Times That El Paso Was The Proud Winner At The Grammys

Getting recognized for your work is a great feeling. Getting an AWARD for your work? That's an ever BETTER feeling. Winning a Grammy tells the industry that you're a big deal & your work is something to be appreciated. Amongst those that won, these El Pasoans HAVE won.

UTEP's Zuill Bailey is a Grammy winner

Zuill was born in Alexandria, Virginia, but anyone who goes to UTEP knows Zuill's an El Pasoan. He is the Professor Cello and the Artistic Director of El Paso Pro Musica.

Zuill won the Grammy for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for his work in Tales of Hemingway. He also won Best Solo Performance, Best Contemporary Classical Composition & Best Compendium.

El Paso's The Mars Volta became the first local rock band to a win a Grammy

The one time El Paso's Mars Volta have been nominated for a Grammy; they won in 2009 for Best Hard Rock Performance. We've actually went into depth on this on another article so you can learn more and see who they beat out right here.

El Paso's Vikki Carr has won SEVERAL Grammys:

Without a doubt the most successful El Paso artist at the Grammys goes to Vikki Carr. With 11 nominations & 3 wins to her name, Vikki reigns supreme when it comes to representing El Paso at the Grammys.

Germaine Franco won a Grammy for her work on Encanto:

The most recent Grammy winner to come from El Paso, happened during this year's Grammys. At the 65th Annual Grammys. Germaine Franco won "Best Score Soundtrack" for her music used in the film Encanto. Encanto would also win Best Compliation Soundtrack & Best Score Soundtrack.

Here are some El Pasoans who have had Grammy nominations

Roger Argenis - The director of the Sound Stage 9 music school in El Paso, Roger Argenis, has been nominated for a Grammy TWICE. The fact that both nominations happened recently, makes me believes it's a matter of time before he gets a Grammy.

Khalid - One of the biggest, if not THE biggest, star from El Paso has YET to win a Grammy. He's been nominated 7 times in the past but hasn't won one...yet.

Honorable Nomination - Hugh Prestwood - El Paso native & UTEP graduate, Hugh Prestwood is a 3 time Grammy Nominee, all the songs he wrote were in the "Best Performance" category:

• Crystal Gayle's Sound of Goodbye,
• Randy Travis's Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart,
• & Shenandoah's Ghost In This House

While he hasn't won a Grammy, he would join the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame & that's a big honor. Even while living in Nashville for most of his career, he still has love for El Paso.

Honorable Nomination: Karen-Taylor Good: Country singer Karen Taylor Good has only been nominated for 1 Grammy during the 37th Grammy for Best Country Song. Some people know her work in country but didn't know she was from El Paso. But she was & you can find out more famous musicians that were born in El Paso here.

Honorable Nomination: Benjamin Saenz -  The famed author was born in Dona Ana/Las Cruces, who went to UTEP & continues to work there, was nominated for a Grammy in 2018. The audiobook version of his book "Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World" was nominated for Best Audio Book, Narration and Storytelling Recording.

He didn't win but HE did win a Faulkner Award in 2013.

Congratulations to all these names from El Paso; here's to seeing even more in the future!

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EDIT: This article was originally published on February 3, 2023