Two Songwriters Pull Off The Near Impossible And Become EGOTs

These two became EGOTs with the Emmy win, but this has been a long road for the songwriters. That road began when they won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for La La Land’s  “City of Stars.” While this cemented the musical genius of the duo (who are collectively known around Hollywood as Pasek and Paul), their next achievements helped to prove their artistic versatility.

In addition to composing for film and television, Pasek and Paul also create music for stage productions. In 2013, they received a Tony nomination for Best Original Score for their work on A Christmas Story: The Musical but did not take home the award. But in 2017, the future EGOT-achieving songwriters took home two different Tonys for Dear Evan Hansen: one for Best Musical and one for Best Original Score.

One year later, their work on Dear Evan Hansen helped this duo bring home a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and that same night; they earned a second Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack To Visual Media for Hugh Jackman’s The Greatest Showman.

At this point, Pasek and Paul were on the cusp of the EGOT, but these two songwriters would have to wait six long years to finally complete this nearly impossible achievement. Recently, they took home an Emmy for “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?”, an original song composed for Only Murders In the Building.

When discussing this most recent award, the newest EGOT songwriters were very humble. They co-wrote the song with Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, and Paul noted how “It’s obviously thrilling and very wild to think about getting to do it alongside two of our heroes who gave us our very first job in television.” Working with Shaiman and Wittman again was creatively very fulfilling, with Paul claiming that this latest collaboration was “one of the most joyful that we’ve ever had in our careers on a TV show that is one of our favorites in the history of television shows.”

Another thing that made this composition creatively fulfilling was the need to write a song around a fairly zany premise in which Only Murders In the Building’s constable became convinced that one baby out of a set of triplets was responsible for murdering their mother. Pasek and Paul obviously rose to the challenge, though the former pointed out that they were tasked to “write something that is as difficult to sing as possible.” That would be a major challenge to lesser artists, but writing this song, like becoming EGOTs, is something these two songwriters made look downright easy.

Having finally scored all four of these prestigious awards, it’s not immediately clear what the next challenge will be for this immensely talented duo. In becoming EGOTs, the songwriters join an exclusive club of members, including Elton John, Viola Davis, and our favorite Star Trek supporting actor, Whoopi Goldberg. Speaking of Trek, Paul and Pasek’s achievements remind us of the final words of The Next Generation series finale: for these two, it’s clear that “the sky’s the limit.”