LOS ANGELES: Former United States First Lady Michelle Obama is a Grammy winner now.
Obama was honoured with the best spoken word album of the year award for her bestselling memoir “Becoming” during the 2020 Grammy’s pre-show festivities in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Obama did not attend the ceremony but Best Jazz Vocal Album winner Esperanza Spalding told the audience that she would “gladly accept on her behalf.”
She beat out the Beastie Boys, Erik Alexandrakis’ “I.V. Catatonia”, John Waters’ “Mr. Know It All”, and Sekou Andrews’ “Sekou Andrews & The String Theory” albums in the category.
“Becoming” follows Obama’s life growing up on the South Side of Chicago through her years as first lady of the United States.
She is not the only Grammy winner in the family, as her husband, former US President Barack Obama has won two Grammy awards in the same category for his memoirs Dreams from My Father (2006) and The Audacity of Hope (2008).
Obama is also the the second first lady to win a Grammy. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also took home a Grammy in the same category for her book, It Takes a Village, in 1997, while husband Bill Clinton was president.
President Clinton also won twice for spoken word and was nominated twice. President Jimmy Carter was also a three-time Grammy winner.
The text version of “Becoming” has sold millions of copies, and had the longest streak at No. 1 on Amazon for any book since “Fifty Shades of Grey” in 2012.
The former First Lady, @MichelleObama, is the 2020 GRAMMY Best Spoken Word winner. https://t.co/S99iM9lEXN
— Recording Academy / GRAMMYs (@RecordingAcad) January 27, 2020
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