The Oscars may not have seen fit to nominate Viola Davis for her badass performance in The Woman King, but that doesn’t mean her awards season is over. With a win at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, the actress can now officially call herself an EGOT. She picked up the award for the audiobook recording of her memoir, Finding Me.
Her excitement was infectious as she accepted the award, exclaiming, “It has just been such a journey. I just EGOT!”
The book is a very revealing account of the Waller star’s difficult life and her path to being one of the best actresses in the business.
“Oh my God,” Davis said during her acceptance speech. “I wrote this book to honor the 6-year-old Viola, to honor her, to honor her life, her joy, her trauma, her everything.”
In case awards aren’t your thing, an EGOT is someone who has won the entertainment industry’s four major awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. The exclusive winner list only has 18 names on it. Viola is the fourth Black artist to accomplish the feat, following in the footsteps of Whoopi Goldberg, John Legend and Jennifer Hudson.
She previously won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2017 for Fences, an Emmy for Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2015 for How to Get Away With Murder and two Tonys, one for Featured Actress in a Play in 2001 for King Hedley II and for Lead Actress in a Play in 2010 for Fences.
As amazing as Viola is, I feel like she can be the first Black person to go for the double EGOT. I have no doubt that she will absolutely win more Emmys and Oscars, so she’s going to need to start recording more audiobooks or star in a musical, so she can pick up that second Grammy.