For the first time ever, today’s Grammy Awards featured a category Only for video game soundtracks. and the first-ever winners in this new category was Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed. Congratulations! A momentous one Opportunity a very funny moment for everyone involved, but also for the rest of us of live television.
While video games have been nominated before (How kirby in 2021) and even won Grammys before—Christopher Tins Civilization IV Intro from 2011—2023 saw the debut of a brand new category called “Best Video Game/Interactive Media Score Soundtrack.
The nominees were veteran game composer Austin Wintory (weirdly given his previous work, e.g Alien: Fireteam Elite), Bear McCreary (Call of Duty: Vanguard), Richard Jacques (Protector of the Galaxy), Christopher Tin again (for the Civil-How old world) And Stephanie Economou for Assassin’s Creed: Valhallas extension Dawn of Ragnarok.
Composer and violinist Economou — who at the time of publication had a Twitter bio that simply read, “Unaward-winning composer” — is now an award-winning composer. congratulations Stephanie! Host and comedian Randy Rainbow (also nominated for Best Comedy Album tonight) made the occasion even more memorable for everyone watching at home. an envelope with “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla‘ and then read it like this:
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It must be nerve-wracking at the best of times to be up there announcing awards knowing that so many people (even if this was the earlier “premier” ceremony) watch you Then imagine being asked not “Beyonce” but “Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok” if you are not someone who has been exposed to those words continuously for three years, and somehow internalized them and made them appear the same removed normally. It’s not a normal collection of words. It would be difficult!
You can watch Economou’s full acceptance speech, in which she thanks everyone who “fought tirelessly” to have this category included in the award, Here.
