AC Valhalla’s Soundtrack Gets the First Ever Grammy Award for Videogames

The Grammys, which are among the most prestigious music awards in the world, has created a new category just for video games. Today, the inaugural grammy award for “Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media” was handed to Stephanie Economou, the composer of the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok soundtrack.

Among other contestants, there was Austin Wintory who was nominated for Aliens: Fireteam Elite, Bear McCreary was nominated for Call of Duty: Vanguard, Richard Jacques was nominated for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and Christopher Tin was nominated for Old World. Only Tin had previously won a Grammy for the music arrangement of Baba Yetu, a track he originally produced for Civilization 4.

In contrast, Economou won somewhat of an underdog triumph. Although she is an accomplished violinist and composer, her compositions for Assassin’s Creed: The Siege of Paris and Dawn of Ragnarok were her initial forays into the realm of video game composition.

In an interview with Billboard, Economou stated,

I was happy to be able to do that, but I am—as the videogame world would say—such a newbie when it comes to videogame scoring. It’s difficult to be nominated beside these literal titans of videogame music; I’m so honored to be in their company, but I’m also unsure if I belong. I believe that’s how most artists feel, but I’m incredibly honored and extremely pleased with the soundtrack.

You can listen to the entire Dawn of Ragnarok track on YouTube, where you can also find the Old World, Call of Duty: Vanguard, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Aliens: Fireteam soundtracks, if you’d like to decide for yourself if the award was deserved or not.

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