Buena Vista wins the Grammy for MT Album

[BCfitasafiddle]

Posted: 2/1/26 at 6:27pm

Well deserved!

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 2/1/26 at 6:56pm

It’s both a deserved win and an understandable one for an awards body that might not actually be listening to all the nominees and gravitate to the known quantity in the title. 

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 2/1/26 at 7:14pm

''Buena Vista Social Club'' was a surprise. Variety had predicted ''Maybe Happy Ending.'' This announcement took place only shortly after Darren Criss had been co-hosting this Grammy Premiere Ceremony and after Criss and Helen J Shen performed a song from their Tony-winning musical. Surely they hoped for a ''Happy Ending'' at the Grammys.

If Criss had won his Grammy for the Broadway cast album this afternoon, he would've only been an Oscar shy of achieving his EGOT.

In other news, Laufey, a half-Chinese and half-Icelandic singer-songwriter, won the Grammy for Traditional Pop Vocal for ''A Matter of Time.'' Laufey says her album was inspired by ''Carousel.'' She's also said it's her dream to play Claire in ''Maybe Happy Ending,'' so maybe that's just ''A Matter of Time,'' too!

https://playbill.com/article/laufeys-big-broadway-dreams

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 2/1/26 at 7:27pm

Criss and Laufey were also performing together at a Grammy party earlier in the weekend. It’s just a matter of when and not if she plays Claire.

Congrats to team BUENA VISTA on their deserved honor. 

[quizking101]

Posted: 2/1/26 at 7:49pm

I was rooting for MHE, but BVSC really put their whole foot into those orchestrations and I love to see the band getting their flowers

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 2/1/26 at 8:02pm

That Grammy Awards line in the final minute is going to hit like crack at the Schoenfeld on Tuesday. 

Updated On: 2/1/26 at 08:02 PM

[pmensky]

Posted: 2/1/26 at 8:06pm

It strikes me as unusual that the Buena Vista Social Club cast album was Grammy eligible when 8 of its 20 tracks are the same compositions from the already Grammy winning 1997 album, and the remaining 12 tracks are also pre existing Cuban songs with no original material written for the musical, so even understanding that the Grammys judge the recording rather than the composition, it still feels fair to ask how a cast album built entirely from previously released repertoire, including a substantial portion drawn from a catalog that has already been awarded, fits into the spirit of what the category is meant to recognize.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 2/1/26 at 8:18pm

Congratulations to the most deserving Cast Album of 2025. It wasn't even close.

Updated On: 2/1/26 at 08:18 PM

[quizking101]

Posted: 2/1/26 at 8:26pm

pmensky said: "It strikes me as unusual that the Buena Vista Social Club cast album was Grammy eligible when 8 of its 20 tracks are the same compositions from the already Grammy winning 1997 album, and the remaining 12 tracks are also pre existing Cuban songs with no original material written for the musical, so even understanding that the Grammys judge the recording rather than the composition, it still feels fair to ask how a cast album built entirely from previously released repertoire, including a substantial portion drawn from a catalog that has already been awarded, fits into the spirit of what the category is meant to recognize."

It’s not like a “Best Original Score” award. It’s ultimately just an  award where a show that has at least 51% original content album (including orchestrations) is eligible to win. Other “jukebox” musicals have won in the recent past - Hell’s Kitchen, Jagged Little Pill, Beautiful, and American Idiot among them

[pmensky]

Posted: 2/1/26 at 8:47pm

quizking101 said: "pmensky said: "It strikes me as unusual that the Buena Vista Social Club cast album was Grammy eligible when 8 of its 20 tracks are the same compositions from the already Grammy winning 1997 album, and the remaining 12 tracks are also pre existing Cuban songs with no original material written for the musical, so even understanding that the Grammys judge the recording rather than the composition, it still feels fair to ask how a cast album built entirely from previously released repertoire, including a substantial portion drawn from a catalog that has already been awarded, fits into the spirit of what the category is meant to recognize."

It’s not like a “Best Original Score” award. It’s ultimately just an award where a show that has at least 51% original content album (including orchestrations) is eligible to win. Other “jukebox” musicals have won in the recent past - Hell’s Kitchen, Jagged Little Pill, Beautiful, and American Idiot among them"

I hear you, and I’m not disputing that this has happened before or that the album met the eligibility rules as written. What I’m saying is that, as a matter of principle, it seems reasonable to expect a cast album to contain at least some material that hasn’t already appeared on a previous, Grammy-award winning album. When an album is built entirely from pre‑existing songs, including a portion drawn from a catalog that has already been recognized, it raises a fair question about whether originality should play some role in determining eligibility.