Two Saturday Night Live alums are going head-to-head at the Emmys this year, as Adam Sandler and Kristen Wiig battle it out in the Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics category.
“Adam Sandler’s Song: 50 Years,” the poignant retrospective Sandler performed on SNL’s primetime anniversary special, was the only music nom netted by a late-night show this year. The competition was stiff, with seven entries coming from Saturday Night Live alone, and another six from other late-night shows.
Sandler will be competing against another very SNL-adjacent entry: “Harper and Will Go West,” Kristen Wiig’s original song from the Netflix documentary Will & Harper. The documentary follows Will Ferrell and former SNL head writer Harper Steele on a road trip after Steele comes out as trans. Throughout the doc, Ferrell and Steele pester Wiig to write them a song for their cross-country journey but get no response. The film ends with a video of Wiig performing her song.
“Harper and Will Go West” was previously considered to have a shot at an Oscar for Best Original Song.
Sandler co-wrote the music and lyrics to “50 Years” with Dan Bulla, whose “Pip” and “My Best Friend’s House” were also submitted for consideration but missed out on nominations. Bulla is both an SNL writing supervisor and a frequent Sandler collaborator, providing keyboard accompaniment for the comic’s live specials, as he did for Sandler’s SNL50 performance.
Wiig collaborated with Sean Douglas on the music for “Harper and Will Go West,” and co-wrote the lyrics with Douglas and Josh Greenbaum.
The two entries are going up against compositions from three scripted series: “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road” from Agatha All Along, “We Are the Ghor” from Andor, and “Let’s Put the Christ Back in Christmas” from The Boys.
The 77th Emmy Awards air live on September 14th at 8 PM ET / 5 PM PT on CBS and Paramount+.
