About That Time Hillary Won A Grammy...

We now have four official presidential candidates — Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and the only Democrat who has declared that she's running, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Clinton has decades of experience in politics over any of the three Republican men — some call her a career politician — but she also has a leg up on the rest of them in a surprising regard: Clinton has a Grammy award from 1997 when she won the Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Album for an audio recording of her book, It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us.

As the primaries begin, surely you're curious about the candidates' positions and track record. After all, what can Clinton offer that the others can't? While it depends on your political leanings — for example, if you're an anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, anti-net neutrality, anti-climate change kind of person, Cruz is your man — but if you're interested to hear what an accomplished, multi-faceted candidate has to say, perhaps Clinton is a primo choice.

Published in 1996 during her stint as First Lady, It Takes a Village — the title taken from an African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child" — centers around Clinton's vision for American children. It's the epitome of a great throwback moment that most of us probably hadn't even known about.

At her acceptance speech, Clinton — markedly less politician-esque in her speaking than she is today — expressed surprise at her eligibility for the award and took a playful jab at her husband and then-President Bill Clinton, a saxophone player himself. She said:

As I said when I thanked everybody, I didn't even know that people who couldn't sing a note and were tone deaf were eligible for any Grammys. So it's a great, amazing honor for me. ... Well, now, [Bill] is a young man — you don't know what might happen. If he really got to work on his saxophone and worked on his voice, I'm not sure you should count him out... There's a future there, I hope.

Naturally, her (non-)musical accomplishment drew comparisons to the other 2016 presidential hopefuls — which isn't fair, but Twitter will be Twitter — but also musicians who are lacking in the Grammys department.

Clinton is among the handful of high-profile politicians who have won Grammys. Keeping her in good company are President Obama (with two Grammys), former Vice President Al Gore, former President Jimmy Carter and, naturally, Bill (who won in the 2000s). They all scored awards for the same category, Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Album, for audio recordings of their books.