Oscar Telecast: What Happened to the Music?
Anyone with even a half an ounce of musical discernment who watched Oscar telecast could not help to notice the hideous selection of artists that they had performing, especially Beyonce Knowles. They have her “sing” three songs, none of which did she have any association prior to the telecast. The first one she tries to sing in French with what appeared to be the boys’ choir who perform the song in “The Chorus”. It was obvious that she was not fluent in the language. With all of the talented French singers that there are in the world, why did the organizers of this event allow her to embarrass herself like that? They should have let the kids do it by themselves. Then she performed a song from “The Phantom of the Opera” that she butchered. Her inability to pick out the pitch and her horrendous phrasing and breathing were bad on all three songs, but most obvious on this one. Then they have her butt into Josh Groban’s song from the Polar Express. Why not let him do it alone as he did for the movie. Like him or not, this is his song. He should have walked off the stage when that hack showed up.
They also dragged out Antonio Banderas to sing the song that would win the Oscar. Pairing him up with Carlos Santana produced the most forgettable rendition of this tune possible. I am sure that none of you were whistling or humming it on your way to work today, or ever.
As for the song from “Shrek 2”, I have no complaints. The Counting Crows performed as they should have. Even though I am not a big fan of theirs, they earned the right to perform their song and did a fine job.
We knew going in that this was not a good year in the Best Song category. But they did not need to exacerbate the problem by these bad performances. On a night when a number of presenters and awardees lauded the artists and composers that provide the music for the movies, it was extremely surprising that they would not speak out about these horrible performances.
Bottom line on this is that somebody got paid big bucks to force Beyonce Knowles into the Oscar telecast. What else could it have been? Ratings? Hardly. They blew their wad on hyping the Chris Rock angle, who by the way should put this one on his resume and move on. His rant against Bush, while I agreed with everything that he said, was inappropriate for the event.
My message to the Oscar organizers is this: Wake up and return the art to the artists. You have moved very close to that unforgivable debacle during the 1998 Grammy telecast when Aretha Franklin embarrassed herself and the world when she screeched and squawked her way through “Nessun dorma” from Puccini's “Turandot”. I have not watched the Grammy awards since and will stop watching the Oscar telecast if you guys continue to produce the schlock that you did this year.
posted by Scott Hayden @ 8:25 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Yes, but it was a bit demeaning to that segment of the population, precisely the folks that the academy was trying to appeal to by forcing Beyonce into the telecast.
The dumbing down continues.
A couple of updates to share:
1. The boy's choir was from New Jersey and had nothing to do with the music. They were selected to lip-synch to the actual recording while Beyonce Knowles embarassed herself by "singing" over them.
2. A quote from a French-speaking acquaintance from Quebec: "To me the funniest was Beyoncé trying to sing in French. I couldn't
understand a word she said, Chemin came out 'Kemin'."
I recall your harangue out loud to me about Aretha - I am glad you have a new target - Beyonce.
Neither Aretha nor Beyonce are "targets". It is the idiots that exploit their popularity by thrusting them into situations that embarass them due to their limited range as performers. Just as Pavrotti should not ever be seen in in public trying to sing "Respect", Aretha should not have ever been asked to try to sing "Nessun Dorma". Likewise Beyonce should not have been asked by the orgfanizers of the academy awards to perform live in French, Spanish, Latin, English, or any other language because her "talent" is best when enhanced through the magic of the mixing process.
Oh well, I guess Beyonce is somewhat of a target since she is an awful singer. But the folks that thrust her into the spotlight and into my living room are the ones to blame, not Beyonce. She was just in it for the big payday. Plus, a large majority of the public has no idea that she is a hack, one that is laughing all the way to the bank, and paying .0001% into Social Security while that same cluless majority pays 6.25%, but that is a totally different harangue.
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