Buena Vista wins the Grammy for MT Album

Well deserved!

''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

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

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.

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'm under the impression that they look at how the album is produced, not necessarily its percentage of content, this vs that. That's why so many "jukebox" musical tend to win, because they record it like a traditional album of music.

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "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."

I think it would be irrelevant even if they listened to all. It is a sensational album that brilliantly captures the show's energy. To me, its Grammy was a no-brainer.