‘Kirby’ picks up a Grammy thanks to The 8-Bit Big Band

A track from Kirby Super Star has won a Grammy, after popular gaming cover band The 8-Bit Big Band covered it in early 2021.

A cover of ‘Meta Knight’s Revenge’ by The 8-Bit Big Band was nominated for the Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Capella award back in 2021, and was announced as the category’s winner at this year’s Grammys.

The Kirby cover managed to win despite competition from nominees Bill O’Connell, Emile Mosseri, and Robin Smith – whose rendition of Braveheart‘s ‘For The Love Of A Princess’ featured the London Symphony Orchestra.

You can listen to the Grammy-winning arrangement of ‘Meta Knight’s Revenge’ below.

‘Meta Knight’s Revenge’ is a track that first appeared in Kirby Super Star back in 1996, and was covered by The 8-Bit Big Band in January 2021. The cover band – which is known for creating jazz covers of video game soundtracks – is led by arrangers Charlie Rosen and Jake Silverman, who took to Twitter to share their win.

“Holy shit we won the Grammy!! Long live video game music!! Thanks to everybody who’s ever listened to The 8 Bit Big Band,” shared the pair, who also thanked “all of [the] artists who have contributed their time/talent.”

Upon hearing that they had won, Rosen and Silverman wasted no time in dancing up to the stage. You can see their acceptance speech below.

We won a grammy. We really did it.@CRosenMusic @the8bitbigband pic.twitter.com/cQ21iWa9Go

— Button Masher (@Button__Masher) April 3, 2022

Receiving the award, Rosen thanked Nintendo and Kirby composer Jun Ishikawa, who has composed nearly every game in the Kirby franchise – including the series’ latest entry, Kirby And The Forgotten Land.

If you missed out on watching the award show live, not to worry – here are all the winners from this year’s Grammys.

In other gaming news, Fortnite has raised £109.7million for charities supporting victims of the war in Ukraine.