The biggest Jewish milestone at The 68th Grammy Awards went to a filmmaker: Steven Spielberg. The 79-year-old director won his first Grammy, making him only the 22nd person to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony (EGOT) in competitive categories.
Spielberg won the Grammy for Best Music Film as a producer of the documentary, “Music by John Williams,” about his long-time collaborator. Spielberg is now the ninth Jewish EGOT. The eight others are composer Richard Rodgers, composer Marvin Hamlisch, composer and orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, director Mike Nichols, comedian, writer and director Mel Brooks, theater and film producer Scott Rudin and composers Alan Menken and Benj Pasek.
“Thank you to all the Grammy voters, whose recognition of ‘Music By John Williams’ means the world to me and our Amblin team, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey and congratulations to our partners at Imagine and the Walt Disney Company,” Spielberg said in an Instagram post from Amblin Entertainment. “This acknowledgment is obviously deeply meaningful to me because it validates what I have known for over 50 years: John Williams’ influence on culture and music is immeasurable and his artistry and legacy is unrivaled. I am proud to be associated with Laurent’s beautiful film.”
Also at the Feb. 1 ceremony at the Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles, Jewish singer-songwriter Jack Antonoff won Best Rap Song for “TV Off,” co-written with Kendrick Lamar. Antonoff entered the ceremony tied for the second-most nominations overall, with seven.
Antonoff was one of several attendees to wear a white pin on his outfit that read “ICE OUT,” in protest of the recent federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids throughout the United States.
Jewish cellist Alisa Weilerstein was part of the winning team (along with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic) for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for “Ortiz: Dzonot,” composed by Gabriela Ortiz.
In musical theater, Jewish producers Dean Sharenow and David Yazbek won Best Musical Theater Album for “Buena Vista Social Club,” representing the Original Broadway Cast. The show features dialogue in English, with songs performed entirely in Spanish.
“Our amazing band and cast who perform on our show eight times a week did an amazing job on this record, it was so easy to make,” Sharenow said in his acceptance speech.
Singer-songwriter Paul Simon was among the six honorees in the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Awards. Over the course of his career, Simon has won 16 Grammys.
Jewish artists who received nominations but did not take home any awards:
San Fernando Valley-native band Haim was nominated for Best Rock Album for “I Quit.”
Comedian Sarah Silverman was nominated for Best Comedy Album for “PostMortem.”
Actor Timothée Chalamet was nominated in Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media for “A Complete Unknown.”
Composer Stephen Schwartz was nominated for Best Score Soundtrack Album for Visual Media for “Wicked.”
Jewish actor and jazz musician Jeff Goldblum co-presented the award for Best Contemporary Country Album, while Carole King presented Song of the Year.
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., who has spoken publicly in support of Israel and Jewish artists through Creative Community for Peace, introduced Cher, who later presented Record of the Year.
At the 2024 Grammy Awards, the first ceremony held after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, Mason gave a speech about music as a shared space. He spoke about the numerous deadly attacks on music fans around the world, including the massacre at Bataclan Concert Hall in Paris in 2015 (89 murdered), the Manchester Arena bombing in England in 2017 (22 murdered), the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas in 2017 (58 murdered), and the Nova Music Festival in Re’im, Israel, where more than 360 music fans were killed or abducted by Hamas terrorists.
Before introducing a string quartet featuring musicians of Palestinian, Israeli and Arab descent to perform on stage to open the 2024 Grammys, Mason said, “We live in a world divided by so much, and maybe music can’t solve everything, but let us all agree: music must remain the common ground upon which we all stand together in peace and harmony.”
