Our third Oscar-nominated song comes from the biopic Marshall, starring Black Panther as the nation’s first African-American Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall.
The song is performed by soul singer Andra Day and rapper Common, and written by Common and 9-time Best Song nominee Diane Warren. Warren has never won the statue despite her run of nominations, while Common took the prize when he was last nominated, for the song ‘Glory’ in 2015’s Selma.
Surprise hit The Greatest Showman is the only musical nominated in the Best Original Song category this year. (You could make an argument that another nominated film is a musical, but I would argue that you are wrong, and I would be right).
This is one of those movies scoffed at by critics (55% on the Tomatometer!) but loved by audiences. It has hit a nerve, cleaning up at the box office and topping the album charts.
I believe today’s nominated song, which most clearly states one of the film’s central themes, is the key to The Greatest Showman‘s success.
Due to the Winter Olympics, this year’s Academy Awards are ridiculously late (March 4), which buys me a little time to sneak in some pre-Oscars blog posts. Specifically, I’m going to spend the next ten days featuring this year’s Best Original Song nominees as well as five of my favorite Best Original Song winners.
Michigan indie artist Sufjan Stevens is this year’s unlikeliest Best Song nominee. The eclectic multi-instrumentalist will seem as out of place on the Kodak Theatre stage as Elliott Smith did performing ‘Miss Misery’ from Good Will Hunting in 1997.
I’m surprised I haven’t already featured Ben Folds’ ‘Zak and Sara,’ either its studio version (from Folds’ 2001 solo debut Rockin’ the Suburbs) or the live version posted today.
This song is a perfect example of Folds’ gift for quick character sketches. I’ve always said that at his lyrical best, his songs are essentially short stories. Short stories sung with sticky melodies over exuberant piano music.
Fountains of Wayne followed up the success of its 2003 album Welcome Interstate Managers, and surprise hit single ‘Stacy’s Mom,’ with a double album called Out-of-State Plates, filled with odds and ends they’d amassed over their career to that point.
Albums like this are usually quick cash grabs or contract fillers, and this one is no exception. It is entirely unremarkable, featuring songs that were B-sides for good reasons.
Meet Me In Montauk 