The GRAMMY Award is the pinnacle of recognition in music. Established by The Recording Academy in 1958, these awards celebrate excellence, unite the industry, and invest in its future.
Each year, hundreds of music professionals review recordings and submit ballots to voting members of the Recording Academy. These members cast votes in no more than 20 genre categories; winners are then announced during a televised ceremony.
Best Song Written For Visual Media
The Grammy award for best song written for visual media is one of the most coveted prizes in music, awarded to its composer(s), not the performing artist. Notable recipients have included Alan Menken, Randy Newman, James Horner and Howard Ashman – though who will win remains unknown until it can be found in the official Grammy award book. Carly Simon won this coveted title at 61st Annual Grammy Awards in 2018, giving it its highest ranking among all Grammy awards.
Best Song Written For Television
Since 1988, the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media (including its predecessor names) has been given to music created for films, television, video games or other visual mediums. It is presented to the composer(s) of the winning song, not its performing artist(s), unless that artist also created it.
Over the years, this category has gone through several name changes but remains one of the world’s most beloved awards. Notable recipients include James Horner, Alan Menken and Randy Newman – three of whom have won multiple times.
Adele is a sure fire winner in this category with two wins under her belt, and “Skyfall,” from the blockbuster movie of the same name, looks set to be another major contender this year. Plus, her track already won both an Oscar and Golden Globe last year – making it seem like an easy pick to take home the Grammy this time around. Who will come out on top? Stay tuned to Idolator for all your music news and coverage!
Best Song Written For Film
Since 1988, The Grammy Award for best song written for visual media (formerly known as the Grammy Award specifically for a motion picture or television) has been given out honoring songs created for film, television and video games. Composers rather than performers receive this prestigious honor.
In 32 years of the Oscars and Grammy awards, 15 songs have won both Oscar and Grammy recognition for their work in film and TV, including Carly Simon’s “Let the River Run” from Working Girl which won both an Academy Award for best original song as well as a Golden Globe award. James Horner’s “Somewhere Out There” from An American Tail also took home both awards in 1987 along with “Two Hearts” by Phil Collins and Lamont Dozier from Buster.
Alan Menken leads all composers with five wins, followed by Randy Newman with three, James Horner with three, Howard Ashman and T Bone Burnett each having two as well as Lady Gaga’s two wins. A composer may also win for their work; however it is rare that this award goes to the same individual twice.
Disney’s computer-animated musical comedy Encanto, which debuted in theaters last year and then made its way onto Disney+, won three Grammy Awards for its score soundtrack, best compilation soundtrack and most notably for best song written for visual media – beating out Elvis, Top Gun: Maverick, Stranger Things: Soundtrack from the Netflix Series Season 4 (Vol 2) and West Side Story.
The music on this album was composed by Germaine Franco, who made history by becoming the first woman to write and score a Disney animated feature movie. Her winning song, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” became an instant hit on Billboard Hot 100.
At the Grammys, Stephanie Economou became the first female composer to win an award for a video game. Her score was featured in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok.
At this year’s Grammys, several other women emerged as winners, such as Beyonce’s “Spirit,” which received nominations for both record and song of the year. Bonnie Raitt also surprised everyone by winning a songwriting award for her track “Just Like That.”
Best Song Written For Video Game
The Grammy awards have created a special category for music in video games, which promises to be one of the most captivating categories at this year’s ceremony. Composer Stephanie Economou won the award for best song written for visual media for her work on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok’s soundtrack.
This category was established to recognize the contributions of video game industry and its music. Back in 2011, Grammys announced that games could compete for recognition amongst their four major award categories alongside film and television.
This year, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was nominated in this category alongside other esteemed video game scores by Austin Wintory for Alien’s Fireteam Elite, Bear McCreary for Call of Duty Vanguard, Richard Jacques for Guardians of the Galaxy and Christopher Tin for Old World. However, it marked the first time ever a video game score had ever won a Grammy Award!
As such, this category was packed with surprises and some incredible performances by musical artists. Even if some of these songs may not seem fitting for a video game, they all had something to say and were incredibly moving.
It’s an impressive step by the Grammys to put these types of songs in the spotlight, and we can’t wait to see how this award is received next year!
As with other categories, there is no definitive list of nominees. The only way to know for certain is to listen to all the soundtracks that were nominated and determine your opinion on them.
In the past, Grammy awards have often recognized extravagant soundtracks like Batman: Arkham Origins or BioShock Infinite. But this year it appears that they have taken a more subtle approach when honoring video game music’s top composers.
This is because they are not simply rehashing a series of well-known franchises, but creating their own universes and incorporating them into music. For instance, D’Angelo’s score for Red Dead Redemption 2 has been so highly praised that it is even featured within the game itself!