THE BEST ARRANGEMENT, INSTRUMENTAL OR CAPPELLA AWARD WAS GIVEN TO THE 8-BIT BIG BAND.
On Sunday, an orchestra received a Grammy for its rendition of a song from Nintendo’s Kirby series.
The 8-Bit Big Band is a 30-65-member New York City-based Jazz/Pops orchestra that performs music from various video games.
Its first album, “Press Start!” was released in 2018, and it incorporates music from the Super Mario, Zelda, Ganbare Goemon, F-Zero, and Final Fantasy series. “Choose Your Character,” the band’s second album, was released in 2019 and featured versions of songs by Portal, Sonic, Donkey Kong Country, and others.
The Grammy award for Best Composition, Instrumental or A Cappella went to Big Band’s arrangement of Meta Knight’s Revenge from the 1996 SNES game Kirby Superstar on Sunday.
“HOLY SHIT WE WON THE GRAMMY!!” tweeted co-arranger Charlie Rosen on Twitter. VIDEO GAME MUSIC LONG LIVE!!”
“I am to thankful to my parents, I want to thank [Kirby composer] Jun Ishikawa,” Rosen’s colleague Jake Silverman said. I grew up listening to his music. It’s an incredible privilege to be here. “Thank you very much.”
“How is that possible?” tweeted Kirby inventor Masahiro Sakurai in response to the triumph. I’m taken aback.”
It’s not the first time that video game music has been honoured at the Grammys. A song from Civilization IV won Best Instrumental Composition Accompanying Vocalists in 2011, marking the first time a video game music was nominated or won in any category.
Journey was the first entire video game score to be nominated in the Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media category the following year.
The Forgotten Land, Nintendo’s latest Kirby game, was released for Nintendo Switch last month, coinciding with the Grammy triumph.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land has gained considerable critical acclaim, with a Metacritic score of 85 as of this writing.
“Another accomplished charmer from HAL’s inhalatory hero,” wrote VGC’s Kirby and the Forgotten Land review, adding, “The platforming won’t give Mario any restless nights, but the flamboyant imagination around it makes for a daring, joyful adventure.”
Kirby and the Forgotten Land director – general Shinya Kumazaki discussed how it took HAL Laboratory and Nintendo about 20 years to produce a 3D Kirby game in a recent interview on Nintendo’s own website.
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