Jimmy Carter Wins Posthumous Grammy for Audiobook Narration, Setting Record for Category
President Jimmy Carter posthumously won his fourth Grammy for best audiobook narration at the 2025 Grammy Awards on Sunday.
Carter won the trophy for his narration of Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration, a 10-track album of folk songs and Sunday school lessons from the former president. The album came out in August 2024, less than two months before Carter turned 100. He died on Dec. 29. The late president’s grandson, Jason Carter, accepted the trophy onstage.
“My grandfather was incredibly important to me,” Jason said. “Over these last few weeks, we’ve felt this enormous outpouring of love from all around the world, from many of the people in this room, and I just want to say that having his words captured in this way for my family and for the world is truly remarkable.”
Jason went on to introduce Kabir Sehgal, also onstage, who provided instrumental arrangements for the album. “Kabir has been a part of our family, and close with our family, for a long time,” Jason said, crediting Sehgal with the initial idea for the audiobook.
At the end of his speech, Jason also thanked many other starry names that played a part in Carter’s audiobook, including Jon Batiste, LeAnn Rimes and Darius Rucker. He also thanked his grandfather’s church, Maranatha Baptist Church, where the former president taught Sunday school for 50 years. “This brings it home in such a real way,” Jason said. “Thank you to the folks at the Carter Center, we really appreciate all of you very, very much.”
Carter beat Barbra Streisand’s reading of My Name Is Barbra, Dolly Parton’s Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, George Clinton’s …And Your Ass Will Follow and Guy Oldfield as producer for All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words.
This award also breaks Carter’s tie with Maya Angelou for most wins in the audiobook category. He previously won a best audiobook spoken word Grammy for 2018’s Faith – A Journey For All, 2015’s A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety and 2005’s Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis. The former president also earned nine other Grammy nominations during his lifespan.
The 67th annual Grammys, hosted by Trevor Noah, will air live on Sunday starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The Grammys premiere ceremony will stream live from the Peacock Theater beginning at 12:30 p.m. PT/3:30 p.m. ET on the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel.
