Emmy Awards: 2021
On September 19th, the 73rd annual Emmy Awards were held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Emmy host Cedric the Entertainer opened the telecast with a parody of Biz Markie’s 1990 hip-hop classic, “Just a Friend.” He was joined by LL Cool J, Lil Dickie and actress/singer Rita Wilson on the fondly remembered hit by the rapper, who died in July.
The Emmys also made a hip choice over the In Memoriam spot. Jon Batiste, who won an Oscar in April, joined Leon Bridges for a two-guitar version of “River,” a song from Bridges’ 2015 debut album.
Below are some of the winners of the Emmys:
RuPaul won his 11th Emmy for outstanding competition program as an executive producer of RuPaul’s Drag Race. RuPaul pulled ahead of Donald A. Morgan, a cinematographer and lighting director, who has won 10 Emmys. This is the fourth consecutive win for outstanding competition program for RuPaul’s Drag Race, which puts it in a tie with The Voice for second place on the all-time winners list in this category, behind only The Amazing Race, which won 10 times.
‘Hamilton’ won outstanding variety special (pre-recorded), five years after it swept the Tonys. The show won one other Emmy — outstanding technical direction, camerawork, video control for a special, at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys. Hamilton won a near-record 11 Tony Awards five years ago. The cast album won a Grammy in early 2016 for best music theater album. The original cast album climbed as high as No. 2 on the Billboard 200, the highest ranking for a cast album since 1969, when Hair logged 13 weeks at No. 1.
‘The Crown’ and ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ were the year’s top winners, with 11 Emmys each. They won for outstanding drama series and outstanding limited or anthology series, respectively. This was The Crown‘s first win for outstanding drama series. The show lost in its first three seasons to The Handmaid’s Tale, Game of Thrones and Succession, respectively.
-Aditi
