Soundtracking: The 2018 Oscar Performances

by Chris Feil

Thank you Lady Gaga, all of the nominated Original Song performances were given a shot to perform on the Oscars! That "Shallow" leverage reportedly kept the ceremony as much of a musical night as possible. Sadly logistics kept us from getting a Kendrick Lamar and SZA performance of Black Panther's "All the Stars", but I found it frustrating that the producers didn't find some way to work the song into the telecast somehow. A montage needle drop, underscoring for the pre-commercial announcements, something?!

Even without Lamar (who also missed the Grammys), the night was a mostly solid salvage of Oscar musical tradition. It certainly fared better than some recent years, and also helped set variety and a pace for the night that otherwise felt a tad too amorphously rushed. A Star is Born's "Shallow" triumphed for the win as expected all season long, but what of the performances themselves? Time for a ranking!...

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Best Dressed Best Actress? (...and a look at the whole decade, too)

Mandatory Red Carpet Lineup Poll!

polls

P.S. In case you've forgotten about our Oscar doll fantasy (You haven't, right?) the whole collection is embedded after the jump. Just think - there's only one more Oscar season to go to complete the decade in film !!! Then we can do all sorts of silly stuff with statistics...

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Team Experience Oscar Reax Pt 1: Joy, Horniness, Good Speeches

As is our practice we polled the team and a few friends shortly after the Oscars to get their takes. We hope you'll answer the same questions in the comments!  

OSCAR NIGHT QUESTIONNAIRE Pt 1

1. Which moment filled you with the most joy?
2. Which moment made you horniest?
3. Which speech was your favourite?
4. Which gown left you gagging? 

Our answers are after the jump...

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Grammy Winners List. Is Anyone Closer to an EGOT?

by Nathaniel R

Lady Gaga won 3 more Grammys tonight (her total is now 9), one of which was shared by Bradley Cooper

In answer to the title question, well yes, technically. After all, any first time Grammy winner is closer to the EGOT now. But let's look at the more visible people in the mix... did anyone take a step closer than they already were? Actor/rapper/writer Donald Glover, BlacKkKlansman composer Terence Blanchard, and actress/singer Lady Gaga all won Grammys tonight but none are closer to the EGOT since they have previous Grammys at home. Glover has two Emmys (for Atlanta) and multiple Grammys (for "This is America" and the previous statue for "Redbone") but he was already halfway to the EGOT before tonight. Blanchard, nominated at the Oscars this year for the first time, now has six Grammys. Lady Gaga now has nine Grammys, but that's the only one of the four major showbiz prizes she's won. We suspect she'll get the Oscar part of the equation in just two weeks time, though.  Gaga's singing and co-starring partner in crime Bradley Cooper also picked up a Grammy, sharing the Pop/Duo prize. Yes, absurdly, he got the Grammy before the Tony (where he's been nominated once) or the Oscar (where he's been nominated 7 times across multiple categories) even though he's an A list actor and only a novice singer but showbiz can be so strange like that. One imagines he'll pick up an Emmy with ease should he ever deign to do TV again but he's steered mostly clear since Nip/Tuck. Once movie stardom hit, he was big-screen only apart from that Wet Hot American Summer sequel series.

But there are four people who did take an actual step closer to EGOT, since they added a Grammy to take another step closer...

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Soundtracking: 2018's Original Song nominees

by Chris Feil

Best Original Song always gets its fair share of side-eye among Oscar snobs and agnostics alike. Granted, some recent nominees have made a decent enough case for their argument - Alone Yet Not Alone, you are lost but not forgotten (or... alone in terms of being a bad nomination). But does this year's crop of tracks continue the category's uptrending in quality? I would argue it does and then some.

While our most expected nominee ("Shallow" obviously) provides the lineup a genuine hit song, we also have idiosyncratic picks as well as musicals and major artists nominated. This leaves the telecast with no rational choice but to allow all numbers to perform on the show, as they have been hesitant to do with lesser known nominees. So in addition to ranking the nominees, I have some suggestions on how to present all of them...

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