Just a little over a year since her December 2016 death, Carrie Fisher has won her first Grammy. The legendary actor and writer nabbed the award for Best Spoken Word Album for her reading of The Princess Diarist, the final book she wrote before her passing. She was previously nominated once before in the category in 2009, for her book Wishful Drinking.
While Fisher was best known for her role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars films, she was also an acclaimed author. During her life, she wrote eight books — four novels and four nonfiction, as well as a number of screenplays and plays. The Princess Diarist was based on the journals that Fisher kept around the time she filmed Star Wars, and it's notable not only for being her final published work, but also for offering insight into her early experiences in Hollywood. Fisher beat out Neil Degrasse Tyson, Bruce Springsteen, Shelly Peiken, and Bernie Sanders And Mark Ruffalo to win the Grammy.
Fisher's posthumous win is a reminder of just how gifted she was across multiple fields. While her work as Princess Leia is remarkable, the sheer breadth of Fisher's career deserves to be remembered, and winning a Grammy is a pretty awesome way to honor such a talented woman. Fisher's reading of The Princess Diarist captured the humor and mettle that each one of her words held in a way that only the author could accomplish. That alone makes her win well-deserved.
Over the course of her career, Fisher was nominated for a number of awards including for the 2017 Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy, a BAFTA for best adapted screenplay, and four Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films awards. Most of Fisher's work never took home the gold, but that doesn't make her any less of an icon as an actor, writer, and humanitarian.
There is an extra layer of poignancy attached to her Grammy win for The Princess Diarist though. The book was published in November 2016, just one month before Fisher died at age 60, after suffering a heart attack on a plane. Fisher's sudden passing happened just days before her mother, Debbie Reynolds, died from a stroke. The sudden loss of the Hollywood heavyweights was devastating for their fans and their family, but especially for Fisher's daughter, Billie Lourd.
Lourd made it clear on Instagram just how proud she is of her mother after Fisher's Grammy win. The American Horror Story actor shared a photo of herself and her mom captioned,
"Princess Diarist was the last profesh(ish) thing my momby and I got to do together. I wish she was here to carry me down the red carpet in some bizarre floral ensemble but instead we'll celebrate in true Carrie style: in bed in front of the TV over cold Coca Colas and warm e cigs. I’m beyond proud."
If there is a more fitting tribute to Fisher's Grammy win, you'll be hard-pressed to find it. Lourd's celebration sounds like something her mother would approve of, and it's certainly something the actor's fans can get behind.
Fisher's win is a reminder that even though she's gone, her amazing work lives on. The Star Wars actor's impressive body of work will always be there to remind the world of what a gifted, witty legend she truly was. Through her books and memorable screen performances, Fisher's bright light continues to shine. It's hard to say what Fisher would have thought of winning a Grammy — she never seemed to be terribly bothered about awards — but you can bet her acceptance speech would have been a sly masterpiece, much like the woman herself.
