Grammys and the Movies
Monday, January 27, 2020 at 7:00PM by Eric Blume
Gaga wins again
The Grammy Awards have three categories that tie to moves and TV, and if you think the Oscar committee is myopic and predictable, they seem like the edgiest crew around in comparison with Grammy nominators. Let's take a look at what was nominated and what won at last night's annual Grammy Awards...
For Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media, we had A Star is Born, The Lion King, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Rocketman, and Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse. Taron Egerton wasn't able to get a Grammy to soften his Oscar snub, and the winner was A Star is Born, which went to Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. This makes Cooper a double-Grammy winner (the duo won last year for their vocal for "Shallow"), the first of his EGOT awards. But you could absolutely see Cooper being the rare EGOT winner...he's arguably overdue for his Oscar, he'll do some TV miniseries one day, and he's already been up for a Tony for "The Elephant Man"...so it seems very possible.
For Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, we had only three film nominees (Avengers Endgame, The Lion King, and Mary Poppins Returns) along with two TV nominees (Chernobyl and Game of Thrones Season 8). Voters didn't dig very deep for this category, to say the least, but the excellent Chernobyl was the just winner here. It's interesting that now that there is so much great television, we're seeing it infiltrate categories traditionally owned by movies only.
For Best Song Written for Visual Media, the winner was Lady Gaga and crew for "I'll Never Love Again" from A Star is Born, which ran against "The Ballad of the Lonesome Cowboy" from Toy Story 4; "Suspirium" from Suspiria; "Spirit" from The Lion King; and "Girl in the Movies" from Dumplin'. That's a weird category, and probably the weakest song from A Star is Born, but it brings Gaga's Grammy total to 11, with probably many more to come.
the fake Grammys from A Star is Born (2018)
What do you think of how the Grammys votes for awards in the movie world? This year is fairly reflective of most years: blockbusters, superhero movies, an actual musical, etc. Not the most daring or innovative of nominees and winners, but let us know your thoughts...
A Star is Born, Bradley Cooper, EGOT, Grammys, Lady Gaga
Reader Comments (17)
This is probably obvious, but I think Gaga will EGOT as well. At the very least it’s easy to see her producing a Joanne musical when she’s in her 40s or even one about her life when she’s in her 70s and winning there or for something new she wins. She already has three Emmy nominations, so she’ll probably win one soon enough too.
I'll Never Love Again should've been the song nominated for Original Song. Mostly because the moment it's sung in the movie gives me straight up Barbra singing My Man, which I'm always here for, tbh.
And ESPECIALLY because they would've won with either it, Shallow or Always Remember Us This Way!
The Grammys... the most irrelevant awards ever. You know its time has come when they've awarded artist after artist the Best New Artist award and we never hear from them again. You know it's time has come when they gave its 1st Best Metal Performance Grammy to fucking Jethro Tull. You know it' time has come when they gave a Grammy to Milli Vanilli. You know its time has come when Coldplay wins Best Alternative Performance when their music is the opposite of that category. You know its has come when Nine Inch Nails, Dave Grohl, and Queens of the Stone Age had their performance be interrupted by a commercial during the show's finale. You know its time has come when Metallica is forced to due an awkward collaboration with Lady Gaga as it becomes a train wreck when James Hetfield's mic stops working and the band is surrounded by untalented dancers.
They should get rid of the Grammys altogether and just go for the TOE... Tonys, Oscars, and Emmys.
I had my own gripes about the Grammys (no nominations for Mariah Carey’s CAUTION album!?) but I do like the media categories, as they recognized Alanis Morissette’s “Uninvited” from City of Angels.
Hildur Guðnadóttir scored Chernobyl and her Grammy win might repeat in the Oscars several days from now. I can't be more excited for her.
In obscure Grammy categories, I love Elvis Costello's Look Now -- an album I slightly prefer over the album it is always compared to: Painted from Memory. Both albums have Bacharach as co-composer.
Esperanza Spalding winning once again -- in a category not considered a major one: Vocal jazz. Her 12 Little Spells is jazz for the future. A neotraditional oration with virtuousic flourishes. Totally satisfying.
Michelle Obama is now a Grammy winner too. Plus the Chemical Brothers, Brad Mehldau, Nipsey Hussle, Hadestown, Keb' Mo' and Patty Griffin!
Thevoid99 saying it right..tho Coldplay's first two albums (especially Parachutes) has lots of alternative in it, and they were both great albums before Chris Martin tried to be the old U2 without all that came before, and end rant).
I get worried that many film lovers want the Oscars to be like the GRAMMYS. At least the Oscars have some idea.
Volume makes the Grammys more insulting and injurious.
Diana Ross doesn’t have a single competitive Grammy. Fergie has 8.
Several pf Fergie’s Grammys are very deserved, lol. Especially her last one.
And YES! Caution should’ve been nominated. I’m gonna assume it would’ve been nominated in Lizzo’s category, and Mariah obviously had the better album of the two.
"...he's arguably overdue for his Oscar..."
Arguably is right. Bradley Cooper's prestige movie career started in 2012 (The Place Beyond the Pines, Silver Linings Playbook), which would make him "due" in some interpretations of the word, but certainly not overdue barely eight years later. And by that I mean due for a first acting nomination. Just because he's been lucky enough to have been nominated four times doesn't make him overdue for a win.
Call me crazy, but I like to reserve "overdue" for performers like Gary Oldman (not nominated until 2012, won for his second one in 2018, so no longer overdue), Glenn Close (seven nominations since the early '80s, no wins), Alfre Woodard (only nomination in the '80s, no wins), Robert Downey, Jr. (two nominations since the early '90s, no wins), Amy Adams (six nominations since the early '00s, no wins), Kristin Scott Thomas (never nominated), Jude Law (two nominations since the late '90s, no wins)...all overdue for a nomination and/or a win.
I didn't realize when I started writing this how annoyed the notion of Bradley Cooper as overdue for an Academy Award makes me. I think it's time for bed.
@working stiff:
Yes. Totally. Bradley Cooper is hardly overdue at this point, that's buying in to an odd narrative. To be sure, he will doubtlessly receive more nominations and possibly a win before too long.
Oh, one little correction: Kristin Scott Thomas was nominated for The English Patient in '96.
No, Fergie sucks, so does Lizzo, and Mariah is talented but she went from being a solid pop star then desperate to tap into something she thinks is sexier, and just more bullshit.
Haha. I'm not saying there wasn't a moment when Fergie was popular and probably deserved to win some awards! The Black Eyed Peas stuff doesn't age well but there's no denying it was a big deal at the time.
But that doesn't account for 8 wins vs. 0 wins. Like, Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby were huge deals in the context of 1999 and 2004—so individually the wins make sense.
But that gives Swank a 2 point lead over the unjustly never-awarded (Glenn, Annette, etc.). Not an 8, 12, 25-point lead as the Grammys like to do. It's silly that they give awards like literal candy to some performers while others can't catch a single break.
To me the most meaningful music awards are the hyper-current VMAs (which are about capturing the shallow passions of a single month in the summer) and the hyper-retrospective Hall of Fame type career honors (which are about capturing the deep impact of an artist's career over time).
The Grammys occupy some weird middle ground and pretend to be...qualitative.
Yes, grammys are oversaturated. way too many awards which minimizes their relevance. I heard Beyonce now has 24 or something (having looked at list and not saying they arent deserved but Bjork has none i dont think). i'd rather have 1 oscar than 50 grammys.
They've also expanded the nominees in general field, which isnt always a bad thing, but also by doing so are trying to appease every genre
@ Rob
Thanks for the reminder about KST’s mid-‘90s nod. The fact that I forgot about it is sadly, embarrassingly appropriate to my point.
The Grammys are so irrevelant. If I got to give one out, I’d give Scarlett Johansson and her mom/sister a Best POP/Rock Group award for You Can Drive A Person Crazy/Marriage Story.
"I'll Never Love Again" is the finale song from "ASIB," and it was fantastic. It should have been up for an Oscar, but stupidly, "Shallow" was only submitted. It would have easily overcome vote-splitting just like "City of Stars" did. This Grammy win is nice redemption. Viva Gaga!!!