Slumdog Millionaire, Wall-e For Original Song
Peter Gabriel Among 81st Academy Award Nominations
Jan 29, 2009
The reason for the scant three nominations is that the music category uses a ranking system that nominates songs scoring higher than 8.25 out of a possible 10 with its members. As a result, for example, Bruce Springsteen’s “The Wrestler,” while a Golden Globe winner for best song, could not reach the nomination stage at the Oscars.
Rarely are only three songs nominated for the top song Academy Award. The 80th annual saw four songs nominated while the previous year contained five. The 78th Academy Awards in 2005 was the last time that only three nominations were found in the category.
Hard to Top “Falling Slowly” Performance
A larger number of nominations would not change the difficult task of topping the rags-to-riches emotion behind the winner of Original Song from the 80th Oscars. Indie greats Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova took the top honor for “Falling Slowly” from “Once,” an Irish movie made with two small video cameras and no budget.
This year, however, few could be surprised at Peter Gabriel’s debut Oscar nomination. After all, he has widened his field of musical expression considerably over the past four decades from songwriter to musician and theatrical performer to catalyst, bringing the world’s finest artists together in song and performance.
Gabriel penned the lyrics for “Down to Earth” with the music written by Thomas Newman, favorite son of a musical family and cousin to singer/songwriter Randy Newman (of “Short People” song fame).
"Slumdog Millionaire" Takes Two Nominations
The other two Academy Award nominated original songs are both from the movie “Slumdog Millionaire:” “Jai Ho” with music by A.R. Rahman with lyrics by Gulzar and; “O Saya” with music by A.R. Rahman while he shared the writing of the lyrics with Maya Arulpragasam.
Indian music maestro Rahman has a total of three Oscar nominations for “Slumdog Millionaire,” two for original song and one for original score.
“Jai Ho” is a Bollywood style song with a joyous sound that ends "Slumdog Millionaire," turning the movie’s finale into a victorious and energizing dance scene.
Appropriately, the term “Jai Ho” means, “may there be victory” or “victory to thee” and the song's lyrics paint a richly positive picture of celebration.
Dolly Parton, Sting, Melissa Etheridge, Eminem Previous Nominees
Star power is a lasting feature of this awards category. Sting, Elvis Costello, Eminem, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Dolly Parton and Melissa Etheridge are among a lost list of musical stars who have found themselves either nominated or winning.
For fans, perhaps one of the greatest perks of an Academy Award nomination for best song is the live performances by the nominated artists that are sprinkled throughout the long televised show.
The Academy Award winner in the category is not necessarily the biggest household name and with the small number of nominations for the 81st Annual Awards, divided between only two motion pictures, the depth of talent is greater than the field.
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