If Lin-Manuel Miranda Wins For ‘Moana’ He’ll Be The Youngest Artist To EGOT

Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Two years ago, most people had never heard the name Lin-Manuel Miranda. Then Hamilton took the country by storm and now he’s a household name. Before his breakout, Manuel had already won a Tony Award for Best Original Score and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2009 for his work on In The Heights. Then in 2014, he took home the Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for the 67th Tony Awards. Then he wrote Hamilton, which won an avalanche of awards, including the Pulitzer Prize.

But now Lin-Manuel Miranda is on the brink of making history. His song “How Far I’ll Go” from Disney’s Moana has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Should he and his team win the day on February 26, 2017, Manuel will join a small and prestigious group of EGOT winners. For those who may not know, EGOT stands for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony, an aspirational term coined by Miami Vice star Philip Michael Thomas. Only a dozen people belong to this club (17 if you count non-competitive awards such as Honorary Oscars), which currently includes Audrey Hepburn, Mel Brooks, Whoopi Goldberg and others. But what would set Lin-Manuel Miranda apart would be both his age and his lightning-fast ascension to their ranks. At 37, Manuel would be both the youngest EGOT winner in history and the fastest to complete the set, suprassing Robert Lopez, songwriter for Book of Mormon and Frozen, in youth and speed. Lopez currently holds the record, completing the EGOT run in 10 years. Should Moana win Best Original Song, Manuel will have accomplished the task in eight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPAbx5kgCJo

×