KEY POINTS:
New Zealand comedy duo Flight of the Conchords have continued their remarkable run of international success, scooping a Grammy award for Best Comedy Album.
And the award - the first time a non-American has won the category - puts the Wellington pair of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement in auspicious company.
In the past the award has largely gone to stand-up comedy stars including Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, Bob Newhart, Steve Martin, Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock.
McKenzie and Clement - who were the Kiwi showbiz success story of 2007 with their breakthrough sitcom for American cable network HBO- joined that honours list at the 50th Grammy Awards yesterday.
And while the duo are now up there with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, jazz pianist-arranger Alan Broadbent, Lord of the Rings scriptwriter and theme song lyricist Fran Walsh and Taupo musicians Jon Mark and Thelma Burchell as New Zealand Grammy winners, they are the first Kiwi artists to do it while performing their own songs - although not many of them.
Their winning "album" was the 23-minute six-track Distant Future EP released by US indie label Sub Pop.
It contains just three studio tracks - which will be familiar to fans of the TV series - and three live cuts from a New York gig, one of which, Banter, is Clement and McKenzie chatting to their audience with deadpan references to NZ and sheep.
But genre-spoofing songs like Business Time and The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room were enough to convince Grammy voters to pick it ahead of the other four nominees.
The comedy Grammy came after the pair's show went away empty-handed at the Writers Guild Awards at the weekend. There it was nominated for best comedy series, best new series and best episodic comedy.
While waiting for production on their second series to begin in the States, McKenzie and Jemaine Clement have recorded an album due for release in April. Given their Grammy success with five songs and a spot of chat, a whole full-length album risks sweeping all before it.
