While the Academy Awards do give out trophies for Best Original Song and Best Motion Picture Score, it has always been only about the movies and never about the music. But something strange and really good happened this year.
Maybe the show’s producers have finally realized that insider jokes fall flat with televiewers in other countries. Maybe it is because they have found out that Oscars night today is now more about who are you wearing than about the movies. In fact, that red carpet parade might soon be rating better than the ceremony itself. Maybe it is a lot of other stuff that has turned the yearly event into a boring exercise.
So what did they do? They took a cue from the Grammys or the American Music Awards and other music events, where audiences watch and thoroughly enjoy the musical numbers. So this year, the Oscars upped the music ante with one spectacular, moving number after another by some of music’s biggest stars. They did right. Days later, the names of the winners have become yesterday’s news, but everybody is still talking about the singers and the songs.
Glory composed and performed by John Legend and rapper Common from the movie Selma. Glorious, indeed, is the only way to describe how this song, which later bagged the Best Original Song trophy was performed at the Oscars.
Legend opened singing Glory while playing the piano. He was later joined by Common who brought along “marchers” on the recreation of Selma’s historic Edmund Pettis Bridge on stage. The set looked like it was the 1965 march again but the message about the still ongoing battle against discrimination by oppressed peoples all over the world resonated with everybody watching the show. Legend ended with a soft a cappella falsetto and the audience reacted with tears. Aaah! The power of great music.
The tribute to the 50th anniversary of The Sound Of Music by the fantastic Lady Gaga. We know she can sing. Cheek To Cheek with Tony Bennett has told us she can do better than Fame Monster. But we were not prepared for this. The Sound Of Music, Edelweiss, Climb Every Mountain, wow! This girl can sing anything. The teary-eyed Julie Andrews approved with a warm hug and so did the audience who gave her a standing ovation.
John Legend (right) and Common win the Oscar for Best Original Song for Selma’s Glory
Everything Is Awesome from The Lego Movie. What a joyful moment by indie favorites Tegan and Sara and the wacky guys of The Lonely Island. It was fun, brisk and truly awesome. It had rock, rap, Devo, Batman, lots of dancing and romping around. They even gave out Lego Oscar statuettes.
I’m Not Gonna Miss You from the documentary film Glen Campbell, I’ll Be Me performed by country music star Tim McGraw. This was written by the legendary Rhinestone Cowboy Campbell after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s four years ago and was later used in the movie about his life. McGraw kept his performance laidback, almost quiet, but incredibly heartfelt.
Moving Pictures the opening number by host Neil Patrick Harris. This is a well-written song that referenced Hollywood legends. There was no question that the multi-talented Harris would do this well. And he was excellent in a way that reminded me of Billy Crystal’s opening numbers at some Oscars nights years ago. But thanks to recent improvements in technology, Harris had a lot of new gimmickry at his disposal like actually inserting himself into scenes from Star Wars, The Wizard Of Oz, Basic Instinct and other films while performing on stage.
Lost Stars from Begin Again by Adam Levine of the Maroon 5 but this time solo onstage. He was very good and the song is truly beautiful but it was too short to have much of an impact in an evening of outstanding musical numbers. They should have ditched some of the jokes and given him a few seconds more or got Maroon 5 or Keira Knightley to join in. Still, it was great to see Levine, who is now dabbling in acting, perform at the Oscars.
Grateful from Beyond The Lights by Rita Ora. Too short, too, to be remembered was Ora’s performance of the Diane Warren composition. But her singing was flawless and she looked lovely.
I Can’t Let Go by Jennifer Hudson. Hudson looked great and sounded even better but I had to go and look up the unfamiliar song. It turned out that it came from Smash, the short-lived TV series about putting up a Broadway show. So I ask, why was Hudson made to perform an unfamiliar tune and from a TV show at that, in an Oscar show? Even worse was that it came after that important In Memoriam segment.