ELLE, Beyonce, Springsteen, Dolly, Sara Bareilles Vie for Emmy Nods

Over a dozen top music stars, from Beyoncé to HER, would love an Emmy to add to their awards shelves.
A Variety Examining the 535 entries in the Television Academy’s seven musical categories reveals a surprising number of prominent singers, songwriters and music directors, seemingly keen on achieving television’s highest honor. Among them:
- HER (with Josiah Bassey) is signed up for the original song “Hold Us Together” from the Disney Plus movie “Safety”. She won the Oscar earlier this year and already has four Grammys, so an Emmy win would put her three-quarters of the way to a legendary EGOT.
- Beyonce is signed up for the musical direction and original song (both with Derek Dixie) for “Black Is King”, her musical filmmate for “The Lion King” (also on Disney Plus). The song “Black Parade” won her a Grammy earlier this year for Best R&B Performance. Beyoncé has eight previous Emmy nominations but has yet to win.
- Bruce springsteen (with co-writer Ron Aniello) went into the musical composition for a limited series, movie, or special, for Apple TV Plus’ Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You (although, as than accompanying a documentary, it belongs more correctly to the documentary category of notes). Springsteen already has three Emmy nominations, but no wins.
- Sara Bareilles wrote two songs from the Peacock comedy “Girls5eva” (“4 stars” and “I’m Afraid”, the latter with composer Jeff Richmond and showrunner Meredith Scardino). She also submitted the main theme for the romantic comedy-drama she produced for Apple TV Plus, “Little Voice”. She already has three Emmy nominations, but no wins.
- Dolly parton wrote two songs, âWhen an Angel Knows Your Dreamsâ from the Netflix movie âChristmas on the Squareâ and âI Still Believeâ (with Kent Wells) from his CBS special âA Holly Dolly Christmasâ. Parton has three Emmy nominations but no wins to date.
- Expensive entered the song “Walls” (written with Mark Taylor) from the Paramount Plus documentary “Cher and the Loneliest Elephant”. Cher already has an Emmy (for âCher: The Farewell Tourâ in 2003) and six other nominations.
- Florence + Isabella Summers from the Machine fell into two categories, both for the music for the Amazon Prime series “Panic”: the song “Darkest Hour” (written with Jessica Chalker) and the musical composition for a series (with Brian H. Kim). Summers was nominated for an Emmy last year for the music for “Little Fires Everywhere”.
- Janelle Monae, who was denied an Oscar nomination for his song “Turntables” from the voter suppression documentary “All In: The Fight for Democracy”, is trying Emmy again, as the doc aired on Amazon Prime ( Nathaniel Irvin III is his co-author). It would be his first nomination if voters opted for his song.
- Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is signed up for the musical direction of this year’s Oscar TV show on ABC. Also musical director of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”, he has only one Daytime Emmy nomination to his name.
- Branford Marsalis is listed in the Documentary Score category for his music for “Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre” on the History Channel. Recently praised for his music for “My Rainey’s Black Bottom”, he has no Emmy background.
- Kevin kline, the singer-actor, wrote a song for the Fox animation “Bob’s Burgers” titled “I Like Bananas” (co-written with Holly Schlesinger, who wrote the episode). Kline voices the wealthy owner of the Belchers, Mr. Fischoeder, a recurring character in the series. He already has two Emmy nominations.
- Marcus Mumford is entered twice for the Apple TV Plus comedy “Ted Lasso”: for the musical composition of a series and the main theme (both with co-writer Ted Howe).
- Harvey Mason Jr., currently President and CEO of the Recording Academy, is entered twice for NBC’s “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist”: for musical direction and for the song “Crimson Love” (co-written with Andrew Hey and writers Austin Winsberg and Lindsey Rosin). He has not been nominated before.
- Marc Shaiman, the Tony and Grammy-winning songwriter (“Hairspray”), appeared in “The End Titles” of the YouTube video “Soundtrack of Our Lives”. He has already won an Emmy (for musical material at the 1992 Oscars) and 10 other nominations for other shows ranging from “Saturday Night Live” to “Smash”.
The vote is underway this week. Nominations will be announced on July 13.