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he 66th Annual Grammy Awards are this weekend! We’re hoping to see big wins from our favorites including SZA, Victoria Monét, Jon Batiste and many more. The 96th Academy Awards are about a month and some change away. The
nominees were announced last week and they were refreshingly diverse. Some of the Black names that are up for awards this year include Colman Domingo, Sterling K. Brown, Danielle Brooks, Jeffrey Wright and Da’Vine Joy Randolph just to name a few. If their names are called as winners on March 10th, they will join a very rare group of people who can make that same claim. Only around 60 African-Americans have won Oscars in different categories, including special prizes also distributed at the ceremony, like those for lifetime achievement. There have only been 11 Black artists who have won Grammys since its inception.
As prestigious as the Oscar and Grammy clubs are, there is one that definitely tops them both. In Hollywood, EGOT status is referred to as the “grand slam” of American show business. It is achieved when an entertainer has won all four of the major American performing art awards (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony). These awards honor outstanding achievements in television, recording, film and Broadway theatre. There have only been 19 people to reach this legendary competitive milestone (25 if you count those who have done so with honorary or special awards). Out of that 19, only 4 have been Black (That number goes up to 7 when counting honorary and special award winners).
With that being the case, it’s super important to shine a light on these amazing talents and their unconquerable spirits. The individuals that are blessed enough to call themselves EGOT winners have exceeded expectations in ways unimaginable, opened doors for so many people who came after them and have left legacies that will never be forgotten. With us being knee deep in award season and it being the first day of Black History Month, we thought it would be a great idea to highlight the Black EGOT winners! Shout out to these masters or their artistry for showing Black people everywhere that there is no height that we can’t reach. Thanks to their brilliance, resilience and consistency, the entertainment business will never be the same for Black people!
(We included the 3 winners who have non-competitive EGOT status also)
