Songwriter and composer Alan Menken reaches a rare achievement: as of this past weekend’s Daytime Emmy Awards, he now has an EGOT: an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. Menken previously won eight Oscars for the music for Disney movies, 11 Grammys for his movie music and a Tony for “Newsies”
Menken won in the Outstanding Original Song in a Children’s, Young Adult or Animated Program for the song “Waiting in the Wings” from Disney Channel’s “Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventures.” That was in turned based on the movie “Tangled”, also scored by Menken.
Menken won the Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe in 1989 for The Little Mermaid. He had won a noncompetitive Emmy for his work on the 1990 antidrug special “Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue,” which had put him in a class with five other people — including Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli and James Earl Jones — who have an EGOT if you count honorary awards.
Only 16 people have won all 4 major awards, in over 60 years. The first was composer/songwriter Richard Rodgers.
Shows that won multiple Daytime Emmys in the virtual ceremony on Sunday evening include HBO’s “Sesame Street”, Disney Channel’s “Elena of Avalor” and “Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure,” which won three each, and DC Universe’s “Batman: Hush,” TVOKids’ “Dino Dana,” “Disney Mickey Mouse,” Netflix’s “Trinkets” and Amazon Prime’s “Tumble Leaf,” which won two each.
HBO won another three for “Sesame Street’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.”
Menken’s new major project is to compose original songs and score for Skydance Animation’s ‘Spellbound’, scheduled for 2022.
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David Raiklen wrote, directed and scored his first film at age 9. He began studying keyboard and composing at age 5. He attended, then taught at UCLA, USC and CalArts. Among his teachers are John Williams and Mel Powel.
He has worked for Fox, Disney and Sprint. David has received numerous awards for his work, including the 2004 American Music Center Award. Dr. Raiklen has composed music and sound design for theater (Death and the Maiden), dance (Russian Ballet), television (Sing Me a Story), cell phone (Spacey Movie), museums (Museum of Tolerance), concert (Violin Sonata ), and film (Appalachian Trail).
His compositions have been performed at the Hollywood Bowl and the first Disney Hall. David Raiken is also host of a successful radio program, Classical Fan Club.