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In 2016, the first time in many years, the Best Original Song category at the Oscars is legitimately hot. With two songs from the Best Picture frontrunner — an original musical, which means the Best Song nominees get to be the major songs from the film, not just some new song they tacked onto an adaptation of a musical — a legitimate pop hit, one of the strongest entries from a Disney animated movie in years. Sure, there’s the now-traditional obscure song from an obscure movie that campaigned well; and sure, we’re still a far cry away from the heyday of the 1980s and early ’90s, when the Best Original Song was routinely packed with chart-topping hits; but there’s no denying that the 2016 Original Song category was a winner.
The thing is, it could have been SO MUCH BETTER. As strong as this year’s nominees are …
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” from La La Land
“Can’t Stop the Feeling!” from Trolls
“City of Stars” from La La Land
“The Empty Chair” from Jim: The James Foley Story
“How Far I’ll Go” from Moana
…the entire field of eligible songs was even stronger. A more adventurous Academy, for example, might have opted for the “No Dames” tap-dance number from the Coen brothers’ Hail Caesar! A MUCH more adventurous Academy might have even gone for Swiss Army Man‘s inventive and catchy “Montage” song. But even given the parameters of what the Academy chose, a better Best Original Song lineup is lurking just below the surface. Consider …
A Better Two Songs from One Movie: Honestly, if we got a La La Land double dip in the form of “Audition” and, say, “Another Day of Sun” or “Someone in the Crowd,” I’d be a lot happier. But “City of Stars” is such a snooze! Instead, we could have gotten a two-fer from the positively lovely Moana, pairing the already-nominated “How Far I’ll Go” with the rousing, chant-y “We Know the Way,” the Dwayne Johnson-featuring “You’re Welcome,” or even Jermaine Clement’s big moment with “Shiny.” Of course, the Academy could have gone entirely off the map and nominated two songs from Sing Street, whose best moments (“Drive It Like You Stole It,” “Riddle of the Model,” Brown Shoes”) were all utterly ignored.
A Better Pop Delight from an Animated Movie: Of all the songs nominated this year, Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling” is the true throwback to the category’s best days. It’s a pop hit that anyone can recognize, whether or not they know it’s a song from the movie Trolls. Still, the Academy could have sacrificed some pop-chart cachet and ended up with an even better pop confection if they opted for the Sia-penned, Shakira-performed “Try Everything” from Zootopia. Fringe benefit: Zootopia would then have two Oscar nominations while Trolls would have zero, thus righting the universe.
A Better Niche Song from a Movie No One Saw: Here’s the big one. I’m not going to slam Jim: The James Foley Story too hard, as it’s a documentary about an awful occurrence that’s handled with sensitivity and curiosity. but that Best Song nomination is pretty ridiculous given the strength of the field. Which brings me to the single most unfortunate snub on the Best Song ballot: “I’m So Humble” from the under-appreciated Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. The movie marks the high point of the Lonely Island’s career in music parody thus far, and the song — which kicks off the movie in fine fashion — features Adam Levine, making this the second time in three years that Adam Levine has been prominently involved in the song that should have won Best Original Song.
From the opening, practically tossed off “It’s Connor!,” “I’m So Humble” nails the pop style it’s going for perfectly. The movie is a note-perfect Justin Bieber parody, but the music covers all manner of pop/EDM/hip-hop melanges that are currently crawling the charts. At the same time, the specific sentiments in the film — humility being presented as massive ego-stroking — is both clever (the wordplay on “they say I’m a ten but I’m an eight at best / plus two, says you, not me, ’cause I’m so humble” is ridiculous) and smart (competitive humility is such a thing in celebrity circles). This kind of deceptive intelligence in the guise of something that is such a purely delightful earworm of a song is exactly the kind of triumph that the Oscars should be celebrating. Plus we’d get to see it performed at the Oscars!
Try not to let this glimpse of a parallel universe that will never be ruin your enjoyment of Sunday’s Oscars. It won’t be easy.
