Every year, the Oscars typically give us a look at the Best Songs in a more fun way than other categories: live performances! But since they couldn’t get their stuff together to get a host who hasn’t offended millions of people (because did they even look at women for this position?), they’re trying to keep the runtime of the whole ceremony to a minimum.
That means we’re not getting all of the Best Song contenders performing, which doesn’t exactly make sense? If you’re trying to fill in for a missing host, trying to prevent anything outrageous happening on your live broadcast, wouldn’t you want to maintain the safe bet of just having songs being performed to help?
Beyond that, it isn’t fair to have two of the songs performed but not the rest. Sure, we’re all aware that the chances that any other song is going to beat A Star Is Born’s “Shallow” are very slim, and the only song that stands a chance is “All the Stars” from Black Panther, but still, that doesn’t mean we don’t deserve Emily Blunt singing onstage to make us feel better about the state of the world.
It just doesn’t make sense that “Shallow” and “All the Stars” are getting screen time but “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings,” “The Place Where Lost Things Go,” and “I’ll Fight” from RBG do not get the same treatment. They’re just handing us the only two contenders on a platter and saying, “These are the only two that stand a chance of winning,” which isn’t fair.
Sure, every year, there’s always a clear favorite in the category. Last year, it was “Remember Me” from Coco, and obviously, when the song won, we all weren’t shocked, but it didn’t stop us from enjoying the performances from the other nominees. This year, all of the nominees are incredible, and the fact that we’re only getting the two songs we already regularly hear on the radio is some b*llsh*t.
Look, I love “Shallow.” I sing it at karaoke regularly and have mastered Lady Gaga’s “ahhhhh” solo in the middle of the song. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to see other songs have their moment. Sure, most of us saw Mary Poppins Returns, but RBG and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs weren’t as widely viewed (or released, for that matter), so we may not have had the chance to hear these songs otherwise.
So now it’s on the audience to go and look up “I’ll Fight,” “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings,” and “The Place Where Lost Things Go”? Why not just nominate the entire soundtracks from Black Panther and A Star Is Born if you’re not going to give all the nominees their chance?
Play “Shallow” but also give The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and our favorite notorious lady their due.
(image: Disney)
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