Eminem wins an Oscar

Best actor winner Adrienne Brody of The Pianist was not the only surprise winner at the recent Academy Awards. The bigger or maybe I should say, the biggest surprise of them all is rapper Eminem’s song Lose Yourself which won in the Best Original Song category. Lose Yourself was used in the movie 8 Mile where Eminem also made his acting debut with Kim Basinger playing his mother.

The song was also nominated at the Golden Globes but it lost out to The Hands That Built America by U2 from the movie Gangs of New York. With mostly everybody in the US of A in a patriotic mood these past weeks, the U2 song already looked like a sure winner. If not that, there were also the other nominees like Burn It Blue from Frida, Father and Daughter from The Wild Thornberrys and I Move On, a new song composed expressly for the movie version of Best Picture winner Chicago.

This means that not only has the controversial Eminem acquired acceptance in the Hollywood community. They may not like or understand the guy but they certainly cannot deny that he is very talented. One thing more: the Oscar win also means that this time around Eminem was able to put one over pop music great U2 and the legendary Paul Simon who composed and performed Father and Daughter.

Simon himself was on hand to sing Father and Daughter at the Academy Awards ceremonies held last Sunday evening at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. But not Eminem. Lose Yourself was the only nominee that was not performed live in the program. Maybe it was because Eminem was unable to attend and the producers could not just get any other rapper to sub for him. Rap is something very personal and that would be like putting the words of another in the mouth of the performers. Rappers, the real ones, cannot compromise themselves that way.

Or maybe – and this is the bigger maybe – it was simply because Oscar chickened out of having a rap tune performed in the hallowed sanctum of its own theater. Save for some recent exceptions like Bob Dylan who won for a song he mumbled, the title of which I cannot remember anymore, the taste in music of most Academy members is decidedly mainstream. In fact, it was already a miracle that Eminem got into the list of nominees. Then to the surprise of the Academy, he won.

Truth to tell when presentor Barbra Streisand started talking about how open the Academy is about new trends in music and that the likes of Eminem can in fact be nominated, anybody watching the show could have already guessed that Lose Yourself would be the winner. This development is very good for Oscar’s image. It shows that although the much-coveted award is already 75 years old, Oscar is still hip and very much in step with the times.

On the other hand though, what would have made the evening truly groundbreaking was the presence of Eminem. There should be no excuses for absences except in the case of Best Director Roman Polanski who could have been hauled off to jail on very old sexual assault charges had he shown up. You create something for a movie, you get nominated at the Oscars, you show up at the awards. The Academy should have walked that extra mile and hauled Eminem to the theater and up the stage to do his winning song. But maybe it was Eminem who chickened out, feeling certain he will lose.

Hippy revivals

Speaking of being hip, the Lobby Lounge of the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel has been offering only the hippest revival sounds every Friday this month. You can still catch the last of the series tonight, March 28 with the famous Route 70.

Relive the glory days of the ’60s and ’70s with the music of Route 70. Led by composer and arranger Dingdong Eduque of Hold On and Set You Free fame, the band dishes out the best Motown soul, sentimental ballads and tunes to dance to from those old but now very hip eras.

Joining Dingdong are guitarist Butch Elizalde of the Music & Magic, vocalist Toots Almazan of the Family Birth Control Band, girl singer Kearney Lising of Mulatto, plis Dante Remigio on bass, Benzon Ang on drums, Danny Favis on keyboards, Danny Romasanta on trumpet and Oscar Hernandez on trombone. Dingdong also did the band circuit in the ’80s with the Manila Band.

For inquiries and reservations please call 634-7373 or 633-8888 extensions 2738 or 2739.