Alan Menken achieves EGOT status

Composer Alan Menken, known as the ‘man who wrote the soundtrack to your childhood’ for his work with Disney, has achieved an EGOT status, following a Daytime Emmy win at the 2020 ceremony.

He is only the 16th person to be an EGOT, a term for those who have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards, joining an elite group of performers including Audrey Hepburn, Mel Brooks, Whoopi Goldberg and Marvin Hamlisch. Richard Rodgers was the first individual to become an EGOT back in 1962.

Menken won an Emmy for Outstanding Original Song in a Children’s, Young Adult or Animated Program category for ‘Waiting in the Wings’, a song composed for the Disney Channel series Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure. He shared the award with lyricist Glenn Slater.

On social media, Menken said: “What can I say? I’m honored, thrilled and humbled.”

Menken previously received a Special Emmy Award in 1990 for his work on an anti-drug special for children, which was shared with Howard Ashman. He has previously been nominated for two Primetime Emmys for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics – in 2013, for The Neighbors, and in 2016 for Galavant.

The composer holds the record for living person with the most Academy Awards, winning eight out of 19 nominations

The composer holds the record for living person with the most Academy Awards, winning eight out of 19 nominations, all of them for his work on Disney animated musicals. He has four for Best Original Score, winning for The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992) and Pocahontas (1995, for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score). He won a further four for Best Original Song for works from those films – ‘Under the Sea’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘A Whole New World’ and ‘Colors of the Wind’ respectively. His most recent nomination was in 2010, a Best Original Song nod for ‘I See the Light’ from Tangled.

Menken has won 11 Grammys from 20 nominations, with his first two wins in 1991 for work on The Little Mermaid. His most recent win with in 2012. He has received 5 Tony nominations and won once, a 2012 Best Original Score win for his work on the successful Broadway musical Newsies, adapted from the Disney flop of 1992.

Prior to the victory, the composer joked that he could become the first ‘REGOT’, as he is the only member of the group to have a Golden Raspberry Award. He officially accepted the Razzie for Worst Original Song in 1993, winning for ‘High Times, Hard Times’ from the film version of Newsies. He became the first person to win a Razzie and an Oscar in the same year, and has proudly spoken about it ever since.