Sting is still the best - SOUNDS FAMILIAR by Baby Gil

The Best Male Pop Performance Award is only a notch or two below the top Grammy plums like the Record or Album of the Year awards. But for some reason or another, there seems to have been some sort of "conspiracy of silence" regarding Sting winning the trophy for his beautiful song She Walks This Earth (Soberana Rosa) from the album Brand New Day.

I didn’t catch the announcement of this particular category during the Grammy telecast nor did I see Sting accept his trophy. While news reports dwelt on how comebacking rock bands from the ’80s Steely Dan and U2 dominated the proceedings, Sting was hardly ever mentioned. Not alongside Macy Gray or Eminem and Faith Hill either. And when he was, it was only as part of the complete list of winners.

Can you imagine what the media reaction would have been had Latin idols Ricky Martin or Mark Anthony won? What about Don Henley of the Eagles who was obviously the sentimental favorite or the recent American Music Award winner Brian McKnight, who is only now coming to his own as a pop star. Perhaps it is because Sting already has several Grammys on his mantle as part of the Police and as a soloist. Too many perhaps that an additional one is no big news anymore.

At the Academy Awards Sting might have the chance to go up the stage and accept his first Oscar. My Funny Friend and Me, his song from the Disney animated flick The Emperor’s New Groove, shares the nominees’ list with A Love Before Time by Jorge Calandrelli/Tan Dun and James Schamus from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, I’ve Seen It All by Bjork from Dancer in the Dark, A Fool in Love by Randy Newman from Meet the Parents, and Things Have Changed by Bob Dylan from Wonder Boys.

Rock icon Dylan won the Best Original Song Written for Motion Pictures or Television category at the Golden Globe Awards with his Things Have Changed. Aside from Sting’s My Funny Friend and Me, the other nominees were Bjork’s I’ve Seen It All, One in a Million by Bosson from Miss Congeniality, and When You Come Back to Me by Garth Brooks from Frequency.

Is Dylan looking at his first Oscar trophy? Maybe. But the trend is not clear in as much as he lost at the Grammy Awards which gave the Best Song for Motion Picture, Television and Others trophy to Sarah McLachlan’s When She Loved Me from Toy Story 2. The other nominees here were The Great Beyond from Man on the Moon, Independent Women Part I from Charlie’s Angels and Save Me from Magnolia.

Sting’s Emperor New Groove soundtrack was released too late for the Grammy’s September deadline. That means he might still get a crack at his first song from a movie award in next year’s winners’ list. Now, the Disney movie faltered at the box-office but the music is the kind that lives on and on, more so the sweetly wistful My Funny Friend and Me.

The album also includes One Day She’ll Love Me, a lovely duet with the enchanting Shawn Colvin. Others included are Walk the Llama Llama by Rascal Flatts, Perfect World by the oh-so-enduring Tom Jones who is on his first Disney outing and Snuff Out the Light by the still so riveting Eartha Kitt. Sting also sings a Spanish version of My Funny Friend and Me.

Kiddies, who cannot seem to have their fill of things Disney and those pop buffs who collect Disney memorabilia will be glad to know that the soundtrack album of The Emperor’s New Groove includes a bonus VCD that contains the film’s trailer, a story featurette, a characters featurette, another featurette about the music composed by Sting and the music video of My Funny Friend and Me.

And if you want more of Sting, there is of course Brand New Day. This is also the album that contains They Dance Alone. This is the song that Sting wrote about the mothers of those who disappeared during the brutal regime of the former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet. They Dance Alone, which he also recorded in Spanish as Ellas Danzan Solas, has become a sort of anthem for those seeking justice for the victims and their families.