If the story, visuals and animations somehow didn't impress you. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's soundtrack would surely have caught your attention. Lorien Testard brilliantly captured the mood of the game overall, along with themes for specific characters and events. I'm sure we've all sung along to the Lumiere theme without even knowing French.
Still, it might surprise you to hear that Clair Obscur's soundtrack wasn't nominated for the 2026 Grammy Awards. Sandfall Interactive's first project has already picked up a few awards this year, but it was left out of the Grammy's Best Video Game Soundtrack category.
2026 Grammy Awards Nominee for Best Video Game Music
The artists nominated for the category definitely deserved their spots, but it's hard to see how Clair didn't get in there too (thanks, VGC). The nominees are:
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Pinar Toprak – Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – Secrets of the Spires DLC
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Wilbert Roget II – Helldivers 2
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Gordy Haab – Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
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Cody Matthew Johnson & Wilbert Roget II – Star Wars Outlaws: Wild Card & A Pirate's Fortune DLC
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Austin Wintory – Sword of the Sea
Helldivers 2 theme is absolutely loved by the community and casual players as well. There's nothing like raining down 500kg bombs on bugs and bots with 'A Cup Of Liber-Tea' blaring in anticipation of exfiltration. But with games like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Star Wars Outlaws up there, it looks like the panel may have gone after big IP names.
Although the Grammys may be out of reach now, Testard has already won the Game Music Award at the World Soundtrack Awards. To top it all off, the soundtrack has topped the Billboard Classical charts for quite some time. With the amount of recognition Clair Obscur has received, even from French President Emmanuel Macron, it's a wonder how it didn't make the nominees at the Grammys.
Previous winners in the category include Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Dawn of Ragnarök DLC in 2023, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor in 2024 and Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord in 2025.
- Released
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April 24, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer
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Sandfall Interactive
- Publisher
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Kepler Interactive
