by Chris Feil
Idina Menzel's perplexed reaction shot -- we'll get to it.
This year, Oscar treated us to a more music heavy ceremony than usual. With some moments expected, some surprising, and some impromptu, the telecast had some naysayers asking “What is this?! The Grammys?!” Overall, yes, the musical numbers halted the night’s energy rather than propelled it, and that wasn’t helped by the producer’s decisions for when to have a presenter and not. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t moments of brilliant throughout. Here’s Oscar night’s musical moments from worst to best...
11. Randy Newman “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away”
Listen, it brings me no joy to dismiss the much awarded musical icon and his sweetness, but with this performance Randy Newman made the weakest case for keeping the nominated songs on the telecast. Plus, producers just plopped him on the stage with a piano (which, by the looks of it, he wasn’t even playing?) sans production value. “I can’t let ya, I can’t let ya, I can’t let ya, I can’t let ya, I can’t let ya, [time folds in on itself]....”
10. Chrissy Metz “I’m Standing With You”
This is no fault of Metz’s, who did a perfectly fine vocal. But to add insult to this abysmal song’s injury (sorry, Diane Warren, you know I love you), this number was more funereal than a decade’s worth of In Memoriam segments. And it had the burden of being the first musical number to get no introduction whatsoever, compounding the awkwardness. Best we let this one get lost to time.
9. Eminem “Lose Yourself”
With a deep, cloud-shifting intake of breath and sudden exhale violent enough to crack the time-space continuum, I ask you: why? Of all the famous Original Song winners to play some kind of vague tribute to movie songs to (though that reel was one of the night’s best)? Apparently, it was meant as some homecoming gesture since Eminem was unable to perform the year this won - but 18 years is an odd stretch of time to make good on that, particularly for a movie with very minor lasting impact. The crowd went for it, but I guess you had to be there? Almost worth it for Idina Menzel’s perplexed reaction shot. Almost.
8. Utkarsh Ambudkar’s freestyle recap
I was somewhat taken by the Mindy Project actor and Freestyle Love Supreme member’s performance in the moment as an antidote to Eminem’s empty display, and there was a lot of welcome wit here. But serving little more than reminding us what had already won in the night can only result in a “get on with it!” response from even those of us that want the Oscars to be longer.
7. Elton John “I’m Gonna Love Me Again”
Randy Newman’s tethered, if the piano underworld was a disco cruise ship. Whereas the Oscar stage has become a breeding ground for rock star b-sides, rarely are they performed with such showmanship thirsty for a win. So I’ll take it, but none of this felt essential. The transition song at the Elton John concert between two massive hits, but still an Elton John concert.
6. Idina Menzel and the Night of a Thousand Elsas
A rushed tempo and lowered key was not going to defeat Idina Menzel, because she recruited an army of global Elsas and a cooing forest nymph to make “Into the Unknown” a success. While not the best among Frozen 2’s songs, the handoff between several of the actresses that have voiced Elsa around the globe is the kind of actress-centric spectacle we tune into the Oscar’s for.
5. Janelle Monae’s opener
I can appreciate many different perspectives on this opening number. For some, it’s insulting to use key black films like Us and Queen and Slim in a year of overwhelmingly white nominees; for others, it’s staking a claim that those films are still here and were worthy to begin with. It’s complicated reconciling the intentions with the context here, but the number has the advantage of Janelle Monáe being this generation’s foremost showstopper. Overall, I found it to be an exciting wink at and subversion of the kind of referential opening number we’ve seen many times through Oscar ceremony history. Massive bonus points for Billy Porter singing on our television screens (and giving better Elton John than Elton John).
4. Eimear Noone and the Original Score medley
Excessive to some, but we love a medley and/or montage, so your mileage may vary. Noone was the first woman to conduct an Oscar ceremony and she showed up clad in gold armor to enhance the theatrics. It’s simply nice to see the nominated original scores get the air time they have been denied in recent years. Bonus points for weaving four rather disparate scores into one seamless musical moment.
3. Billie Eilish’s “Yesterday” In Memoriam
While I had predicted Eilish’s much publicized post-Grammy triumph performance on the Oscar stage would be a reveal of her coming Bond song, this was an surprisingly uncynical choice. If “Yesterday” seems like a lyrically odd choice for In Memoriam, that was ultimately countered by Eilish’s movingly expressive vocal that nevertheless didn’t distract from those being tributed. It was so far outside of the predictable that it made this section of the telecast less mechanical than it can sometimes be.
2. Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph presenting Best Costume Design
Yes, this counts. In the awards ceremony cinematic universe of presenters doing bits, this gag of Wiig and Rudolph proving their acting worth beyond laughs ranks somewhere between Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry’s costume display last year and Wiig and Will Ferrell’s Globes “You get outta here!!!” derailing. The night’s best medley, serving up everyone from Prince to Madonna to Sisqo.
1. Cynthia Erivo “Stand Up”
Providing all of the drama and effectively simple stagecraft that each of her co-nominees lacked on the Oscar stage, this performance was handily the night’s musical peak. We’re going to be seeing Erivo back on the Oscar stage in the future, you can bank on that. Some were less high on the song itself, but much of what made this such a successful performance was how it hid its simplistic aspects by highlighting its natural emotion.
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