February 15, 2009

Peter Gabriel tells the Academy to sit and spin

Well, in far nicer terms, but the point remains the same, as you can see here in The Hollywood Reporter:
Peter Gabriel will not be performing at the Feb. 22 Academy Award telecast in support of his best song nominee "Down to Earth" from the film "WALL-E."In a video posted on PeterGabriel.com, Gabriel said that Oscar producers told him the three nominated songs will be performed as part of a medley, giving "Down to Earth" about 60-65 seconds of total air time. Gabriel said he doesn't believe it's enough time to showcase the song -- and while he'll still attend the ceremony and he's hoping the Soweto Gospel Choir will perform the snippet of the song in his stead -- he won't play it himself."I think it's a bit unfortunate because while songwriting is a small part of the filmmaking process, we still work bloody hard and deserve a place in the ceremony as well," he said.A representative with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences declined comment on the matter, saying that no announcements have been made, to date, as to who will or will not perform at the ceremony.The other nominated songs are A.R. Rahman and M.I.A.'s "O Saya" and Rahman's "Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire."At the Feb. 8 Grammys, Gabriel and composer Thomas Newman won for best song written for motion picture, television or other visual media for "Down to Earth" and best instrumental arrangement for "Define Dancing," another track from the film.
-Wonder what they'll do now...

2 comments:

  1. You know the more I hear about this category the more I think the Academy does not consider it important. Case in point: what they did back at the 2005 Oscars with the category - bringing in Beyonce to sing most of the songs, even going so far as to turn Andrew lloyd Webber's "Learn To Be Lonely" into something it was not in the original film. And now, with no explanation as far as I know of it, only three nominees in this category this year.

    Seems to be that the Academy does not take this category seriously and probably wishes it could do away with it. How about less BS in the evening's programme, and just get down to the awards presentations, instead of trying to cut the performance of songs down.

    Why not even just have a snippet of the song played to scenes from the film like the acting nominees? I mean when you look at it, no other nominated performance gets to be presented in its entirety on the night - not even short films. And you don't get to see all the costumes for a film waltzed across the stage either.

    Just my thoughts. But I do support Peter Gabriel - I wouoldn't want to be up there doing my song as part of a medley.

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  2. good thoughts sir...the 3 slots instead of 5 still confounds me...especially since something like Springsteen's The Wrestler should be winning the award, not being a "non nominee"

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