It’s all the time thrilling when a star earns the coveted (and really uncommon) honor of an EGOT — aka, reaching an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. Earlier than the 2023 Grammy Awards, solely 17 celebrities had the excellence of incomes all 4. However on Feb. 5, Viola Davis grew to become EGOT winner No. 18.
The Lady King star earned the Audiobook, Narration, and Storytelling Recording Grammy for her memoir, Discovering Me. Although the massive win occurred earlier than the primary ceremony telecast, it positively began the night on a celebratory observe. “I wrote this e book to honor the 6-year-old Viola,” Davis started her acceptance speech. “To honor her life, her pleasure, her trauma, all the things. And it has simply been such a journey — I simply EGOT!”
Davis went on to thank “all people who was part of [her] story,” and took a second to thank her husband and daughter, particularly. “My loves, Julius, Genesis, you might be my life, and my pleasure,” she mentioned. “You’re the perfect chapter in my e book.”
It’s becoming that Davis accomplished her EGOT by way of her personal memoir — as a result of as she advised Bustle in 2018, “this a part of [her] life is extra about significance” than appearing alone. “It’s not nearly getting the function and getting the reward and puffing myself up and saying, ‘Oh, do I get one other award for this? When’s my subsequent nice evaluate popping out?’ That’s actually hole for me,” she defined, including that she was targeted on “legacy” and “leaving one thing behind.”
Clearly, Discovering Me accomplishes that mission. And whereas Davis hasn’t been pursuing awards, per se, it’s particular to see her earn the coveted EGOT anyway. A number of of her fellow stars took to social media to have fun the massive win — together with the most recent star to EGOT earlier than Davis, Jennifer Hudson. “Maintain the road !!!!!!!,” she wrote, describing Davis as a “residing LEGEND.”
Taylor Swift, a fellow nominee on the 2023 Grammys, additionally despatched some love through tweet — merely writing, “EGOT BABYYYYYYY 💕💕💕.”
Because it seems, Davis has really been on the verge of an EGOT for fairly a while — because the 2017 Academy Awards, actually, when she introduced dwelling the Finest Supporting Actress Oscar for her function in Fences. Earlier than that, she earned the Excellent Lead Actress in a Drama Collection Emmy for her work on Easy methods to Get Away with Homicide in 2015, and obtained Tonys for King Hedley II and the unique stage model of Fences in 2001 and 2010, respectively.