Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Wins a Grammy, but Gets Mispronounced First

The 2023 Grammy Awards is a special one for the video game industry as it now has a new category called “Best Score Soundtrack For Video Games/Interactive media”, and this year Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok won the Grammy in this category. But before Composer Stephanie Economou went up to receive the reward for her work, the presenter Randy Rainbow mispronounced the word ‘Valhalla’. 

You can watch the mispronunciation below.

Yet another funny moment caught on live television, and a weird one as the word Valhalla isn’t necessarily unique considering it’s from Norse mythology. Regardless, Randy struggled. 

Congratulations are in order to Composer Stephanie Economou as she is now a Grammy award winner for her work in the score heard in the Dawn of Ragnarok DLC. For a taste of her work, have a listen below. 

"I just want to recognize all of the people who fought tirelessly to bring this category of video game music into existence," says Economou after she accepted the Grammy. This is a big step for the industry as it’s now a part of the Grammy Awards in a small way. Those nominated in the new category with Economou are composers Austin Wintory (Aliens: Fireteam Elite), Bear McCreary (Call of Duty: Vanguard), Richard Jacques (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Christopher Tin (Old World).

This isn’t the first time a video game was nominated or has won in the Grammys. In 2011, Christopher Tin’s song Baba Yetu for the 2005 game Civilization IV was nominated and won in the Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals category.