Barack Obama’s tryst with Grammy Awards: Here’s what you didn’t know
The 65th Annual Grammy Awards, one of the most prestigious music awards ceremonies in the world, happened on 6th February at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The Grammy recognised all outstanding musical contributions from across the globe. While it was hosted by South African comedian Trevor Noah who returned for the third consecutive time, it was Beyonce, the global music icon who stole all the limelight by grabbing her record-breaking 32nd Grammy Award. Earlier, it was the Hungarian-British music composer George Solti who had 31 Grammys to his name, a feat that stood for two decades. While Beyonce made history, Harry Styles too gained some attention when he won the Best Album of the Year for his album Harry’s House.
Talking of the Grammys, did you know that former US President Barack Obama has won not one but two Grammy Awards? Not only that, he also earned a nomination at the Grammy Awards 2022. Here is all about the works that earned him the honour.
Dreams From My Father
In 1995, long before he came the US President, Obama had penned a memoir Dreams From My Father subtitled A Story of Race and Inheritance. The narrative revolves around Obama’s childhood as spent in Honolulu and Chicago until he entered the Harvard School of Law in 1988. Here, he recounts his parents’ divorce, the silent impact of his absent father and the immense contribution of his maternal grandparents in his growing years. This non-fiction was published by Times Books right at the beginning of his political career when he was campaigning for the Illinois Senate. When Obama won the US senate Democratic primary victory in Illinois in 2004, the book was re-published by Three Rivers Press with a few additional pages. Several sources cite that the former US President modelled his memoir on Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man. In 2006, when Obama was slowly entering the peak of his political career, he went on to win the Grammy Awards in the category Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording (later known as Best Spoken Word Album).
The Audacity of Hope
Right after his first Grammy win and almost a decade after he wrote his first book, Obama returned to the world of literature. He penned The Audacity of Hope with the subtitle Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream in 2006. However, it was two years later that he won Grammys for it in the category Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording. The book is divided into nine chapters and outlines Obama’s political and spiritual principles apart from his opinions on different aspects of the American culture. The non-fiction was hugely popular and was even endorsed by none other than Oprah Winfrey. Not only that, many of the views from the book were later used as part of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. This too was published by the Three Rivers Press in collaboration with the Crown Publishing Group. What’s more interesting is that the title of the book was derived from a sermon delivered by Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright who was in turn inspired by British painter G.F. Watt’s painting Hope. Wait, that isn’t all either. Turns out, before writing the book, Obama used the phrase ‘audacity of hope’ as part of his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
A Promised Land
Nominated at the Grammys 2022 for the upgraded category Best Spoken Word Album (includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling), A Promised Land is also a memoir with more detailed and longer accounts of Obama’s life right from his student days to the start of the political career, followed by his life as the US President from 2009 to 2017. It also contains accounts surrounding the death of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in 2011. Published in 2020, the book is part of a two-volume series. Till date, it has been published in more than a dozen languages and has also been turned into a 28-hour-long audiobook that is voiced by Obama himself.