This Super Mario medley just won a Grammy Award
Super Mario arrangement and Austin Wintory were the big video game winners at the Grammys
An instrumental medley of Super Mario music was among the Grammy Award winners on Sunday, alongside the prolific game composer, Austin Wintory.
8-Bit Big Band, a 30+ member Jazz orchestra based mostly in New York City, won the Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental, or A Cappella for ‘Super Mario Praise Break’.
The arrangement features instrumental covers of the Super Mario Bros. theme, Bob-Omb Battlefield from Super Mario 64, Gusty Garden Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy, and Athletic Theme from Super Mario World.
It’s the second time 8-Bit Big Band has won a Grammy for their video game covers, after their version of Meta Knight’s Revenge from the 1996 SNES title Kirby Superstar won the same award in 2022.
Last year, the group was nominated in the Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals category for its cover of Persona 5 track Last Surprise, but failed to win the award.
8-Bit Band wrote on social media: WE JUST WON OUR 2nd GRAMMY! Thank you to everyone who listened and supported all of our new releases and huge congrats to my co-arrangers on the now Grammy-winning Super Mario Praise Break, the incredible friends and musicians – Bryan Carter and Matthew Whitaker.”
The winner for Best Game Soundtrack at this year’s Grammys was Sword of the Sea, composed by Austin Wintory. Wintory was previously nominated for Stray Gods and Aliens: Fireteam Elite.
Video game composers who spoke to VGC as part of our best game music of 2025 feature previously praised Wintory’s Sword of the Sea soundtrack.
Hades 2 composer, Dareen Korb, wrote: “Any time Austin evokes Björk for me is some of my favourite Austin music. The beautiful, ethereal boys choir work here is awesome, and the synth textures, woodwinds, and everything else are giving me serious Björk vibes in the best way.”
Baldur’s Gate III’s Borislav Slavov added: “Austin used such a beautiful and varied sound palette to create emotional compositions that fully resonate with the flow of this amazing game. Incredibly well adapted for the interactive experience, as well as strongly sitting in my music player as a standalone music album.”
