Beyoncé's "Spirit" and the Best Original Song Competition
Thursday, November 7, 2019 at 10:10AM
Please welcome new contributor Kyndall Cunningham...
When the soundtrack for this year’s The Lion King remake dropped in July along with the lead single “Spirit,” performed by Beyoncé, fans on Twitter described its long-awaited arrival as the singer “coming to collect her things” - one of those things obviously being an Oscar for Best Original Song.
The gospel-inspired ballad penned by Beyoncé, the British singer-producer Labrinth and songwriter Ilya Salmanzadeh includes Swahili chants, a choir and, of course, Beyonce’s acrobatic vocals that practically summon thunder by the end of it. The song is noticeably Oscar-baity in its grandeur but also in that a live performance at the ceremony would prompt a long standing O and make for one of the best moments of the night...
Think of John Legend and Common’s 2015 performance of “Glory” from Selma or Pharrell’s performance the previous year of “Happy” from Despicable Me 2. Also, when has a televised Beyoncé performance not sent Twitter into a frenzy or made national headlines?
Despite Disney’s best efforts to promote the crap out of The Lion King’s music (i.e. ABC’s Beyoncé Presents: Making The Gift), the path to the Oscars stage is never as clear as it initially seems once you realize how many blockbusters are still to come during the holidays.
Enter Cats and Frozen 2.
Last month, Taylor Swift and Andrew Lloyd Webber announced in a very solemn featurette that they had written an original song for Cats called “Beautiful Ghosts.” While I’m not sure anyone is dying to see Webber—already a winner in this category— receive another, Swift is a more intriguing case considering how many times she’s thrown her hat in the Oscars ring and gotten zip. There was “Safe and Sound” from The Hunger Games, “Sweeter Than Fiction” from One Chance and the remarkably unsexy “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” from Fifty Shades Darker, all of which received nominations for other awards but were ignored by the Academy. It will be interesting to see whether Academy voters will finally acknowledge the clearly yearning pop star.
[Side note: How fun would it be if Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Elton John (Rocketman), all went head to head in this category? The Twitter war between the Beyhive and the Swifties would be unbearable but it would make for a night of dazzling performances and maybe an increase in Oscars viewership. ]
Then there’s Frozen 2, due at the end of November, which will inevitably produce one, if not several critically acclaimed tunes performed by Adele Dazeem and/or Kristen Bell. The Academy loves a cute, earnest Disney song, particularly from a franchise as popular and lucrative as Frozen. So, despite having no information about the film’s soundtrack, I’m locking it in as Beyoncé’s biggest challenger. We also can’t forget about Disney’s other big summer blockbuster Aladdin, which is likely to earn a nomination for the Princess Jasmine ballad “Speechless.” There’s also “The Ballad of the Lonesome Cowboy” from Toy Story 4. Needless to say, Disney will be doing a lot of competing against itself this year.
Somehow "Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé:" lost all 6 of its Emmy categories in September.
Maybe the most important thing to consider is that the big award shows haven’t been that nice to Beyoncé in recent years, nominating her in all the major categories but giving Grammys and Emmys to her white peers instead. If she’s nominated and wins, Black Twitter constituents like myself will be very pleased. And after giving Green Book Best Picture last year, the Academy owes us!
Related: Oscar Charts, Sound & Music
Reader Comments (40)
Beyonce, T Swift and Elton performing would be huge.
And can we add Robert Pattinson performing Willow from High Life?
This is easy, Academy.
Nominate The Lion King and Cats for Original Song, along with three more obscure choices. Then reserve a set of the five center seats in the front row. Jay-Z and Beyoncé take two seats on one side, Taylor Swift and her date take two seats on the other, and Kanye West sits in between the women.
she's overrated.
Any good songs on the Frozen 2 soundtrack?
Here it comes again. "Academy owes us", as in: just award a random black artist even if its work is inferior to his peer, just to appease a vocal minority.
Beyoncé fans using the race card when she loses awards ? Groundbreaking.
For me - Best Song of the Year is without a doubt -
"Glasgow (No Place Like Home)" from Wild Rose!!
Jessie Buckley sings (and performs) the Hell out of this song (as well as the rest of the songs on the soundtrack!!!)
It would be such a deserved winner - along the same lines as "Falling Slowly" from Once
Taylor Swift cant sing. Her live singing is atrocious. It would be humiliating for her to try to perform live in the same night as Menzel , Beyonce, and who knows who else. I could see her pulling a Gosling/Stone and asking someone else somehow related to the movie to perform it for her- Jennifer Hudson, maybe?
Sterling K. Brown and Evan Rachel Wood will also be singing on Frozen 2.
I feel like Spirit did not make that much of an impact even with them trying hard for it to make it. I personally find it bad and generic.
And if the academy takes in consideration how the song plays in Lion King, if it was part of the plot and whatnot, this song barely registers in the actual film. It feels like an afterthought really.
Anon clearly has no sense of humor (but much contempt for Black people).
One name is missing: Cynthia Erivo. She might earn double nominations for Best Actress and Best Original Song for the very hymn-like "Stand Up." She'll certainly sing it on the telecast and receive a standing ovation. And given it's very "Glory"-ish sound and feel, it might win.
Welcome to the Film Experience, Kyndall!
"Stand Up" from the movie "Harriet" is pretty amazing. If anyone can compete with Beyonce for amazing vocals, it's Cynthia Erivo.
Who the fuck keeps impersonating me?
Anyways, she won’t get the Oscar. It is what it is, and I couldn’t care less about it. What’s the value in a “major award” if it doesn’t award the defining and most important artists of our times? Awards need Beyoncé, not the other way around.
But “Spirit” is so bad!
I’m sorry, but Beyoncé and Elton John do not deserve to be nominated for the Oscar this year. Their songs had zero impact both within their films and outside of them. As great as it would be to see these performers sing on the telecast, that is not how the nominees are determined.
Right now I see:
Frozen 2 - “Into the Unknown”
Aladdin - “Speechless”
Wild Rose - “Glasgow (No Place Like Home)”
The Black Godfather - “Letter to My Godfather”
Cats - “Beautiful Ghosts” (assuming it delivers and Cats isn’t a total failure)
Runner-up: Insert Diane Warren Song here.
ceebee0714 -- i absolutely agree. loved that song so much and it is totally key to the film (which can't be said of so many contenders each year)
Jeff --- yeah. I like that song too. Erivo's voice is magnificent.
The song I liked the most so far in 2019 is "not me" from the lego movie 2.
Please gawd don’t suggest that awful Aladdin song might get nominated.
Something to note re: "Glasgow (No Place Like Home)" - Wild Rose is not featured on Neon's FYC materials (yet, at least) even though the distributor is putting forth almost all of their product from this year. I'm curious if there might be some kind of eligibility snag regarding the song if Neon isn't even doing this kind of bare minimum effort...
Beyonce and Taylor Swift? No thanks. Beyonce is overrated and Swift can't sing for shit and is a no-talent succubus.
Bjork alone has way more talent in her pinky toe than those 2 combine and that is a fact you dumbass entitled millennial little bitches.
Doesn’t Beyonce have a horrible reputation for demanding a songwriting credit on her pop tunes? She’s rumored to change one word/one line and then finagles a writer’s credit. Her receiving an award is a slap in the face to true songwriters.
I can almost feel the Academy doing the Gaga to Ervin in which they’d vote her the lesser of the two awards.
No no no- I hope this movie gets zero love from Oscar
And what ever happened to her movie career? She was suppose to be in Clint Eastwood's versio of "A Star is Born" but that never got made.
I’ll be happy for Bey (or Cynthia!) if she wins. Is “Spirit” a great song? I suppose that’s subjective, but I’m lukewarm on it. Her vocals are typically astounding though.
"Speechless" is winning. That's all.
TOM - nope! that's not true at all. And songwriting is so much more than writing lyrics, lol. If that were the case then any edgy kid on tumblr would be a great songwriter. writing melodies, harmonies, hooks, bridges, etc. etc.
IIRC BEYONCE was the one who took her name off of Listen's credits, because she felt she didn't really contribute enough to its writing.
Oh, that's true, I hadnt thought of it for some reason. Erivo's voice is magnificent.
dusty -- i also hate the Aladdin song but i think it's pretty likely to be a major contender nonetheless
thevoid99 -- you know there is a way to express opinions without name-calling and I really hope you try it soon. I love Bjork, too, but that kind of praising someone by belittling others really doesn't help the person you're trying to praise.
chris -- NOOOO that's horrible news. ugh. "glasgow" is amazing and I was hoping Steenburgen could get another Oscar nomination through it.
"While I’m not sure anyone is dying to see Webber—already a winner in this category— receive another,..."
What's the matter with winning more than one Oscar?
Meryl Streep -- You're everywhere! We don't want you here.
This was one of the coolest Oscar categories with some of the most memorable winners / nominees and has since become one of the most forgettable and uninteresting.
Just saying with Beyonce - I find to hard to believe that you can put her in a room and she'd be able to exit the room alone with a freshly written song. (I can picture EJohn and TSwift being able to do it). Seems in the past - Destiny's Child/solo career - a songwriter/s might submit a song to her consideration - part of the deal to record your song is to get a writing credit for her. Your lyric might include the word 'following,' she might change it to 'followin'' and, boom, she's now a co- creator of the song (and it's royalties). Seems that this rumor has been reported often enough.
Anon....what a fucking prick.
"Spirit" for the win. It can not be your cup of tea, but it ain't "bad".
The song is ok- they might nominate her so she can perform on the show and we know they need all the rating help they can get
Why, Morgan? Did I say something false?
Nah. You spoke your racism with precious precision. Fucking dick.
rooting for "Catchy Song" from The LEGO Movie 2
No, really. Love it.
You don't know what racism means, Morgan.
Supporting the victory of an artist just because he's black, that's not awarding merit.
I wanted to come here and be critical of the Beyoncé lovefest, because she's a talented huge star, not an artist (and she hardly thinks she is), but the brilliant banter between you all is more than enough for me to check out.