Assassin’s Creed wins the first games Grammy

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has won the first ever Grammy solely for video game music, although the presenter wasn’t quite sure how to pronounce it.

The 65th Grammy Awards were broadcast yesterday, and for the first time ever contained a category solely for the best video game soundtrack.

The nominees list was made up of Austin Wintory for Aliens: Fireteam Elite, Stephanie Economou for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok, Bear McCreary for Call of Duty: Vanguard, Richard Jacques for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and Christopher Tin for Old World.

Games have previously been eligible in other categories, though rarely won any of them when up against other projects. This is the first time that a dedicated video game category has been available at the Grammy Awards.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok ultimately won the award, with Economou accepting the award. Economou has previously worked on the scores of a number of feature films, including The Martian and Mulan, as well as performed as a violinist in shows like Marvel 616.

Stephanie Economou is an accomplished violinist and composer, having worked on dozens of productions across all types of media. Picture: Leon Bennett/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

Games fans were amused at the pronunciation of the game’s name by pre-show host Randy Rainbow. When reading out the winner, Rainbow managed to work his way through “Assassin’s” and “Creed” mostly fine, but stumbled when getting to “Valhalla”.

The result was a pronunciation that sounded more like “Valaha” than anything else, which is understandable given how uncommon a word it is. Still, the moment spread like wildfire on social media, with one tweet gaining over eight million views in the hours following the show.

can’t stop laughing at this guy announcing the Grammy win for Assassin's Creed Valhalla pic.twitter.com/vz9bTVZFTX

— Wendell (@RhodeToLove) February 5, 2023

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was first released in 2020, and had multiple years of content updates. The latest major expansion was Dawn of Ragnarok, a huge piece of DLC that added new abilities, enemies, and locations to explore.

It’s a part of the larger Assassin’s Creed franchise, developed and published by Ubisoft, which has been running continuously since the release of the first game in 2007. The series is expected to see many more games in the future, with the next game, a spin-off of Valhalla called Mirage, set to release this year.

The series is not without its dramas though. The director behind the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Red was accused of harassment by multiple employees, with many alleging that the director was “narcissistic” and a “bully”.

The Grammy win also comes after a big Ubisoft game was delayed six times, with Skull and Bones once again having its release date pushed back. The game was initially set to launch in 2018, but has been pushed back repeatedly since then, now potentially releasing next year.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.