OSCAR WHITTLES SONG LIST TO 15
The Oscars’ music committee have put Dolly Parton, Mark Ronson, Kendrick Lamar and, of course, Lady Gaga, onto the Original Song short list with 11 others. And once again, longtime song observers are asking the question...can Diane Warren finally win an Academy Award?
Warren’s “I’ll Fight” is sung by Jennifer Hudson in the documentary RBG and if she secures a nomination on 1/22, it will be her 10th nom without a win.
Parton, who has been working the campaign trail for the Netflix film Dumplin’ this month, made the short list with “Girl in the Movies.” Were Ronson nominated, it would be for “Keep Reachin’” from Rashida Jones’ doc on her father, Quincy. Chaka Khan sang the song that she and Ronson wrote with Andrew Wyatt and Jeff Bhasker.
The front-runners at this point are Lamar & SZA’s “All The Stars” from Black Panther and Gaga’s “Shallow” from A Star is Born. Both are nominated for Golden Globes as are two other songs that made the Oscars’ short list, Parton’s “Girl in the Movies” and Troye Sivan and Jonsi’s “Revelation” from Boy Erased.
As the Academy often does, they find an indie rocker dabbling in film music and if that trend holds true this year, they have Thom Yorke to fill it with “Suspirium” from Suspiria.
The committee has put two of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s songs from Mary Poppins Returns on the shortlist: the Emily Blunt sung “The Place Where Lost Things Go” and the Lin Manuel Miranda-led “Trip A Little Light Fantastic.”
And since the Academy can’t resist a good song in an animated film, Alan Menken’s “A Place Called Slaughter Race” from Ralph Breaks the Internet, sung by Sarah Silverman and Gal Gadot, makes the cut.
Also included in the list of nine are Sade’s end credits song for Widows’ “The Big Unknown,” Willie Watson and Tim Blake Nelson’s “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” from the Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Sampha’s “Treasure” from Beautiful Boy, Arlissa’s “We Won’t Move” from The Hate U Give, and The Coup’s Sorry to Bother You track “OYAHYTT.” (That stands for OhYeahAlrightHellYeahThatsTight).
