The nominees for the 2025 Emmy Awards were announced today. Among the notable music figures to score nominations are: Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Kamasi Washington, Caroline Shaw, Hamilton Leithauser, Mark Ronson, Hans Zimmer, Devo co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh, and the Roots’ Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. See all of the nominees here.
Lamar was recognized for the Super Bowl LIX halftime show. (Lamar previously won an Emmy Award, in 2022, for his performance in the Super Bowl LVI halftime show.) He’s nominated for Outstanding Music Direction and Outstanding Variety Special (Live). He shares the latter nomination with executive producers Jay-Z and Dave Free, among others.
Beyoncé will be looking to defeat her husband in the Outstanding Variety Special (Live) category, as it’s one of four categories in which her Beyoncé Bowl show was nominated. For the special, Beyoncé herself was also nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special.
Another notable nominee for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) is Mark Ronson, who was an executive producer of SNL50: The Homecoming Concert.
Jazz luminary Kamasi Washington scored his second career Emmy nomination, earning a nod for his title theme for Adult Swim’s Lazarus. Washington did not prevail in 2020 after being nominated for his work on Becoming.
Joining Washington in the Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music category are the Walkmen’s Hamilton Leithauser (Your Friends & Neighbors), Cristobal Tapia de Veer (The White Lotus), Mark Mothersbaugh (The Residence), Volker “Hauschka” Bertelmann (Dune: Prophecy), and others.
While she already has several Grammy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize, composer Caroline Shaw will be seeking her first Emmy Award. She was nominated for her score for Ken Burns’ Leonardo da Vinci, and she’ll face off against Hans Zimmer (The Americas), and others.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson got three nominations at the 2025 Emmys. He’s up for Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program (for Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music), Outstanding Music Direction (for SNL50: The Homecoming Concert), and Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special (for Sly Lives!).
Elsewhere, John Mulaney got a nomination as a writer for SNL50: The Anniversary Special; Nathan Fielder got two nominations for The Rehearsal; Chloë Sevigny got one for Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story; Ayo Edebiri got two for The Bear; and Adam Scott got one for Severance. Additionally, Beatles ’64 was twice nominated, and the Apple TV+ special Bono: Stories of Surrender scored one nomination.
