Assassin’s Creed Valhalla makes history as the first video game to win the Best Soundtrack Grammy

For the first time in history, video games have raised their hands and said “present” at the Grammys. In its 2023 edition, the most important awards in the world of music had a new category called “Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media”. According to The Recording Academy, the organizer of the event, this award "recognizes the excellence of scores and soundtracks composed predominantly of original scores and created specifically for, or as a complement to, a current video game or other interactive media released within the qualification period." . The first ever winner of the statue has been Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and the composer at the head of the music is Stephanie Economou. With its victory, the Ubisoft game has prevailed over Old World, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Call of Duty: Vanguard and Aliens: Fireteam Elite, the other four nominees this year.

“I feel honored, especially since this is the first year this category has existed”, said Economou when receiving the award. "It’s big,It is a big step and I feel validated by a community that I am more than grateful to be able to be with. My thoughts are with every single one of the musicians and soloists that made this soundtrack what it is. A lot of people helped make this work something very special and I want to share the award with them.

The award ceremony was only been marred by the reading of the award, during wich Randy Rainbow, an American comedian and singer who presented the winner, was stumped when trying to read the name of the game and pronounced it in a way that didn’t take long to raise all kinds of comments and jokes on social networks.

And as an anecdote, although it is the first Grammy to be awarded specifically to a video game, it is not the first time that a song or melody from the medium has won a Grammy. Without going any further, last year the award for Best arrangement, instrumental or a cappella was given to a jazz band known as The 8-Bit Big Band. As you can imagine from its name, this band of between 30 and 65 members is dedicated to playing video game music and the award in question was achieved for its cover of Meta Knight’s Revenge, belonging to Kirby Superstar for SNES of 1996.