EGOT #12 is Robert Lopez. It was Lopez who got me into the phenomenon of the EGOT. I heard that he was probably going to finish his EGOT by winning the Oscar for the song "Let It Go" from *Frozen.* Plus he's the friend of a friend, which made me a tiny bit more invested in him and the phenomenon of the EGOT.
I looked up the list of EGOTs on Wikipedia after he won and saw that there were 12 people on the list. I thought it would be a good idea to memorize who they all were. I looked at the list of names, read them aloud, and saw that they had a nice rhythm to them, so I thought I'd write a song. But to make it easier, I decided to use an established tune and put new words to it.
My stroke of genius was to take my Methodist hymnal off the shelf (yes, I bought it, I did NOT steal it from my hometown church) and went to the back where they have a list of the meter of the lyrics of the hymns and the tune names that go with that meter. So you can mix and match - - so the Welsh hymn tune Hyfrydol could have the lyrics "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" or "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" or a number of other lyrics.
I chose a tune called Beecher, which is (ironically) best known as "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling." I call my creation "Hymn to the EGOT." The original version ends with Lopez and references Alan Menken, who was expected to be the next EGOT winner (it would actually be a few more years for him). The second half of the hymn addresses three people (there are more) who are NOT EGOTs because one of their awards is not a competitive award.
Here are my lyrics:
Rodgers, Hayes, Moreno, Gielgud,
Hepburn, Hamlisch, Tunick, Brooks,
Nichols, Goldberg, Rudin, Lopez,
Alan Menken's next, it looks.
Not for Barbra or for Liza,
James Earl Jones might like one too.
One of theirs is honorary
We don't count those, neither should you.
Here's the hymn tune so you can all sing along at home:
For the D/M pair for Lopez, I've chosen the first stop on his EGOT tour, his 2004 Tony win for *Avenue Q,* and his first Emmy, for music for Nick Jr's *Wonder Pets.* I see *Ave Q* as the Diva because you might think it's for children but it's decidedly not, whereas *Wonder Pets * is the Mensch because it really is for children.
Robert Lopez (born 1975), a songwriter, received his fourth distinct award in 2014. Between 2004 and 2021, Lopez received a total of 11 awards. His only Emmy awards were Daytime Emmys until he won a Primetime Emmy in 2021 for WandaVision. Lopez is the first Filipino and Asian to achieve this feat. He is also the youngest winner to receive all four awards in competitive categories, as well as the fastest to complete his qualifying run of EGOT award wins (9 years). He is also the second EGOT recipient (after John Legend) to have won both Primetime and Daytime Emmy Awards.
He received his Grammy Award for The Book of Mormon in collaboration with fellow EGOT winner Scott Rudin (among others), making them the first pair of Grand Slam winners to have been co-winners of the same award. Lopez is also the first person to have won the Oscar last, which he won with his wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez. Lopez is the first and so far the only person to win the so-called "Double EGOT", winning each EGOT award at least twice.
Academy Awards:
2013: Best Original Song – "Let It Go" from Frozen
2017: Best Original Song – "Remember Me" from Coco
Primetime Emmy Awards:
2021: Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics – "Agatha All Along" from WandaVision
Daytime Emmy Awards:
2008: Outstanding Music Direction and Composition – Wonder Pets!
2010: Outstanding Music Direction and Composition – Wonder Pets!
Grammy Awards:
2012: Best Musical Theater Album – The Book of Mormon: Original Broadway Cast Recording
2015: Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media – Frozen
2015: Best Song Written for Visual Media – "Let It Go" from Frozen
Tony Awards:
2004: Best Original Score – Avenue Q
2011: Best Book of a Musical – The Book of Mormon
2011: Best Original Score – The Book of Mormon
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