Strongman and seminary graduate N.C. Harrison reflects on a satisfying Academy Awards presentation that showcased the power of song.
The Academy Awards this year proved to be most interesting and satisfying. 12 Years a Slave, an important movie based on a historical narrative, was awarded the Oscar for best picture. Matthew McConaughey, who appeared in the equally moving film Dallas Buyers Club, walked away with the award for best actor and the always amazing Cate Blanchett, to whom I would probably listen as she read the telephone book in that smooth, refined accent, took a well-deserved Oscar for her turn in Blue Jasmine. Ellen DeGeneres, proving that Generation X’s low key, modest ethos is still alive and well, gently mocked herself the whole evening and ordered pizzas for the assembled Hollywood elite.
The Oscars ceremony was a good night for music lovers, too. It has been for the last couple of years. I have not yet seen the movie Skyfall (Roger Moore will always be my favorite James Bond, for a variety of reasons) but I adore the theme song and Adele in general. There has not been a singer of Bond themes that wonderful since Shirley Bisset, back in the films’ original heyday, and I am overjoyed that they have decided that she should since the next one, too. Mutual appreciation for “Skyfall,” furthermore, brought me closer in friendship to a wonderful young woman, for whom I care very much, and this definitely causes me to be just a little bit biased towards it.
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This year, though, was even better for me in some ways. “Let It Go,” from Disney’s Frozen, was awarded the Oscar for the best original song in a film for the year 2014. It is sung in the film, and was performed at the ceremony, by the amazing, incomparable Idina Menzel. I, unlike Vinnie Barbarino, am intimately familiar with this beautiful woman’s career and deeply in love with her voice.
The love affair began over a decade ago, when I was in high school. I come from a very musical family—at least the combination of my mother and I are—and we love musicals of all types. On Broadway, off-Broadway, old-timey Hollywood, we don’t much care–we’ll watch it or listen to it. During my eleventh grade year, our favorite happened to be Rent and we listened to the soundtrack pretty much non-stop. This also happened to be the time during which I was learning, or struggling to learn, rather, how to sing in harmony for a few small bluegrass/country shows that a friend of mine and I were performing at churches around. She taught me, using the songs “Living In America” and “The Tango Maureen.” I managed to figure it out, after hours of practice, and these remain some of my favorite memories to this day.
My favorite character in Rent was Maureen—subject of the aforementioned tango. She reminded me so much of a dear friend of mine, who was at that point in our school careers was well away from me geographically (in the days before Facebook, when we still asked one another out for the weekend with notes written on real paper…) so much that it made my heart ache. Their voices, and the largeness of their personalities, were so similar that I could listen to her songs and feel almost like my friend was right there beside me.
Maureen’s actress, Idina Menzel, charmed and fascinated me for the long haul, even after my friend and I were reunited with many hugs and tears, and I have followed her career ever since. Wicked is both one of my favorite books—calling it a fantasy novel doesn’t seem right, somehow—and one of my favorite musicals. Menzel’s voice, so strong and sure, but so vulnerable at the same time, reclaims one of the twentieth century’s greatest villains just as much, even more so, maybe, as the original novel. She becomes relatable, even in her madness and violence. Her strength is our strengths, her weakness our weakness.
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This is why I am glad that a long-time singer got to perform the song at the ceremony, instead of the younger and arguably “fresher” Demi Lovato. There’s nothing wrong with Lovato but I do not think that her rendition of it carries the weight of a long career full of struggle, personal and professional. The message of the song deals with the theme of overcoming and excelling in the face of adversity. There could not be a better song for young people dealing with bullies, difficulty in school, any rough patch or tough situation.
I haven’t a clue what the winning song will be at the Oscars next year, but if this trend continues I know that I am looking forward to it. Keep encouraging the beautiful music, people, and bring back Ellen to host again. Sigh. If loving her is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.
Photo–Flickr/maja