Thursday, December 2, 2010

EGOT WATCH:  Among the nominees for Grammy Awards announced last night, in the category of Best Spoken Word Album for Children, is Emma Thompson for Nanny McPhee Returns.  She's already got the "E" for her guest spot on "Ellen" and the "O" for starring in Howard's End and for adapting Sense and Sensibility.

[Feel free to comment about the nominees in any of the 109 categories here.]

35 comments:

  1. Can someone explain to me how "Airplanes" and "California Gurls" are "Pop Collaboration With Vocals," while "Empire State of Mind" and "Love The Way You Lie" are "Rap/Sung Collaboration?"  What's the difference between these two categories?  (I assume it's that in the former, the sung vocals carry the song, while in the latter, the singing is only the hook, but who knows?)

    Big year for Bruno Mars, even though he won't be eligible for Best New Artist until next year, which he's probably locked up already.

    In less serious EGOT potential--Tia Carerre (Best Hawaiian Music Album), Selma Blair (Spoken Word/Children), and Carol Burnett (Spoken Word, already has Emmy and honorary Tony, but has never won a competitive Tony).

    The massive "Huh" remains "Teenage Dream" being nominated for Album of the Year.

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  2. Tosy and Cosh10:00 AM

    If she gets the E how good does she look for the set? Does she have a stage background (not that she'd necessarily need one)?

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  3. Wiki says she's got both dramatic and musical experience in the UK, albeit all 1990 and earlier. 

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  4. Joseph J. Finn10:18 AM

    Carol Burnett doesn't have a competitive Tony?  Wow, that just seems off somehow.

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  5. Heather K10:19 AM

    She has major stage chops.  Both in comedy (has a huge sketch comedy background before she started getting fancy roles) as well as in drama.  To the point where I think she would get a tony nomination just for showing up on the great white way.  I would love to see her live on stage, she would be incredible.

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  6. sconstant10:23 AM

    Yay noms for Here Comes Science and Justin Roberts (kids albums); the Carolina Chocolate Drops (if you haven't heard their Hit 'Em Up Style you should http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKTXJUYiAT4 - also loved hearing them talk about themselves on Fresh Air http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123968480); Craig Ferguson
    15. Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance

    Choose from 4 people whose were icons before 1970 or John Mayer.

    Also: boggle at Tia Carrere, but apparently she has both a continuing recording career and a previous Grammy, so I'm just behind on my boggling.

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  7. Marsha10:28 AM

    I second the Yay! for Here Comes Science and Justin Roberts. (We are BIG Justin Roberts fans in our house, and Jungle Gym is excellent.)

    I see Glee only got two noms - the v1 soundtrack and "Don't Stop Believin'."

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  8. Joseph J. Finn10:32 AM

    I'm more boggled that there's an entire category for Hawaiian music.

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  9. By the way, raise your hand if you actually knew Whoopi Goldberg was, technically, an EGOT holder.  (Two Daytime Emmys plus a Governor's Award for Comic Relief; was a co-producer of Thoroughly Modern Millie.)

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  10. Genevieve10:42 AM

    Raised.  Though I boggled when I first learned it.  Didn't Tracy Jordan go to her for EGOT advice, or to steal an award, or something?

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  11. Though we think of her as a musical/Broadway performer, she only has 5 Broadway credits per IBDB:

    "Once Upon A Matress" (1960)--Lost to Mary Martin in "Sound of Music," which dominated the awards. (also nominated that year? Ethel Merman for "Gypsy")
    "Fade Out, Fade In" (1964)--Not nominated, and she spent a substantial time in the run out for medical reasons.  Winner that year was Liza Minnelli ("Flora, The Red Menace"), with "Fiddler On The Roof" dominating awards.
    "Moon Over Buffalo" (1996)--Lost to Zoe Caldwell ("Master Class"), with other nominees Rosemary Harris and Elaine Stritch.  "Rent" dominated awards.
    "Putting It Together" (2000)--Not nominated, was only doing 6 performances a week (Kathie Lee Gifford played the other two).  Winner that year was Heather Headley ("Aida"), with Toni Collette, Marin Mazzie, and Audra McDonald also nominated.
    "Hollywood Arms" (writer of straight play, 2003)--Not nominated, winner that year was "Take Me Out." 

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  12. Marsha10:54 AM

    At least based on the cast album, she was awesome in Mattress (I"m a huge fan of the show), though that was a hella tough year. And I loved her in Moon Over Buffalo, but Caldwell absolutely should have won.

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  13. I don't know about Thompson onstage, but she's been amazing in theater pieces that have been made into films: Much Ado About Nothing, Wit, Angels in America. 

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  14. Anonymous11:49 AM

    It can't be that big of a secret, given that EGOTs were recently raised in pop culture consciousness by a 30 Rock episode that had Whoopi in it as an EGOT holder.  

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  15. Joseph J. Finn11:53 AM

    Knew it, but I'm split on considering Daytime Emmys as real Emmys. (And yet, the producer thing doesn't bother me.)<span> </span>

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  16. Yeah, um, I totally forgot this.<span> </span>

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  17. Due to lack of submissions, there are actually only 108 categories this year--not enough "Regional Mexican Albums" were submitted to make that category a reality--you need 10 submissions to get to the category.  Don't worry, fans of Latin music, there's still Latin Pop Album, Latin Rock, Alternative, or Urban Album, Tropical Latin Album, Tejano Album, Norteno Album, and Banda Album to get worked up about.

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  18. In the comments to some post last spring, I linked to "Hit 'Em Up Style." Lost it years ago, but back in the mid-90s I found a Tia Carrere demo cassette at a used book store. It was nice and I'm a little surprised I haven't heard more about her still having a singing career.

    JJF—don't disrespect the slack key

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  19. I have one! Janelle Monae's "Tightrope" and Archandroid. Though I thought her first album was better than Archandroid. Another! Trombone Shorty's Backatown. A third! Carolina Chocolate Drops' Genuine Negro Jig.


    Nothing else I listened to made the list.

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  20. Anonymous1:06 PM

    Julie Andrews is also up for a Children's Grammy this year which would give her 2/3 of an EGOT.  Like Carol Burnett and Emma Thompson, she currently lacks a Grammy and a Tony.   I would have thought she would have already won a Tony, but according to the IBDB, she was only in four Broadway shows, The Boyfriend, My Fair Lady, Camelot, in the 60s before she went to Hollywood and Victor/Victoria in the 90s.  She was nominated for a Tony for the last three, losing respectively to Judy Holiday for Bells are Ringing, Elizabeth Seal (?) for Irma La Douce, and Donna Murphy for a revival of the King and I.  

    And at the risk of sounding like a forty-something Grandpa Simpson or an unfunny Jerry Seinfeld, what's the deal with these categories? 

    What are "Urban /Alternative" and "Americana"?  From the few nominees I recognize, I'm guessing they're something like hiphop and country music that's staid enough to be played on adult alternative radio, but do they really deserve seperate categories?  How is Americana different from Contemporary Folk?

    And what's with the weird proliferation of Mexican music categories?  There are seperate categories for best Tejano, Norteno, and Banda albums, as well as a category for "Best Regional Mexican Album."  All the rest of Latin music together gets only three awards (Latin Pop, Latin Rock/Urban, and Latin Tropical) and the rest of the world only two (contemporary and traditional world music).  Maybe they need to move the Grammys out of Southern California.

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  21. J.O'Connor1:10 PM

    The Guest is me.  Sorry to repeat Matt's observation about the plethora of Latin categories.  I type slow and he beat me to it.

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  22. bill.1:17 PM

    Americana is alt-country

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  23. Genevieve1:23 PM

    ooh, i really need to li
    sten to Trombone Shorty's album.

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  24. Per Wiki, Andrews already has a Grammy for Best Children's Album for Mary Poppins, so she's already EGO.  She would have almost certainly won the Tony in 1996 simply by virtue of being Julie Andrews had she not gotten all snitty and declined her nomination.

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  25. Genevieve2:30 PM

    That was not intended to be poetry - it was my first post from a smartphone and I clearly don't have the hang of the Enter button yet.

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  26. sconstant3:33 PM

    So becaues of her ego, she's stuck on EGO-?

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  27. The Other Kate4:35 PM

    I had no idea that Ray LaMontagne's "Beg Steal Or Borrow"  (which "Contemporary Folk") had made enough of a splash to get a Song of the Year nomination. Ray's voice reminds me a lot of Joni Mitchell's -- Joni's current day, cigarette-lowered voice, that is.

    From the Department of What's Up with That?: "Do the Murray" is a Best Rock Instrumental Song from Los Lobos and NOT a track from Flight of the Conchords' Best Comedy Album "I Told You I Was Freaky"?

    Is the Cee-Lo "F*ck You" that got the Best Short Form Music Video nomination the Cee-Lo through the ages live-action one, or the amazingly awesome POWER OF TYPOGRAPHY one? 

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  28. Genevieve4:49 PM

    I don't think it was her ego -- she declined her nomination because she felt that it was wrong to honor only her and overlook all of the rest of the cast and creative team of Victor/Victoria.  Whether or not she was right, that sounds like the opposite of ego to me.

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  29. Anonymous5:08 PM

    I saw Thompson in The West End in Me and My Girl. She was fantastic and had great success with Robert Lindsay in the piece.

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  30. slowlylu5:11 PM

    Oops that was me

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  31. Melba C. Toast5:30 PM

    The F*** You video nomination is for the live-action video, not the typography one. Pity, since I love those typography videos.

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  32. Roger5:44 PM

    Not a great year for Idols - just Fantasia and Carrie Underwood. But! GRAMMY NOMINEE ADAM LAMBERT. Awesome.

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  33. Genevieve12:38 AM

    Whoa!  Did not see that coming (and I was a fan while he was not Idol, though not as much after just because it's not really my kind of music).

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  34. sconstant1:11 AM

    Point taken, Genevieve. 

    Looking back, the contemporaneous NYT article says that it wasn't clear whether the Tony people would withdraw her name, and the Tony Awards website lists her as having been nominated.  But having outspokenly (even if unsuccessfully) declined the nomination probably killed her chances with voters.

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  35. I shall go into this Grammys season cheering for Arcade Fire, Miranda Lambert, and Florence + the Machine. 

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