As Deadline broke Monday, Beyoncé has now been officially confirmed to sing in one of the slots of Best Original Song contenders on the 94th Oscars on Sunday. As noted in the Deadline article, speculation is her performance of the nominated song (co-written with Dixson) called “Be Alive” from King Richard will take place via satellite from a Compton tennis court. That aspect, however, was not in the Academy’s long-awaited announcement today of plans for the Best Song presentations on the ABC Oscarcast.
As my colleague Mike Fleming noted, the formal announcement would come after voting closed Tuesday, and indeed it did — exactly at 5 p.m. PT, which is the same moment ballots had to be in to PricewaterhouseCoopers. The campaign is over. All that is left now is the show itself.
The Best Song performance lineup as expected also includes Billie Eilish and Finneas with “No Time To Die,” Reba McEntire with “Somehow You Do” from Four Good Days, and Sebastian Yatra with “Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto. Like Beyoncé, all of them performed the nominated songs in the films they are featured in.
Academy producers Will Packer and Shayla Cowan made the announcement today and noted that Van Morrison, who wrote and sang the other nominated tune, “Down to Joy” from Belfast, will not be attending the Oscars due to his touring schedule, so the song won’t be performed at all. That seems to be a modern-day rule with Academy Awards producers: If the original artist can’t be there, then the song won’t be part of the show other than as a nominee. You might recall that wasn’t always the case. Who can forget Connie Stevens singing Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die”? Or Telly Savalas crooning Cinderella Liberty’s “Nice To Be Around”?
Not in the Academy’s release about these Best Song performances: “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” the surprise Lin-Manuel Miranda smash hit (like his “Dos Oruguitas” also from Encanto), will also be part of the show in a big production number, reliable sources confirm to Deadline. Even though it wasn’t submitted for a nomination (it almost assuredly would have made the cut in retrospect), how can we not talk about “Bruno” on the Oscars, which is aiming for popular entertainment this year to boost ratings?
In addition to Animated Feature and Original Song, Encanto is also nominated for Germaine Franco’s Original Music Score, one of the eight categories controversially selected to be presented in the hour before the ABC telecast and then edited into the show. Also among those nominated for score is Hans Zimmer for Dune, but he, like Morrison, won’t be at the Oscars to see if he wins because he also is on tour with his own show and will be on stage in Amsterdam on Sunday.
This year’s Original Song nominees and performers are as follows (in alphabetical order by song title):
- “Be Alive” from King Richard – Performed by Beyoncé
Music and Lyric by DIXSON and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter - “Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto – Performed by Sebastián Yatra
Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda - “Down To Joy” from Belfast
Music and Lyric by Van Morrison - “No Time To Die” from No Time to Die – Performed by Billie Eilish and FINNEAS
Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell - “Somehow You Do” from Four Good Days – Performed by Reba McEntire
Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
The 94th Oscars are Sunday at the Dolby Theatre and will be televised live on ABC at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT and in more than 200 territories worldwide. American Sign Language (ASL) provided by Certified Deaf Interpreters, live closed captioning and audio description will be available during the live broadcast.