David Byrne’s American Utopia, Bee Gees Documentary Nominated For Emmys
The nominations for the 2021 Emmy Awards were announced today and some music and music-adjacent figures garnered some nods. David Byrne’s American Utopia, which was directed by Spike Lee for an HBO special, was nominated for six awards in total, including Outstanding Music Direction and Outstanding Directing For A Variety Special for Lee. HBO’s The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart documentary was also nominated for six awards, including for Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Special, where the New York Times‘ Framing Britney Spears and Tina were also nominated.
Apple TV+’s documentary Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry, was nominated four times (for Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Nonfiction Or Reality Program, Outstanding Sound Editing, Outstanding Picture Editing, and Outstanding Music Direction) and Bo Burnham’s Netflix special Inside, whose soundtrack was released last month, got six nominations, including for Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics.
In the composing categories, Ludwig Göransson picked up a nomination for The Mandalorian, Raphael Saadiq was nominated for Lovecraft Country, and Nicholas Britell got a nomination for The Underground Railroad. In the acting categories, Cynthia Erivo was nominated in Outstanding Lead Actress In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie for portraying Aretha Franklin in the miniseries Genius: Aretha. The full list of nominees is here.
The 2021 Emmy Awards will air on 9/19 on CBS.