2024 Emmy Predictions: Best Music and Lyrics
In 2018, “La La Land” and “Dear Evan Hansen” songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul missed out on breaking the record for fastest EGOT acquisition by coming up short on their first Emmy bid for “A Christmas Story Live!”. From that point, however, they still had eight years left to achieve said record, and they could end up doing so with two years to spare now that they are in the running for the 2024 Best Music and Lyrics Emmy.
Pasek and Paul’s new nominated song from “Only Murders in the Building” is one of three comedic ones in its lineup, the others of which were written for “Girls5eva” and “Saturday Night Live.” Also in the mix are more somber tunes from the miniseries “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” and “True Detective: Night Country.”
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In order to determine how Pasek and Paul will fare on this momentous outing, let’s take a closer look at them and their fellow nominees. Be sure to make your predictions in this and 30 other Creative Arts Emmy categories by September 7.
“The Medium Time” from “Girls5eva”
Episode: “New York”
Songwriter: Sara Bareilles
This musical comedy’s first songwriting notice comes three years into its overall run but only a few months after its Netflix debut. Bareilles, who has penned multiple songs for the former Peacock series as well as the Emmy-nominated “This One’s for You” for the 2018 Tony Awards, leads her “Girls5eva” costars in a soulful season finale performance of “The Medium Time” just before her character goes into labor with her second child.
“Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?” from “Only Murders in the Building”
Episode: “Sitzprobe”
Songwriters: Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Marc Shaiman, and Scott Wittman
In the context of this murder mystery series, “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?” is one of several songs written for the stage musical “Death Rattle” about the investigation of a young mother’s sudden demise. Pasek and Paul share their bid with former “Smash” nominees Shaiman and Wittman, the former of whom won Best Variety Writing for the 1992 Oscars and is presently recognized for scoring the documentary special “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life.”
“The Maya Rudolph Mother’s Day Monologue” from “Saturday Night Live”
Episode: “Host: Maya Rudolph”
Songwriters: Eli Brueggemann, Maya Rudolph, Auguste White, Mike DiCenzo, and Jake Nordwind
Brueggemann’s sixth songwriting nomination comes six years after he took the gold for the Boyz II Men-esque “SNL” song “Come Back, Barack.” This time, he teamed with current triple acting nominee Rudolph (“Loot”; “SNL”; “Big Mouth”) and three more category newcomers to craft this high-energy spoken word number which serves to demonstrate why its subject deserves the honorific title of mother.
“Love Will Survive” from “The Tattooist of Auschwitz”
Episode: “Episode 6”
Songwriters: Kara Talve, Hans Zimmer, Walter Afanasieff, and Charlie Midnight
The only non-diegetic song in this lineup is performed over the end credits of its series’ last episode by four-time Emmy winner Barbra Streisand. Talve and Zimmer are also nominated for scoring the fact-based Holocaust drama while he shares a new documentary composition bid for “Planet Earth III” with Jacob Shea and Sara Barone.
“No Use” from “True Detective: Night Country”
Episode: “Part 5”
Songwriter: John Hawkes
As with Rudolph, Hawkes’s first songwriting notice is accompanied by an acting bid for the same series. The supporting contender, whose musical talents have been honed over several decades, delivers a haunting acoustic performance of “No Use” in character as Alaska police captain Hank Prior while, elsewhere, an environmental protest gives way to a riot.
So, what will win the 2024 Emmy for Best Music and Lyrics? It’s important to note that, until very recently, no live action continuing series with simultaneous score and song nominations had ever won either award. While current dual contender “Only Murders in the Building” will probably have to concede the composition contest to “Sho?gun,” it should also glide through the song victory door left open by “Schmigadoon!” in 2022.
Pasek and Paul are far from the only competitive Grammy, Oscar, and Tony winners to have ever been denied Emmys, but it is hard to ignore that they are the only living ones missing the “E” in EGOT. Given their new song’s delightful volubility and the fact that TV academy voters just put variety special producer Elton John in the EGOT club this January, the “Only Murders” musicians can safely be counted on to soon make awards history.
PREDICT the Creative Arts Emmy winners through September 7
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