Oscar Volleys: How Many Pop Hits in Best Original Song?

Team Experience will be discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Eurocheese and Baby Clyde...  

"Ciao Papa" in GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S PINOCCHIO

EUROCHEESE: Well Baby, It's Cold Outside and you know what that means - we're Falling Slowly into awards season, and it's time to name the songs seeking Glory in the City of Stars. There are a few big hits that Take My Breath Away: Rihanna's "Lift Me Up," which seems to be everywhere at the moment; Lady Gaga's "Hold My Hand" in the year's biggest hit that just won't slow down; and the standout song from Del Toro's Pinocchio, "Ciao Papa," which I expect will make the cut. Do you agree these three are solid initial nominees, or do you have High Hopes that rest elsewhere? Any Secret Love that you see near the top of your list?

BABY CLYDE: Hey Mr Cheese, I Just Called To Say I Love You. The Academy must be salivating at the prospect of this year’s nominees. Am I correct in thinking that Rihanna, Gaga, Taylor and Billie Eilish are all legit contenders in this category...

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The Movie-Related Nominees for the 65th Annual Grammy Awards

by Nathaniel R

Each year when the Grammy nominations are announced we report on nominees of interest to film fans. But before we get to the screen entertainment-adjacent stuff, we must first acknowledge the recording industry's three marquee categories: Album, Record, and Song of the year. We have a repeat of 2017 with Adele & Beyoncé squaring off yet again for the top prize. Beyoncé leads the nominations this year with 9 and as of today is tied with her husband Jay-Z as the most nominated musician of all time at the Grammys since they've each  received 88 nominations over the course of their careers... 

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Taylor Swift, Star-Studded and "Bejewelled"

by Nathaniel R

Do we have any Swifties amongst the readers? I personally rarely thought of Swift outside of liking a few hits but with the queer-ally song "You Need To Calm Down" followed by the double pandemic punch of the Folklore and Evermore albums, the common wisdom that she was a very talented songwriter finally pierced my consciousness where pop music is but a small niche (crowded out by cinema, tv, and theatre). Her new album "Midnights," which was immediately at the top of the charts giving her the most #1 albums of any woman (though she's tied in that with Barbra Streisand), is 20 songs long so it'll take a while to sink in.

But let's talk music videos. Taylor has always loved celebrity cameos (remember "Bad Blood" and its bevy of young actresses?) and the first two Midnights videos are star-studded fun...

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Music Chart Break.

The Grammy Awards rescheduled their ceremony today only to choose the exact date that's been occupied by the Screen Actors Guild Awards for months now. RUDE. We'd say this will be a tough call for celebrities as to which to attend but given that there seems to be no end in sight to the pandemic with even the vaccine rollout botched (thus far at least), we imagine both will end up virtual even though they're not happening until March 14th.

But given that the world is in chaos once again we sought distraction today and noticed that both Billboard and Rolling Stone released their 2020 year-end charts for the top albums and top songs. A few notes of interest...

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Meryl Streep and Renée Zellweger are up for Grammys...

We don't really cover the Grammys here at TFE as it's rather beyond our wheelhouse but to give you a general sense of that awards landscape, Taylor Swift ("Folklore"), and Dua Lipa ("Future Nostalgia") dominated and Beyoncé, too, despite the lack of a new album. Everyone's fav obsession at the moment, BTS, disappointingly scored only one nomination for Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Dynamite". Insane that that wasn't up for Record of the Year.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

• Black Pumas -Deluxe Edition (Black Pumas)
• Chilombo (Jhené Aiko)
• Djesse Vol 3 (Jacob Collier)
• Everyday Life (Coldplay)
• Folklore (Taylor Swift)
• Future Nostalgia (Dua Lipa)
• Hollywood's Bleeding (Post Malone)
• Women in Music Pt III (Haim)

But as we do we focus on categories that fall more under our umbrella here. So after the jump the categories for visual media as well as actors and composers who work primarily in film and television who are up for Grammys this year...

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