One of the most reliably interesting categories at the Creative Arts Emmys — taking place on September 7 and 8, the weekend before the Primetime Emmys — is Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, which is just a wordy way of saying “Best Song.†This is a category that spans all TV genres, from comedies and dramas to sketch comedy, TV movies, and awards shows. Just a quick look at some of the recent winners — Schmigadoon!’s “Corn Puddin’†in 2022; WandaVision’s “Agatha All Along†in 2021; Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s “Antidepressants Are So Not a Big Deal†in 2019 — reveals a category decidedly more attuned to fun than some of the more prestigious categories in either Emmys ceremony. And yet, you also get winners like the Diane Warren–penned, Lady Gaga–performed “Til It Happens to You†from the documentary The Hunting Ground, the rare song that gets nominated for both an Oscar and an Emmy (the Oscars, of course, denied Warren the win, because they like to do that, and because Sam Smith’s song from Spectre was somehow undeniable).
This year’s nominees offer a typically far-reaching spectrum of tunes, from the somberly dramatic to the tongue-twistingly silly to the drag-tastic:
➼ Girls5eva: “New York†– “The Medium Time†by Sara Bareilles (Netflix)
➼ Only Murders in the Building: “Sitzprobe†– “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?†by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Marc Shaiman, and Scott Wittman (Hulu)
➼ Saturday Night Live: “Host: Maya Rudolph†– “Maya Rudolph Mother’s Day Monologue†by Eli Brueggemann, Maya Rudolph, Auguste White, Mike DiCenzo, and Jake Nordwind (NBC)
➼ The Tattooist of Auschwitz: “Episode 6†– “Love Will Survive†by Kara Talve, Hans Zimmer, Walter Afanasieff, and Charlie Midnight (Peacock)
➼ True Detective: Night Country: “Part 5†– “No Use†by John Hawkes (HBO)
The stakes are pretty high as well. Pasek and Paul remain one Emmy win away from achieving the EGOT. Rudolph is nominated in four different categories this year. Girls5Eva’s fate remains, as ever, in limbo, so this could be the show’s last chance to win an award. To give this category its due attention, and to try to make sense of which tune might win, I’ve roped in Vulture senior writer and musical-theater whisperer Jackson McHenry.
Joe Reid: Jackson, thank you for joining me to talk about this batch of Emmy-nominated songs. You’ve got the theatrical expertise, so you were the first person I thought of to dig into the Marc Shaiman/Pasek and Paul of it all. But even taking a step back from that, this is a category that covers a lot of territory. The three comedy songs include a smartly rendered genre parody (“Pickwickâ€), a reference-heavy drag number (“Mayaâ€), and a surprisingly earnest statement of purpose (“Medium Timeâ€). Add to that an actor-penned folk ballad and a Barbra Streisand–sung love ballad from a Holocaust drama, and you get what I called on nomination day a stronger top-to-bottom collection of songs than the Oscars have delivered in a while. I think I still stand by that!
Jackson McHenry: I really appreciate how eclectic this category is, both in terms of genre and how these songs fit into their shows narratively. Usually, I think of awards shows defaulting to a big star’s lugubrious credits song — the closest we’ve got to that here is Barbra’s work with Hans Zimmer; love her memoir, but this is not necessarily new territory for either of them — but here the Emmys are swerving into comedy writing and compositions that, in their respective shows, were written by the characters. How very diegetic! Then, there are the narratives of the campaigns themselves, which add some fun friction: Will voters be swayed by the chance to finally give Girls5Eva some recognition — even if this is a relatively buttoned-up version of its typically more joke-dense stuff? Do they love stars like Maya and Babs enough to just bend the knee to them? (There’s the added “this is important†element of the Tattooist of Auschwitz here.) And, while I do think “Pickwick Triplets†is the front-runner and genuinely charming, do we as a society want to award Pasek and Paul an EGOT? (Our colleague Jesse David Fox routinely bemoans the fact that there’d be something wrong about a universe where they achieve that before Lin-Manuel Miranda.)
Reid: Lin-Manuel would be sitting comfortably at home with his EGOT if Disney had just submitted the right song from Encanto, but that’s another discussion for another time. Great point about in-character songwork. It makes me feel even better about a “Pickwick†win — Pasek and Paul aside, it’s a great way for the Academy to acknowledge Only Murders in the Building taking a chance on a musical season and succeeding.
Sara Bareilles could have been a double nominee in this category if her song from Only Murders (“Look for the Lightâ€) had been nominated. “Pickwick Triplets†is better, but “Pickwick Triplets†didn’t feature Meryl Streep and Ashley Park converging in a harmonic union of murdered mother and devoted nanny. I’m not mad at “The Medium Time†— it’s a song that highlights Bareilles’s gift for bringing genuine heart into something conceptually silly. “The Medium Time†isn’t to blame for the fact that the Emmys never nominated “New York Lonely Boy†or “Four Stars†or (admittedly a long shot) “The Splingee,†but it is definitely a less dazzling selection.
One interesting thing about Barbra’s star power influencing voters is that because she’s not a songwriter on “Love Will Survive,†her name won’t be on the ballot, and thus her contribution is somewhat muted. Which brings me to someone whose name could carry some swaying power: Maya Rudolph has won five Emmys in the last six years and is getting close to rubber-stamp territory with the voters. Her SNL Mother’s Day song is fun but also feels like territory the show has traversed a lot in the last few years. I think if there’s a threat to Pasek, Paul, and the Pickwicks, it’s Maya.
McHenry: Maya is, as she sings, mother, and those Emmy voters love her, and her song did lead me down a rabbit hole to discover that SNL has gotten 13 Emmy nominations for Original Music and Lyrics, starting with “Dick in a Box†in 2007 (it won) and running through a bunch of other Lonely Island works, Justin Timberlake’s 2011 monologue (that also won; the Emmys clearly love him), and then a slate of songs from 2012 to the present where the music is all credited to the show’s musical director, Eli Brueggemann — a secret Emmys heavy hitter! (He’s won once before, for a 2017 Chris Redd–Kenan Thompson–Chance the Rapper song about longing for the return of Barack Obama.)
And speaking of “Pickwick,†we should also acknowledge the contributions of Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, whose neoclassical musical-theater style is a great fit for the patteriness of that number. The two of them are regular collaborators (as with Hairspray and Catch Me If You Can), but only Shaiman, the composer, has an Emmy for working on Billy Crystal’s 1992 Oscars melodies (his award was for Writing for a Variety or Music Program). If the two of them win here, it’s also a big moment for them, and for their work on the dearly departed (but soon to be revived onstage) Smash. Back in 2012, “Let Me Be Your Starâ€Â lost to “It’s Not Just for the Gays Anymore,â€Â which, tough call. And, in fact, Pasek and Paul wrote their own song for Smash’s second season that is very shady about the pop stars of the era, so “Pickwick†is a Smash reunion. I’m so proud of myself for bringing this all back to Smash.
Reid: First of all, good of you to mention that Pasek and Paul aren’t the only “Pickwick†diptych behind that song and that Shaiman and Wittman have their own history in this category (Shaiman is only missing the O for his EGOT). And while we’re speaking of Smash … no, there’s no way to connect Smash to the John Hawkes song from True Detective: Night Country. It’s a nice little song, though, and good on Hawkes for pulling down dual noms in acting and songwriting. But it definitely feels like a solid fifth-placer. I’m gonna put you on the spot before I let you go: Who’s winning?
McHenry: My pick? That the “Pickwick Triplet†quadruplets cinch it.
Reid: I agree! Not only does the lyrical dexterity and general chutzpah of “Pickwick†deserve to win, but the degree of difficulty in performing such a nimble nursery rhyme makes Steve Martin my “should win†in Comedy Actor as well.
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