Viola Davis achieves EGOT status with Grammy win for best audiobook
Viola Davis joined the coveted EGOT club with her win at Sunday’s Grammy Awards. Before the main show, Davis won the award for “Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording,” for her memoir Finding Me.
Her win was not an easy feat as everyone within her category has previously won a Grammy. Mel Brooks, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Questlove and Jamie Foxx were the competition for the South Carolina native.
Davis’s journey to EGOT status began in 2001 with her Tony Award win for stage plays King Hedley II and again in 2010 with Fences. Her ABC drama, How to Get Away With Murder, provided her with her first Emmy in 2015. She accepted the Oscar for “Best Supporting Actress” in 2017 for the on-screen adaptation of Fences.
The multifaceted actress affirmed her efforts during her acceptance speech, as she happily exclaimed, “I just EGOT!”
“I wrote this book to honor the 6-year-old Viola — to honor her life, her joy, her trauma, her everything. And it has been such a journey. I just EGOT!”
The EGOT designation is awarded to individuals who have won all four of the major American entertainment awards, the Emmy, Oscar, Grammy, and Tony.
18 others hold the EGOT title, only three, including Davis are Black women. Whoopi Goldberg gained her status in 2002 with her Tony Award for Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Jennifer Hudson joined the ranks in 2022 earning a Tony as a producer for the stage play Strange Loop after it won for ‘Best Musical.’
James Earl Jones (2011), Harry Belafonte (2014), Quincy Jones (2016), and John Legend (2018) are the only Black men that hold the title.
The win is a major acknowledgment for Davis after there was controversy surrounding the Oscars snub of her 2022 film, The Woman King. The movie was listed as one the “Best Films’ of 2022 and did not receive any nominations. The award show is being criticized for not listing any Black actors as nominees for lead roles or having any woman (Black or non-POC) nominated for best director.
Martie Bowser is a journalist and public relations professional in Charlotte, NC. She enjoys amplifying the voices of POC and women that fill a void within their community. Her bylines include “person of interest” interviews, small business highlights, pop culture commentary, entertainment features, and everything Beyonce.
This story was originally published February 6, 2023 at 6:24 PM with the headline "Viola Davis achieves EGOT status with Grammy win for best audiobook."