma!
Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media
THE LION KING: THE SONGS
(Various Artists)
QUENTIN TARANTINO'S ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
(Various Artists)
ROCKETMAN
Taron Egerton
SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE
(Various Artists)
A STAR IS BORN
Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
A fun batch of nominees but a year later our heart is totally still with A Star is Born. We’d be pleased with a Rocketman win, too.
Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media
AVENGERS: ENDGAME
Alan Silvestri, composer
CHERNOBYL
Hildur Guðnadóttir, composer
GAME OF THRONES: SEASON 8
Ramin Djawadi, composer
THE LION KING
Hans Zimmer, composer
MARY POPPINS RETURNS
Marc Shaiman, composer
Silvestri, Shaiman, Zimmer are previous Grammy winners though a win for either Djawadi or Guðnadóttir would be their first.
Best Song Written For Visual Media
THE BALLAD OF THE LONESOME COWBOY
Randy Newman, songwriter (Chris Stapleton)
Track from: Toy Story 4
GIRL IN THE MOVIES
Dolly Parton & Linda Perry, songwriters (Dolly Parton)
Track from: Dumplin'
I'LL NEVER LOVE AGAIN (FILM VERSION)
Natalie Hemby, Lady Gaga, Hillary Lindsey & Aaron Raitiere, songwriters (Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper)
Track from: A Star Is Born
SPIRIT
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Timothy McKenzie & Ilya Salmanzadeh, songwriters (Beyoncé)
Track from: The Lion King
SUSPIRIUM
Thom Yorke, songwriter (Thom Yorke)
Track from: Suspiria
Grammys are always a mix (eligibility wise) of two different Oscar years. None of these tracks were Oscar nominees last year though Spirit or The Ballad of a Lonesome Cowboy could theoretically be up for the Oscar this year in Best Original Song.
Best Music Video
WE'VE GOT TO TRY
The Chemical Brothers
Ellie Fry, video director; Ninian Doff, video producer
THIS LAND
Gary Clark Jr.
Savanah Leaf, video director; Alicia Martinez, video producer
CELLOPHANE
FKA twigs
Andrew Thomas Huang, video director; Alex Chamberlain, video producer
OLD TOWN ROAD (OFFICIAL MOVIE)
Lil Nas X & Billy Ray Cyrus
Calmatic, video director; Candice Dragonas, Melissa Larsen & Saul Levitz, video producers
GLAD HE'S GONE
Tove Lo
Vania Heymann & Gal Muggia, video directors; Natan Schottenfels, video producer
Best Music Film
HOMECOMING
Beyoncé
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter & Ed Burke, video directors; Dora Melissa Vargas, video producer
REMEMBER MY NAME
David Crosby
A.J. Eaton, video director; Cameron Crowe, Michele Farinola & Greg Mariotti, video producers
BIRTH OF THE COOL
(Miles Davis)
Stanley Nelson, video director; Nicole London, video producer
SHANGRI-LA
(Various Artists)
Morgan Neville, video director; Emma Baiada, video producer
ANIMA
Thom Yorke
Paul Thomas Anderson, video director; Paul Thomas Anderson, Erica Frauman & Sara Murphy, video producers
And that’s that as far as movie connections go.
But we’d remiss if we didn’t leave you with the top four categories at the Grammy Awards, the ones that get roughly 95% of the attention. They are…
Album Of The Year
I,I
Bon Iver
NORMAN F***ING ROCKWELL!
Lana Del Rey
WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?
Billie Eilish
THANK U, NEXT
Ariana Grande
I USED TO KNOW HER
H.E.R.
7
Lil Nas X
CUZ I LOVE YOU (DELUXE)
Lizzo
FATHER OF THE BRIDE
Vampire Weekend
Record Of The Year (often confused for song of the year)
This one goes to the artist rather than the songwriter.
HEY, MA
Bon Iver
BAD GUY
Billie Eilish
7 RINGS
Ariana Grande
HARD PLACE
H.E.R.
TALK
Khalid
OLD TOWN ROAD
Lil Nas X Featuring Billy Ray Cyrus
TRUTH HURTS
Lizzo
SUNFLOWER
Post Malone & Swae Lee
Song Of The Year (often confused for record of the year)
This one goes to the songwriter rather than the artist -- in ye olden times the nominations for these two categories were often practically identical but this year at least they’re much different… the only repeat nominees are “Hard Place” and “Truth Hurts”
ALWAYS REMEMBER US THIS WAY
Natalie Hemby, Lady Gaga, Hillary Lindsey & Lori McKenna, songwriters (Lady Gaga)
BAD GUY
Billie Eilish O'Connell & Finneas O'Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish)
BRING MY FLOWERS NOW
Brandi Carlile, Phil Hanseroth, Tim Hanseroth & Tanya Tucker, songwriters (Tanya Tucker)
HARD PLACE
Ruby Amanfu, Sam Ashworth, D. Arcelious Harris, H.E.R. & Rodney Jerkins, songwriters (H.E.R.)
LOVER
Taylor Swift, songwriter (Taylor Swift)
NORMAN F***ING ROCKWELL
Jack Antonoff & Lana Del Rey, songwriters (Lana Del Rey)
SOMEONE YOU LOVED
Tom Barnes, Lewis Capaldi, Pete Kelleher, Benjamin Kohn & Sam Roman, songwriters (Lewis Capaldi)
TRUTH HURTS
Steven Cheung, Eric Frederic, Melissa Jefferson & Jesse Saint John, songwriters (Lizzo)
Best New Artist
BLACK PUMAS
BILLIE EILISH
LIL NAS X
LIZZO
MAGGIE ROGERS
ROSALÍA
TANK AND THE BANGAS
YOLA
My money is on Lizzo to be buried in Grammys on the big night but you never know.