Meaning of "...のもなんと"?

Question

Sorry for the bother. I'm in the middle of translating some notes from a musician on their newest album's tracks, and I ran into such a weird looking phrase that I don't know what to do with.

Here's the context:

そして、一番最初に歌入れをしたのもなんとこの曲。

The translation I have for it is pretty weak...right now, it says, "and so, this piece was somehow the first song we sang (for the album)."

The sentences before and after it have seemingly nothing much to do with the sentence, though I can post it if asked...I know what した、の、も、なんと means on their own but all of them strung together like that is making me crazy. I can't find anything on weblio or google, so if anyone can help me, I would appreciate it very much!

Answer 1

なんと is a sort of introductory exclamation indicating that the speaker/writer expects the following bit of information to be surprising or impressive to the hearer/reader. Here, it means something like "And the first song I sang was - Whaddya know! - this song" I'd go for "was none other than this song".