By AP/KWMU
Los Angeles, CA – Illinois' junior U.S. Senator is now a Grammy award winner.
Barack Obama won Wednesday in the Best Spoken Word category. He won for his reading of the autobiographical Dreams From My Father. The book was first published in 1995 but became a best seller as Obama became a rising political star.
The memoir examines race and racial identity.
Obama beat out public radio's Garrison Keillor, Al Franken, Sean Penn and George Carlin in the category. Other politicians to have won a Grammy include Hillary and Bill Clinton.
When Obama's nomination was announced last year, his spokesman quipped that "there is no truth to the rumor that the senator will now go by the name 'The Artist, formerly known as Barack Obama."'