AND THE OSCAR FOR BEST ORIGINAL SONG GOES TO…
Every year I like to showcase the five Oscar-nominated songs all hoping to win the coveted Academy Award. It’s not every year that we get a plethora of fantastic music with many songs being left off the nominations list. When the nominations were announced, I was surprised that Troye Sivan’s “Revelation” from Boy Erased, “The Girl in the Movies” by Dolly Parton for Dumplin’ and Celine Dion’s “Ashes” from Deadpool 2 weren’t among the songs nominated. We also had films like A Star is Born, Black Panther, and Mary Poppins Returns which featured multiple songs vying for a nomination. I made a list of 24 songs that were all in contention over on Spotify In the end, here are the five songs nominated with one standing above the rest.
“Shallow” from A Star is Born, performed by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga
Music/Lyrics by: Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt
“All the Stars” from Black Panther, performed by SZA and Kendrick Lamar
Music/lyrics by: Kendrick Lamar, Mark “Sounwave” Spears, Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, SZA
“I’ll Fight” from RBG, performed by Jennifer Hudson
Music/lyrics by: Diane Warren
“When a Cowboy Trades His Wings for Spurs” from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, performed by Tim Blake Nelson and Willie Watson
Music and lyrics by: Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
“The Place Where the Lost Things Go” from Mary Poppins Returns, performed by Emily Blunt
Music/lyrics by: Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman
Oscars 2019 has come with multiple controversies and even a safe category like Best Original Song wasn’t spared from drama. It was announced that in order to shave time off the telecast that only two of the nominated songs, “Shallow” and “All the Stars”, would be performing during the live show. This breaks tradition of having all five nominated songs perform. It seemed like a horrible decision basically claiming that the other three songs weren’t worthy of being featured, let alone a chance at winning. Leave it to Film Twitter and irate music lovers to rightly voice their frustrations over this asinine decision. The Academy, ultimately, decided to reverse its decision and will now go back to having all five songs perform, some of which may be part of a medley. It terms of the performers many of the actual singers or songwriters who are nominated will perform their own songs including Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. It was also announced that the “Divine Miss M” Bette Midler will sing “The Place Where the Lost Things Go” instead of Emily Blunt.
Who will go home a winner on Sunday? It’s pretty safe to say that Lady Gaga will walk away with the Best Original Song Oscar even if she doesn’t get one for Best Actress. She’s already won a BAFTA and Grammy for the song, and it’s a powerful number for her and Bradley Cooper within the context of the movie. Frankly, I would have loved to have seen “I’ll Never Love Again” nominated as well or in place of “Shallow” but I can’t complain.
