5-Year-Old Civ IV Gets Gaming's First Grammy Nod

[John Funk]

5-Year-Old Civ IV Gets Gaming's First Grammy Nod

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For the first time ever, a videogame has been nominated for a Grammy award. Too bad it came out in 2005.

It's becoming harder and harder to deny the place that videogames have in mainstream culture. A song composed for a game has been nominated for a Grammy award - and I don't mean for a new "best videogame song" category, either.

Christopher Tin's "Baba Yetu" - seen here to the right - made the short list for the category "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists." It may be a bit specific, but hey, it's still a Grammy award. Tin composed the song for Firaxis' Civilization series, and it was performed by the rather talented Soweto Gospel Choir.

Here's the weird bit, though: Tin didn't write "Baba Yetu" for the excellent Civilization V. It was composed for Civilization IV, which came out five years ago in 2005. I thought the purpose of the Grammy awards was to recognize the top songs of the year?

The popularity of "Baba Yetu" has extended beyond gaming, reports Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/31841/Grammys_Nominates_First_Video_Game_Theme_Civ_IV_Music.php], with thousands of professional choirs inserting it into their repertoire - and that doesn't just mean game-themed performances like Video Games Live, either. It's possible that the Grammy folks only just now got around to nominating this song because this was the first they'd ever heard it.

But it still feels weird to have a song nominated for an award half a decade after it was first released, don't you think?

Update: I have been informed that the Grammy nod is specifically for the Video Games Live arrangement of the song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u_EWzmvI8E] - which did, in fact, come out this year. That answers that, then. (Thanks, JonahNYC!)

(Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/31841/Grammys_Nominates_First_Video_Game_Theme_Civ_IV_Music.php?])

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[The Cheezy One]

Baba yetu yetu uliye mbingbube yetu yetu Amina!
You see, this is what Christians feel all the time. Swahili is a great language for it!
While the song is a bit old, I think it does deserve recognition

 

[Irridium]

Am I the only one who was kind of hoping the fan-made one would get in?

Ah well, this is still great news either way.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

XD I love this song. It's freaking awesome

 

[Disaster Button]

If any song from a video game was going to be nominated, this should've been it.

 

[Xaryn Mar]

Here's to hoping that it will win the Grammy.

 

[Aulleas123]

A beautiful song, singing 'Our Father' in Swahili made to be an outstanding song.

 

[IAmTheVoid]

Baba Yetu never ceases to make me happy when I boot up Civ IV. It may be a bit late, but hey- it doesn't matter, it'll be a great achievement if it wins.

 

[SomebodyNowhere]

The only thing I can think of is if they're taking into consideration some kind of new recording of the song for Civ V. If not it is still a great achievement.

 

[Worgen]

Baba yetu yetu uliye mbingbube yetu yetu Amina!
You see, this is what Christians feel all the time.

really? I thought that was guilt

 

[JeanLuc761]

I love this song, and the live version [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u_EWzmvI8E] on the Video Games Live blu-ray is even better.

 

[IamQ]

I haven't actually played any Civilization game, mainly because I hear it's turn-based which I'm not a fan of.

But still, this is great for the Video Game industry. We're getting further and further into the accepted mainstream media (and not just news reports of hardcore sex scenes that actually doesn't exist in the game.).

 

[deth2munkies]

Thanks for getting that song stuck in my head again. It is amazing, though.

 

[sir.rutthed]

Baba yetu yetu uliye mbingbube yetu yetu Amina!
You see, this is what Christians feel all the time.

really? I thought that was guilt

Wow, Christian-flaming on the tenth post? That's impressive, Mr. Troll. Thanks for adding so much to the discussion on this thread, you've really enlightened us with your off topic prejudice.


OT: Fantastic song. I've never been a fan of the Civ. franchise, but this song deserves recognition.

 

[Worgen]

Baba yetu yetu uliye mbingbube yetu yetu Amina!
You see, this is what Christians feel all the time.

really? I thought that was guilt

Wow, Christian-flaming on the tenth post? That's impressive, Mr. Troll. Thanks for adding so much to the discussion on this thread, you've really enlightened us with your off topic prejudice.


OT: Fantastic song. I've never been a fan of the Civ. franchise, but this song deserves recognition.

float like a butter fly, sting like a bee. if I really wanted to flame there are many other options, this was more of just some ribbing for bringing it up

 

[Norikue]

I found it odd that a 5 year old song was nominated also. So I did a little digging. It's on a CD release by Christopher Tin, called Calling All Dawns. The CD came out in Oct. 2009, which is approx around the Grammy nomination cut off date.

I'm happy to see it nominated myself. I hope they preform it, but doubt that it will be aired. It's not a radio pop song for the masses.

 

[Zanez]

Long before this... probably the day I unwrapped my Civ IV box and heard this song, I considered this to be the greatest musical piece in gaming history.
All these years later, nothing has changed. This is, without a doubt, in my opinion, the greatest music ever to appear in a video game.

 

[GeorgW]

Truly amazing song, thanks for introducing me to it! I checked out its competition, and if this doesn't win, I'll cry prejudice! But yeah, it's a shame that it took so long, but it's probably cuz the CD recently came out. Oh, and I've never played any civ game. Not cuz I don't think I'll like them, but cuz I think I'll like them too much and never stop!
I'm willing to say this is the best video game music of all time, can someone please prove me wrong?

 

[Antari]

I'm not shocked it took Hollywood 5 years to catch on to a great thing ... They are far too convinced they make every great thing every to be made.

 

[Electrogecko]

I'm surprised it took this long. Aren't there Grammy's for completely instrumental songs?