We're just about three weeks out from the 2019 Oscars, but the path to the gilded stage remains rockier than ever. Following significant blowback after reports surfaced that the broadcast would only feature two of the Best Song nominees -- A Star Is Born's "Shallow" and Black Panther's "All the Stars" -- the Academy has backtracked and will reportedly now feature all five of the best song nominees.
Two performances were officially confirmed on the Academy's twitter account -- marking some of the first official details they've released about the mysterious program so far .Those performances are Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson's "I'll Fight" from the Best Documentary nominee RBG and Mary Poppins Returns' "The Place Where Lost Things Go," which was performed by Emily Blunt in the film and will be sung by "a surprise special guest," according to the announcement. The only nominee still left in the wind is The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings," which was performed by Tim Blake Nelson in the Coen Brothers film.
Those tweets were followed up by a new report from Variety (the same outlet who first broke the news about the scaled-back showcase), which says that the Oscars will now feature all five nominees. Here's the real doozie though -- according to the report, "offers have gone out to reps from all five to perform the songs, although in truncated, 90-second form." While I think you can get away with a 90-second cut of "When a Cowboy Trades His Spur for Wings," Lady Gaga's big moment in "Shallow" doesn't come until after two minutes into the song.
Sources tell Variety that there was talk of "all or none" solidarity among the nominees, though they're not sure if that contributed to the Academy's decision. A trimmed-down song lineup isn't without historical precedent; in fact, there have been three previous years where none of the Best Song nominees were performed 1989, 2010, and most inexplicably the 2013 telecast, which somehow still found time for Seth McFarlane's wildly gross "We Saw Your Boobs" song. The 2016 show featured only three of the nominees.
Still, when the news broke, the outcry was immediate and fairly loud, most notably from Mary Poppins Returns star Lin-Manuel Miranda. The Hamilton creator tweeted "The 1st time I stayed up to watch the Oscars, it was because I LOVED The Little Mermaid & they were going to sing songs from the movie I loved on The Oscars. If true, and Poppins’ song won’t be performed, truly disappointing. Hostless AND music-less? To quote Kendrick: Damn.”
Even with the song question (somewhat) resolved, there are still a whole lot of mysteries surrounding the upcoming telecast. The Oscars will go without a for the first time since 1989 -- yep, that same dreaded year without any song performances -- after Kevin Hart accepted the gig before promptly walked away following intense social media backlash. Since then, producers Donna Gigliotti and Glenn Weiss (who is also directing) are keeping their plans for the show on lock down for the time being, but word is they're determined to keep the telecast under three hours, even if that means presenting a number of below the line categories during commercial break.
Frankly, none of this sounds like the right way to celebrate the best in cinema, and while I'm not going to judge the show before I see it -- imagine not getting to see Roger Deakins finally accept his Oscar that year. That's the kind of thing cinephiles might miss if the below-the-line categories move to the breaks, and that would be a damn shame. At least now we'll be getting the songs -- well, part of them anyway.
We'll see how it all comes together when the Academy Awards air on February 24.