From Mike Fleming over at Deadline.com comes the news that Oscar telecast producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic have decided not to invite the nominees for Best Original Song to perform at the big show. I’m surprised at the decision, but then I’m not. I’ve lamented the lack of any well-known songs in the Oscar race of late, and even though I’m a fan of front-runner “The Weary Kind,” T-Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham’s theme from Crazy Heart, I can’t say I’ll miss hearing the performances of any of the other nominees (“Take It All” from Nine, “Loin de Paname” from Paris 36, and two numbers from The Princess and the Frog). You’ll recall that last year, telecast producers Larry Mark and Bill Condon allowed only 90-second performances from each of the songs, causing nominee Peter Gabriel (“Down to Earth” from Wall-E) to back out of his appearance. This is just the next step in my mind. Clearly Shankman and Mechanic are aiming for a more audience-friendly production, and they’re apparently willing to break from tradition in order to achieve it.
What do you all think? Should the Best Song nominees be included every year? Or do they need to be of higher overall quality (or popularity) to deserve such choice airtime?
Photo credit: Bob Charlotte/PR Photos
Hallelujah! And no best score music interludes and no honorary Oscar and we might finally have a show worth watching
I love the honorary Oscar–it’s the only time we can capture the magic of Old Hollywood. What I hate are the montage tributes to specific genres or reflecting on the year in movies. That’s what the AFI is for.
How are they going to find a way to get Beyonce on the show now???
LOL – funniest comment ever.
THANK YOU!
Hahaha totally true, it was just ridiculous when they had B perform like 3 songs out of the 5 nominees
hahahaha
best comment ever and honest
Isn’t she nominated for her stellar acting work in Obsessed? Tee hee.
Although it’s tradition to feature best song nominees it actually seems quite odd when you think about it. I mean, why not also telecast the best short nominees and so on? Also, I dislike it when they do not show clips of the nominees and especially dislike it if the “clips” that are shown for movies are simply the trailer.
TOTALLY agree about the trailer issue!!!!
Oooh, I was looking forward to seeing Bridges perform that song on the night he won his Oscar, but otherwise I can’t say I miss hearing these songs!
I’m kind of torn. Part of me says that if they’re nominated, we should be able to hear the song in it’s entirety. I mean, it’s a 3+ hour show, and a few musical numbers wouldn’t hurt. But, I’m also with Dave on the fact that I get bored to tears some years, when the songs that are nominated are schmaltzy, unfamiliar tunes. I’m glad someone is finally trying to revitalize the show, though, so I’m gonna trust Shankman on this one.
I am also a bit torn about this, and I agreed with Dave’s analysis on the less-known nominees – more popular songs make for a much more popular performance. I would very much have liked to see Ed Helms perform his The Hangover lullabye, but given that he was overlooked I’m just not sure I’ll miss seeing the rest of the performances.
If people are unfamiliar with the songs beforehand, there’s always YOUTUBE….try and use it sometime before you complain
I’m happy with the decision. I like the Princess & the Frog numbers, but often I find the telecast drags whenever it goes to a song. I’d rather have a short clip from the movie featuring the song, actually! Or just a shorter show…
Yeah, I feel the same way. The Best Song performances usually bring the show to a halt for me, especially because the performances are often way overproduced and not good (like, ehem, last year). I like the idea of showing a brief clip of the song in context with the movie. That would have more meaning for me.
I disagree. I think the show is going to be boring w/o the song performances. They will probably find a way to fill that gap with some unnecessary montages.
I agree. The song performances provide a nice break from the virtually endless speeches and montages.
Lame. The best song performances are usually the one of the best parts of the show (for instance, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova’s awesome performance of “Falling Slowly”). If the songs aren’t interesting enough to air during the telecast, then they shouldn’t have been nominated in the first place. Plus, now there will be nothing to break up the monotony towards the middle of the telecast.
Fully agree on all points. The song from Once was beyond compare – so memorable! The Academy needs to raise the bar for all best song nominees – look beyond Disney – then bring back the performances. I’d rather this than 10 best picture nominees. Marketing, marketing.
Alia, hear hear. However, Falling Slowly WAS the exception to the rule – Though It’s Tough Being A Pimp (song title from memory, so sorry if it’s incorrect) was a blast too. Too often, these songs today are completely forgetten after the awards. Rarely hear a Moon River or Somewhere Over the Rainbow anymore.
To Baco Noir: The song’s title was “It’s hard out there for a pimp.” That performance was…. interesting. Personally I don’t mind the performances, even the ones I’m not familiar. I do think they should have the actual artist performing. I didn’t like it the year Beyonce sang all of the songs. I was looking forward to hearing Almost There from the Princess and the Frog although I’m sure the song from Crazy Heart will win.
AGREE!! Once is just one example, what about Annie Lennox for LOTR: Return of the King, or Alison Krauss for Cold Mountain. Paul Simon for the Wild Thornberries? Maybe if the Academy would not be snobs about this category (See Sheryl Crow for Tomorrow Never Dies, Alanis Morrissette for Narnia and City of Angels, Eddie Vedder for Into the Wild) they wouldn’t feel compelled to cut them. Can you imagine Once not being included? Amazing song.
Great post!
So right. If the songs are good enough to get nominated, you’d think they’d merit live performances during the ceremony. I understand that it was the producers made the decision, not the actual Academy, but you’d think they’d just let people decide for themselves whether or not the songs are good. Besides, a mediocre song can still turn into a great, memorable performance.
I’ll actually miss it.
I want to be entertained and Oscar contending songs performed by the original artists is entertainment.
Agreed as long as it’s not the Beyonce show I’m pleased.
Agree. I’m going to miss the songs. I really wanted to The Weary Kind.
I don’t know. Yeah, the songs can make the telecast drag, but the song performances have at times provided some of the highlights of the show. Robin Williams performing “Blame Canada”, anyone?
Made me watch. No Blame Canada this year, though.
Yeah, I thought about Blame Canada as well! That was hilarious, especially since it was Robin Williams performing. No offense, but I wouldn’t call that guy a great singer (he’s a terrific actor, though), but that was certainly a memorable Oscar moment.
Um, this was already posted. Scroll down on your homepage. It’s redundant redundant.
So you’re saying that EW repeats themselves? That they say things over and over?
Jeez, a little rude. The other post was part of the Music Mix blog. This one is for OscarWatch. It’s not like there are two similar articles in the magazine. There’s plenty of room on the internet for everyone.
Rude? I don’t see how I was being rude. I was just commenting on how a nearly identical article was posted on the site just minutes before.
It might be on the same site, Ramo, but the two posts belong to two separate blogs. I subscribe to Dave Karger’s blog, but not the music mix, because I prefer to get my music news elsewhere. I get what you’re saying, because I noticed it, too, but it’s really not a big deal. Although I did like your ‘redundant redundant’ bit.
Not a big deal, exactly. Sheesh, no need to be SO sensitive. Just an observation, like you too made.
The ceremony will still run extremely long because they’ll find other things to squeeze in. It’s too bad, I was looking forward to seeing Ryan Bingham perform The Weary Kind.
I was looking forward to that as well. Maybe if they nominated more interesting songs rather than whatever Randy Newman did for Disney it would be more interesting. The music from Where the Wild Things Are was great and I still don’t understand why Eddie Vedder wasn’t nominated for Into The Wild a couple of years back. Oh well, I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising.
agreed!
How do these songs get nominated anyway? Randy Newman is the biggest hack; I don’t know why he keeps getting hired to write the same stupid melody over and over and over.
Totally agree! Remember how great it was the year Titanic was nominated for song, along with Miss Misery from Good Will Hunting. That was a great moment in recent years. Celine Dion grabbing Elliot Smith to accept post performance applause was awesome and touching.
i am bummed for the artists,but from a ratings pov it will make for a better show,wonder if they’ll just show clips from each movie or might we get a studio clip of the actual artist recording the songs.
If I hadn’t heard Falling Slowly from Once on the Oscars, I never would’ve discovered the amazing gem that is the movie and soundtrack. I’ll bet you bucks the ceremony is still three hours long.
I agree. I watched Once after the I saw them perform on the Oscars and loved it. I just wish they would nominate deserving songs on a regular basis.
I agree too, Falling Slowly made me watch Once and I loved that movie. The Oscars should’t cut the best song performance but make better choices for the nominees.
I am mistified at the nominations themselves. how could they not nominate Mary J Blige’s song from ‘Precious’? or Leona Lewis song from ‘Avatar’. I mean if truly the best songs were nominated we might have a far debate to consider. But until the Academy starts recognizing great songs, why bother.
Leona Lewis’ song from Avatar was utter garbage- James Horner is a hack
Super – now they’ve taken away the only reason to watch the show.
Really?
I’d rather they performed selections from the nominated scores, anyway.
Agreed. A great score contributes a heckuva lot more to a film than one song. I think they have actually done medleys of the scores in the past, but with distracting interpretive dance.
This whole Oscar year is a wreck 10 best pic noms? Really? and now people who worked hard on their songs can’t even perform them. As a film score collector it can only mean they will read of the composer noms only.
This is the first time since I started watching the OSCARS in 1989 that I will NOT be watching the show. Maybe next year if they go back to the format that works. Each year they try to do something new and it kind of comes across cheap and tacky.
I started watching the oscars anually back when the Godfather won. But I was a kid and I remember watching it from time to time before that. But I haven’t missed it in alomost 40 years. But with the overall decline in quality, the addition of 5 more best pic nominees(which is why they probably needed to make more time for) the elimination of the honorary oscars and now this, I won’t be watching. I recently moved to a new state and while we’re waiting to buy a house, we’ve put off getting cable. We don’t get Abc and after all this I’m not gonna bother trying yto find a place to watch. I think I’ll find better use of my time.