There hasn’t been a year in recent memory when the Best Song nominations category was so packed with quality, and the Academy Awards took full advantage on Sunday night’s awards ceremony telecast with performances of all of them. The night saw strong showings from U2, Pharrell Williams, Karen O with Ezra Koenig, Pink, and lastly Idina Menzel, who performed “Let It Go,” the song that took home the Oscar for Best Original Song.
Right, right, it’s not the Grammys, so the night surely wasn’t all about the music. But in the midst of the deflation of Ellen DeGeneres pulling her scriptless stunts such as ordering pizzas and taking selfies in the crowd, the handful of musical performances were grand triggers of emotion that served the arc of intensity a number of the nominated films – and the award offerings accompanying them – provided. Let’s take a walk through the highlights, and sidestep the lowlights, as the world recaps their Oscars experience today – expand each video for full viewing enjoyment.
Pharrell Williams: “Happy” from Despicable Me 2
It’s all about his hat, of course, but in the spirit of the 75th anniversary tribute to the Wizard of Oz, Pharrell also donned sparkly red shoes for the mind-tick song. Williams knows how to wow a crowd, taking to the stage amidst rows of gigantic Oscar statues before being joined by a troupe of wildly cheerful dancers. Only Pharrell could pull off what came next, as the smooth operator descended into the audience and engaged in quick dance-party moments with top nominated ladies Amy Adams, Lupita Nyong’o and Meryl Streep, who all reacted as if they’d rehearsed this for days.
Karen O and Ezra Koenig: “The Moon Song” from Her
Why was the Vampire Weekend singer a part of this? The achingly gorgeous little ukulele ditty from the film was translated to acoustic guitar for the performance, which came off lovely if a little understated in a night of enormous over-the-top production. It’s certainly the most elegant we’ve seen Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs look, that’s for sure.
U2: “Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
A big projection of Nelson Mandela’s face was a distraction from the performance, which itself was a stripped performance of the inferior recorded version. U2’s single most-watched performance ever arrived as understated and, sadly, underwhelming. The band have a new album on the horizon and a world of do-or-die hype to accompany it, so while this particular performance was… nice, it didn’t exactly get us amped for what’s to come.
Pink: “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”
We could’ve all gone the rest of our lives without hearing yet another melodramatic rekindling of this tune, but Pink stepped up for the 75th anniversary celebration of the Wizard of Oz in an elegant open-chested gown inspired by those famous ruby slippers. Sadly, unlike her Grammys performances there were no wires attached to send her up into an acrobatic reenactment of the tornado scene that steals Dorothy and Toto out of Kansas. There wasn’t much soul to her performance either, but it was nevertheless a pleasant run through a song that needs to go away forever.
Idina Menzel: “Let It Go” from Frozen
The musical-theater star did what she does best, and shamed a generation of lesser-thans (here’s looking at you, Demi Lovato) with a nearly flawless rendition of the immensely difficult Oscar-winning track from the year’s biggest animated film, Frozen. Little kids in living rooms around the world sang along in their pajamas as Menzel embodied the charm and soaring elegance of the track.
Yeah, Bette Midler sang “Wind Beneath My Wings,” but the experience was so godawful that we’re just leaving it alone.
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
