A GRAMMY-RELATED SPECIAL BONUS PUZZLE FOR YOU! This puzzle is part of the MOAT Music Meta Pack (which is still available for purchase here: https://www.ephesusscroll.com/about/interest4.html fwiw). However, before it was included in that pack, I had originally planned to run the puzzle in January 2024 in the run-up to the Grammys. But now that the Grammys are upon us, I just couldn't resist releasing it anyway! The answer to the meta is a band name (who I predicted back in August 2023 would win big at the Grammys!)
Nudges, in order of increasing blatancy:
Just in case you missed it, three clues were asterisked.
Apply the puzzle title to each of these clues to come up with alternate answers.
It cannot be a coincidence that the new answers are all the same length as the entries they replace.
Put the new entries into the grid. They won't fit with all of the downs.
Check out "The MOAT Mini Pack of Marching Bands" here: https://www.ephesusscroll.com/about/interest4.html. US$5 gets you 7 Marching Bands which, hard enough on their own, now contain metas too. And once again there's a mega-meta!
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This is a contest/meta puzzle. To submit your answer, first finish solving the grid (or reveal it if you get stuck or solved offline).
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Comments
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I originally planned to run this meta in January 2024 in the lead-up to the Grammys. So here's my prediction (dated August 2023): BOYGENIUS wins big! "Not Strong Enough" was one of my favourite songs from 2023. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIX_ouNJsTs
Yayyyyyy! boygenius just won three Grammys: Best Alternative Rock Album for "The Album" (not exactly an original-sounding title, but it's a deserving winner), and Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song for "Not Strong Enough" (my favourite song from 2023, and an absolute banger!) Congratulations to Lucy, Phoebe and Julien! :D
Grid was ok except that I had to reveal the 2D/20A cross. Meta was tricky for me since I'm not that familiar with the Dreamworks animated canon, and it wasn't easy to Google. Also unfortunate that L.P.J. seems to be a real band :) Wound up peeking at the solution to get JULIEN and then it was simple from there obviously. Fun idea that produced a rabbit hole I might try to develop into something. :) :)
rjy 2s · 12 months ago
Got it nudgelessly (yay!) tho stymied by a reference to a Dreamworks film, Joseph: King of Dreams… and the same number of letters at that!
Sharkicicles 2s · 12 months ago
Had BOYGENHUS (king Arthur) and Google told me that, yes, boygenius is a band ;)
One minor nit, the Star Trek character is KHAN. (NEEEEERD!… I know.) maybe a better clue for 41A would be “belonging to actress Madeline”?
They're great! Definitely check out "Not Strong Enough".
MatthewL 🤓8:34 · 12 months ago
Had the right idea, but still needed the nudges. Didn't think of actually putting the new words in the grid. And, did you know there is a group called L.P.J. Band? 'Cause I sure do now.
KayW 🤓9:26 · 12 months ago
I got the alternate names on my own - as someone who knows "Friends" only from crosswords, I was very confused when PHOEBE wasn't working LOL. Google quickly obliged with the name of the group. This musical dinosaur never heard of them before but I checked out a few videos - nice!
And ooh did not see that entering the alternate names would also spell the answer going down. Nice touch!!
These boys are simply spectacular. Saw Lucy live 3-ish years ago... her guitarist had COVID and Bartees Strange (look him up if you don't know him - incredible artist!) filled in for him on short notice. Epic performance.
I had BOY GENEUS b/c I had JOSEPH for the alternate king. I had difficulty with the grid fill, but the parts I had trouble with didn't affect the meta. I think I've heard of the band but don't know anything about them.
SamKat9 17:35 · 12 months ago
Very neat puzzle! I'm going to have to check this band out!
Sure, I got it -- with a letter reveal on a grid entry, all of the nudges, and at least two websites I googled open so I could peruse them the entire time! :-) Grammys, what are they? :-) Thanks anyhow, Ben -- it's a tribute to your puzzles that I will even attempt one on a topic I'm clueless about.
As I never heard of the band it was hard to guess. BOY was the only thing that crossed Lucy (which by the way Rita came to my mind first). Nothing crossed Phoebe and Jip Uma LPS and Tate all crossed Julian (Farquaad was the obvious first guess). I figured GEN was the likeliest to parse and googling boygen the band came up.
Clever idea.
axmszr 12:15 · 12 months ago
When I first tried 38A, I immediately went "haha Phoebe like Phoebe Bridgers" and lo and behold!
Got the right idea but thought, "boy that is too easy". Then when there was no well-known band with RITA, URSULA and RAMSES I thought, well maybe we are to use different names for the people RITA COOLIDGE, URSULA ANDRESS, RAMSES ?. But hey wait a minute I thought it strange that Lisa's twin was picked when Phoebe was the more well known, and LUCY in the sky is as well known as Lovely RITA, but JOSEPH did not compute. Finally I remembered the Penguin. Nice puzzle Ben and even though you probably don't qualify for the BOY anymore, GENIUS!!
kymike 6s · 12 months ago
Late to the party. Solved without nudges. A good one again by Ben!