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H.E.R. is coming to Broadway … Well, a show she’s producing is. She’s joining the producing team of “Here Lies Love,” which tells the story of Imelda Marcos, the former First Lady of the Philippines and the mother of current president Bongbong Marcos. The show opens July 20 and will be eligible for Tony Awards in 2024. If it wins Best Musical, H.E.R. will achieve Egot. What’s more, she’d achieve it faster and younger than anyone else in history.

SEEPatina Miller (‘Into the Woods’) on how motherhood helped her understand what The Witch is ‘fighting for’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

The R&b singer-songwriter is still only 25-years-old, but she already has an impressive awards resume. She broke through at the 2019 Grammys where she was nominated for Album of the Year and Best New Artist and won Best R&b Performance and Best R&b Album. Altogether she has won five Grammys out of 25 nominations,...

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages are Davis’ assessment of the current standings of the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any film or performance. Like any organization or body that votes, each individual category is fluid and subject to change. Predictions are updated every Thursday.

Last Updated: Feb. 12, 2023

2023 Oscars Predictions: Best Original Song Rrr, (aka Rise Roar Revolt), from left: N.T. Rama Rao Jr., Ram Charan, 2022. © Raftar Creations /Courtesy Everett Collection

Category Commentary: Rihanna soared (literally) during the Super Bowl Halftime Show.

The high-flying spectacle (which also revealed a surprise pregnancy) comprised the musician’s biggest chart-toppers such as “Umbrella” and “Diamonds.” Notably not sung was her Oscar-nominated song...

Beyonce’s ‘Renaissance’ Album Cover (Photo by Carlijn Jacobs)

Beyoncé topped the list of The 65th Annual Grammy Awards nominees, earning nine nominations including Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year. The nine nominations move Beyoncé into a tie with Jay-Z for the most-nominated artist. Both artists have been nominated for 88 Grammys.

Kendrick Lamar picked up eight nominations followed by Adele and Brandi Carlile with seven. Mary J. Blige, DJ Khaled, Future, Terius “The-Dream” Gesteelde-Diamant, Randy Merrill, and Harry Styles each earned six nominations.

“Celebrating the miracle of music is at the core of everything we do at the Recording Academy and today we are proud and honored to celebrate music’s power to lift people up and to bring them together,” said Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of The Recording Academy. “I’m energized by this year’s slate of nominees and how each...

The import of crafting an original song for “Till,” director and co-writer Chinonye Chukwu’s heart-wrenching biopic on the execution of Emmett Till and the quest for justice led by his mother, Mamie, was never lost on Jazmine Sullivan and Dernst “D’Mile’ Emile II, the songwriters, performer and producer, respectively, of “Stand Up.” Soon to be submitted for Academy Awards consideration, “Stand Up” was released on Oct. 7, as the film, “Till,” expands with its broad theatrical release planned for Oct 21.

The lineage of “Stand Up” is beyond stellar.

The emotional depth-defying vocals and songwriting skills of Sullivan won her 2022 Grammys for best R&b performance (“Pick Up Your Feelings”) and best R&b album (“Heaux Tales”). Equally emotive when it comes to crafting melody, D’Mile became the first songwriter in Grammy history to win song of the year two years in a row with H.E.R.’s “I Can’t...

Grammy-winner Jazmine Sullivan has teamed up with Grammy and Oscar-winning songwriter Dernst “D’Mile’ Emile II for a possible Oscar contender for best original song. Variety has exclusively learned the song “Stand Up,” which will be featured in Orion and United Artists Releasing’s upcoming drama “Till,” will be submitted for Academy Awards consideration. The song will be released on Oct. 7.

Written by Sullivan and D’Mile, the end-credits song captures the moving spirit of the harrowing true story of Mamie Till Mobley (Danielle Deadwyler) and her relentless pursuit of justice after her 14-year-old son Emmett Till (Jalyn Hill) is lynched in 1955.

Performed by Sullivan, who appears courtesy of RCA Records, knows the importance of bringing this story to life. “I’m honored to be able to contribute to such a powerful film about such a historic and tragic moment in American history,” Sullivan says. “I believe that part of my...

The Grammy Awards took place on Sunday night, April 3, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, but it took a while to get to the main event. Originally scheduled for January, the ceremony was pushed back more than two months as the result of the winter surge of Covid-19 cases due to the omicron variant. So who took home prizes when they were finally handed out? Scroll down for the complete list in all 86 categories from Record of the Year all the way down to Best Music Film.

These awards honor the best recording achievements released during the eligibility period of September 2020 through September 2021, and for the first time in more than two decades the nominations were decided in almost all categories by Recording Academy members without anonymous, controversial nomination review committees acting as unaccountable intermediaries to make the final judgments. The result was a list led...

The songs in the running for the 2022 Best Original Song Oscar are “Down to Joy” (“Belfast”), “Dos Oruguitas” (“Encanto”), “Somehow You Do” (“Four Good Days”), “Be Alive” (“King Richard”), and “No Time to Die” (“No Time to Die”). Our current odds show that “No Time to Die” (82/25) is favored to win, followed in order by “Dos Oruguitas” (18/5), “Be Alive” (9/2), “Down to Joy” (9/2), and “Somehow You Do” (9/2).

Five of the seven individual songwriters included in this year’s lineup are first-time Oscar nominees, with Diane Warren (“Somehow You Do”) standing out as the only female veteran. All 12 of her past bids, beginning with one for “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” (“Mannequin”) in 1988, have been unsuccessful. She has now been nominated in seven of the last eight years, with her most recent loss having been to D’Mile, H.E.R., and Tiara Thomas’s (“Fight for You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah”) last year.

Image Source: Grey Goose x The Recording Academy

JoJo is a powerhouse. Whether you're a continued fan from her "Leave (Get Out)" days, you're a new listener, or she hasn't been on your radar, there are plenty of reasons you should listen to her latest body of work on repeat. JoJo recently spoke to Popsugar about touring to support her "Trying Not to Think About It" EP; what makes her fiancé, Dexter Darden, her "safe place"; and her Monday Mix performance in collaboration with Grey Goose and the 2022 Grammys.

The 31-year-old singer is in the midst of her "favorite touring experience" of her life with an EP that is very vulnerable. "I've missed touring over the last few years, and I'm so thankful to have the opportunity to connect with live audiences again," JoJo shares. "Trying Not to Think About It" was a project that allowed her to stay true...

Surprises dotted the visual media categories at Tuesday morning’s Grammy Awards nomination announcements, with television dominating the original-score category but new movies ruling the compilation-soundtrack list.

As expected, H.E.R. was nominated for best song written for visual media for “Fight for You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah,” which won the Oscar earlier this year. Her fellow Oscar nominee, Leslie Odom Jr.’s “Speak Now” from “One Night in Miami,” was also nominated.

H.E.R. and her fellow “Fight for You” songwriters Dernst Emile II (aka D’Mile) and Tiara Thomas also notched a song of the year nomination, and H.E.R. earned a nod in the traditional R&b performance category for that song.

Three of the six song nominees were from television projects: the Emmy-winning “Agatha All Along” from “WandaVision,” “All Eyes on Me” from “Inside Bo Burnham” and “All I Know So Far” from the Pink documentary by that title.

Nominees for the 63rd annual Grammy Awards were announced Tuesday and they include Billie Eilish, Doja Cat and Olivia Rodrigo. Top honors went out to Jon Baptiste who earned a total of 11 nominations.

The reveal by the Recording Academy came as the organization expanded the lists of nominees to 10 in marquee categories Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist.

Among the nominees, Eilish returns with seven nominees — the same number she swept wins for in 2020. Batiste, who is known for his role on CBS’ The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, scored the most noms today after coming off an Oscar Score win earlier this year for Soul alongside Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

The Grammys return to Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena (fka Staples Center) on January 31, 2022, and will broadcast live on CBS and stream live and on-demand on Paramount+ at 8-11:30 p.

The 64th Annual Grammy Awards nominations were announced on Tuesday, November 23, at 9:00am Pacific/Noon Eastern, honoring the year’s best achievements in music, spoken word, comedy and more. These awards recognize recordings released from September 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021 — a 13-month eligibility period as the recording academy readjusts its calendar. Scroll down to see who made the cut.

SEEEverything to know about Grammys 2022

There were major changes in how these nominees were decided. Chief among those was the elimination of the nomination review committees. For decades those committees would take the top 15 or 20 vote-getters in their categories and decide which would be the final nominees. Those secret, anonymous panels often produced surprising results: this past year The Weeknd was shut out entirely. He decided to boycott the awards, joining in a chorus of music stars who have criticized the voting process. Some of the criticisms even came from inside the house,...

Warner Records will issue the soundtrack for actress Halle Berry’s directorial debut film “Bruised” on Nov. 19. The Netflix feature — which Berry also stars in as a disgraced M.M.A. fighter — debuts on the streamer on Nov. 24, after a limited one-week run in theaters.

“I can’t wait to show it,” Berry tells Variety. “I have to tell you, one of the things I’m most excited about is the title song that H.E.R. sang… and she killed it. So I can’t wait to share with everyone and am super excited.”

Hand-selected by executive producers Berry and Cardi B, the film’s soundtrack features six original songs by award-winning and multi-platinum female artists, including Cardi B (“Bet It”), Saweetie (“Attitude”), City Girls (“Scared”), H.E.R. (“Automatic Woman”), Flo Milli (“Blast Off”) and Latto (“Tha Fuck”). The tracks by H.E.R. and City Girls, both prominently featured...

Who will win the Grammy Award for Song of the Year when it’s handed out in 2022? It’s the recording academy’s biggest prize for songwriting and often diverges from Record of the Year, which goes to the performing artist, producers, engineers, and mixers of a particular single or track. So which compositions should we look out for in this year’s race?

Updated: August 31, 2021

Leading Contenders

“Bad Habits” by Ed Sheeran

Label: Asylum

Release Date: June 25, 2021

Songwriters: Ed Sheeran, Johnny McDaid, Fred Gibson

“Damage” by H.E.R.

Album: “Back of My Mind”

Label: RCA

Release Date: October 21, 2020

Songwriters: Anthony Clemens Jr., Carl McCormick, H.E.R., James Harris, Terry Lewis, Tiara Thomas

“Drivers License” by Olivia Rodrigo

Album: “Sour”

Label: Geffen/Interscope

Release Date: January 8, 2021

Songwriters: Olivia Rodrigo, Daniel Nigro

“Forever After All” by Luke Combs

Album: “What You See Ain’t Always What You Get”

Label: River House,...

‘Cruella’, ‘Judas And The Black Messiah’ and ‘Minari’ composers have all been nominated.

The World Soundtrack Awards has unveiled the first nominations for its 2021 edition, which will take place in its traditional slot as the closing event of Film Fest Ghent on October 23.

The ceremony is scheduled as a physical event this year and will be held at the opera house in Ghent for the first time.

Nicholas Britell, Daniel Pemberton and Emile Mosseri have received two nominations each.

Nainita Desai has benefitted from a rule change that sees documentary scores now eligible for all film score categories. Desai is...

Composers Atli Örvarsson, Mark Mothersbaugh and Mark Isham led the list of winners announced Monday for the annual BMI Film, TV & Visual Media Awards, with the three scorers picking up six, five and four trophies, respectively.

Örvarsson, the Icelandic composer, is now up to 29 BMI honors with the six he adds this week. His new shelf’s worth of awards came for work on “Chicago P.D.,” “Chicago Med,” “Chicago Fire,” “FBI,” “FBI: Most Wanted” and “Defending Jacob.”

Mark Mothersbaugh, of Devo as well as scoring fame, was five-times rewarded for “Dirty John,” “What We Do in the Shadows,” “The Willoughbys,” “The Croods: A New Age” and “Tiger King.”

Mark Isham’s four awards came for “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Honest Thief,” “Little Fires Everywhere” and “Togo.”

“I’m not that much of an awards guy, but even I’m impressed — four BMI awards,” Isham said in a taped acceptance speech.

Judas and the Black Messiah director-producer and co-scribe Shaka King, producers Ryan Coogler and Charles D. King and star Lil Rel Howery are collaborating on an untitled original movie centering around an American political insurrection.

King will direct and also produce along side Coogler’s Proximity label and Charles D. King’s MacRo alongside Howery. Details are being kept secret, however, Shaka King will be part of the writing team which he is currently assembling. EPs are Proximity Media’s Sev Ohanian and Zinzi Coogler; MacRo’s Poppy Hanks and Greta Fuentes; and Brandon Harris.

MacRo/Proximity/Warner Bros.’ Judas and the Black Messiah received six Oscar noms including Best Picture, and won for Daniel Kaluuya’s turn as Black Panthers chairman Fred Hampton and the original song “Fight for You” from H.E.R., D’Mile and Tiara Thomas. The pic repped the first time in history that an all-Black producing team...

While in conversation with Variety Senior Artisans Editor Jazz Tangcay at Wednesday’s Changemakers Summit, H.E.R. talked about her music, her identity as she straddles both the Black and Filipino communities and her plans for an eventual E.G.Ot.

She also went into the making of her award-winning protest song “I Can’t Breathe,” which she wrote in response to the recent police killings of unarmed Black people. She partnered with fellow singer, songwriter and frequent collaborator Tiara Thomas, sending over a voice memo with an initial idea for the song.

“’I Can’t Breathe’ just kind of happened when we started asking ourselves questions like, ‘How do we cope when we don’t love each other? What is a gun to a man that surrenders when it’s right in front of your face?’”

Later that year, filmmaker Shaka King approached her to write the end credit song...

At the 93rd Academy Awards, songwriter Diane Warren made the wrong kind of history, losing out in her 12th bid for Best Original Song.

With her loss last night, Warren became the most-nominated woman in the history of the Oscars to have never won. But she is nonetheless taking it all in stride.

“Ok so I lost again but U know what was the hugest win?? Feeling more love and support than I have ever felt in my life,” she wrote on Facebook. “Thank U everyone in my movie music community who voted for this song, U are the best of the best and whenever U choose a song of mine it is huge huge honor that I don’t take lightly and that I am deeply grateful for. Thank U everyone for all the kind and lovely words of support, it means more than any statue.”

On Instagram, Warren...

It’s been a good couple of months for R&b singer-songwriter H.E.R. She surprised us by winning Song of the Year at the Grammys on March 14 for her Black Lives Matter protest anthem “I Can’t Breathe.” Then on April 25 she followed that up by surprising us again: she won Best Song at the Oscars for “Fight for You,” another righteous song from the Black Panthers docudrama “Judas and the Black Messiah.”

SEE2021 Oscar winners list in all 23 categories

H.E.R. was a Grammy favorite from the moment of her career breakthrough, earning five nominations in 2019 including Best New Artist. And in just three years she has amassed 13 nominations and four wins, two of which were this year, and both of which surprised most of our users who made predictions at Gold Derby: Best R&b Song for “Better Than I Imagined” and Song of the Year for...

There were high hopes for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)’ 93rd Academy Awards ceremony. For the first time in history, nearly half of the nominees in acting categories were people of color, and 70 women were nominated across all 23 categories. These were unprecedented numbers for an awards show that has existed for nearly a century. While some of this change resulted from AMPAS’ Academy Aperture 2020 Diversity Initiative (A2020) and the Tarana Burke-founded #MeToo Movement, the events of 2020 also shook Hollywood to its core.

As the world shuttered in early 2020 amid the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, we found new ways to connect through cinema. Stories like Sophia Nahli Allison’s “A Love Song for Latasha” and Garrett Bradley’s “Time” became easily accessible to audiences worldwide. There was also a racial reckoning in the final months of a tumultuous presidential administration, giving rise to a second Civil Rights Movement.

The 2021 Oscars were presented on Sunday night, April 25, and after such an unpredictable year, thousands of Gold Derby users actually did a pretty good job of predicting the winners. Our collective odds were correct in 18 out of 23 categories. That means our hive mind was only wrong five times. So let’s take a look at the races we got wrong, and check out the complete list of winners here.

SEE2021 Oscar winners list in all 23 categories

Best Actress: Frances McDormand (“Nomadland”) — ranked fourth with 4/1 odds

Normally it wouldn’t be surprising when the star of the Best Picture winner also wins for acting, but the way the awards season was going this was a somewhat confounding result. “Nomadland” won Best Picture at the Golden Globes, but McDormand Best Actress lost to Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”). Then “Nomadland” won at the Critics Choice Awards, but McDormand lost...

It has been another strange and uncertain year for Hollywood, with the pandemic hitting cinemas hard and streaming services rising to hold the fort. It has also been a year in which we’ve seen a growing diversity in front of, and behind the camera, with an increasing focus on new voices and new stories being told.

Last year saw Bong Joon-ho ‘s Parasite achieve Oscar greatness and, for a brief pre-covid moment, it seemed that the world of cinema was beginning to embrace a wider world. The 2021 BAFTAs showed signs this was continuing with Minari, Another Round and Promising Young Woman taking home a clutch of awards each.

This year’s American Academy Awards will be a strange affair, certainly one to remember.

Here is the full list of nominations with Winners in bold.

Best Picture

“The Father” (Sony Pictures Classics)

“Judas and the Black Messiah” (Warner Bros.)

“Mank...

What was marketed as “what if the Oscars were a movie?” — the end result was more like, “What if the Oscars were a glossy version of the Golden Globes but with more Black people in attendance?”

In an unconventional year, the Oscars delivered an unconventional ceremony, making history, and even rearranging the show so that the biggest prize of best picture wasn’t handed out last. This small tweak undid an aesthetically rich ceremony and made it into a jaw-dropping and ill-advised decision to end the evening on best actress and actor, which saw Frances McDormand win her third acting (and fourth overall after winning best picture) for “Nomadland,” and Anthony Hopkins winning his second Oscar for “The Father” over presumed frontrunner Chadwick Boseman for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

I sounded the alarms early on that Hopkins and “The Father” were surging in the middle of final Oscars voting. To...

After all the talk about the unexpected and unpredictable, the 93rd Academy Awards delivered with surprise wins in the lead actor categories for Anthony Hopkins and Frances McDormand. Another shocker was that best picture was not announced last — they saved the lead acting categories for that.

Also surprising was how smoothly the ceremony went with some big changes. There was a new location (Union Station) and a revolving audience. Many presenters spoke from the audience. And it actually worked.

As expected, history was made when Chloé Zhao won best director for her work on “Nomadland,” which also won best picture. Both supporting actor categories corresponded with the SAG Award winners, with Yuh-jung Youn of “Minari” and Daniel Kaluuya of “Judas and the Black Messiah” taking home trophies.

Here are some of the surprises and snubs throughout the night:

Snub: “The Trial of the Chicago 7”

Aaron Sorkin’s acclaimed film,...

When Mia Neal, Jamika Wilson and Sergio Lopez-Rivera won the Oscar on Sunday for Best Makeup and Hairstyling for their work on Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Neal and Wilson became the first Black women to win the honor. When Neal took the stage at Union Station to accept the award, she used the opportunity to give shine to other Black, Asian, Latinx, Indigenous, queer, trans and everyone in the margins, saying of her monumental win: “One day it won’t be unusual or groundbreaking, it’ll just be normal.”

That describes the energy when it comes to diversity in film and TV as of late. As Hollywood and the Oscars attempt to move into a space of inclusivity and authentic representation, we celebrate “firsts,” but as people in the margins have said and will continue to say: “We still have a long way to go.” The real question is:...

Seventy women representing a record 76 Oscar nominations translated to a record number of female wins Sunday with 17 awards, beating a previous high of 15 set in 2019 and running the gamut from Best Director and Best Picture to Original Screenplay, Animated Film and Original Song.

The 2019 Oscars, for films out in 2018, had the same number of women winners but fewer awards. Two of the nominees, Chloé Zhao and Frances McDormand took home two awards each — all for Nomadland. This year’s awards were also more prominent. Winners from both years included the two acting awards.

“What an incredible night full of firsts for women,” said Kirsten Schaffer, executive director of Women In Film, LA, calling the night “a great celebration of talent and an inspiration for all of the women who work in the screen industries especially those behind the camera.”

“Fifteen women won 17 awards tonight with the first time for Black women in hair and makeup,...

The 93rd annual Academy Awards were handed out tonight, and in a departure from Oscar history, the Best Picture category was not saved for last. Instead, Searchlight’s Nomadland went home with the night’s marquee prize, and its star Frances McDormand took Best Actress, hours after the film’s Chloé Zhao made history as the first woman of color to win Best Director.

Anthony Hopkins won Best Actor for The Father in something of an upset over the late Chadwick Boseman of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

2021 Oscar Winners Backstage — Photo Gallery

Nomadland was the only three-time winner at the ceremony, with The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah, Mank, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Sound of Metal and Soul as the other multiple winners.

On the studio side, Netflix more than doubled up on the competition with seven wins — two each for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Mank,...

Best Picture

Nomadland

The Father

Judas and the Black Messiah

Mank

Minari

Promising Young Woman

Sound of Metal

The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Actor

Anthony Hopkins – The Father

Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal

Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Gary Oldman – Mank

Steven Yeun – Minari

Best Actress

Frances McDormand – Nomadland

Viola Davis – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Andra Day – The United States vs. Billie Holiday

Vanessa Kirby – Pieces of a Woman

Carey Mulligan – Promising Young Woman

Best Supporting Actor

Daniel Kaluuya – Judas and the Black Messiah

Sacha Baron Cohen...

Chloé Zhao takes home two prizes, for directing and producing “Nomadland”

Women roared at the 93rd Academy Awards on Sunday, picking up a record 17 trophies — the most in Oscar history. With 30 male winners this year, that means women earned 36% of the statuettes handed out in the 23 competitive categories.

This year’s prizes topped last year when one third of the 39 winners were women — and 2019, when 15 of the 54 winners were women (or 27.8%). and “Nomandland” Best Director winner Chloe Zhao were part of the five-person producing team on the film, along with Mollye Asher.

Other wins for women outside the acting category included:

• Emerald Fennell, for her original screenplay “Promising Young Woman”

• Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson, who became the first Black women to win for best makeup and hairstyling, for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”

• H.E.R. and lyricist Tiara Thomas for their original song “Fight for You” for “Judas and the Black Messiah”

• Dana Murray,...

In one of the only upsets of the evening, “Fight for You,” H.E.R.’s end-title theme for “Judas and the Black Messiah,” won the best song Academy Award Sunday night.

The 23-year-old singer-songwriter was clearly shocked by the win but thanked her parents, noting, “those days of listening to Sly and the Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye — they really paid off!”

The soul-flavored song by the singer and her co-writers, D’Mile and Tiara Thomas, featured under the end titles of the historical Black Panthers story. It came as a surprise to many, as “Speak Now,” from “One Night in Miami,” “Io Si” from “The Life Ahead,” and “Husavik” from “Eurovision Song Contest” had generally been thought to be the front runners.

The song’s ’70s soul style perfectly matched the period of the film and the Fred Hampton story being told. It was one of three...

“Fight for You” is taking home Oscar’s best original song at the 93rd ceremony from the Warner Bros. movie Judas and the Black Messiah.

H.E.R. preformed the song during the Pre-show, behind a drum kit before she took center stage to perform. She was ultimately backed by a band including brass, guitars, back-up vocals which in sum created a ’60s vibe. The whole set was intercut with quotes from Black Panthers Chicago chairman Fred Hampton whose image was splashed on the floor. Judas and the Black Messiah is up for five Oscars including Best Picture. The pic has already won Best Supporting actor tonight for Daniel Kaluuya’s turn as Hampton. “Fight for You” had music by H.E.R. and Dernst Emile II and lyrics by H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas.

H.E.R. adds an Oscar to her trophy case of two Grammys which she won...

Molly Sanden may not be a household name, but she just beat out several other A-listers in our recent poll that asked 2021 Oscars viewers to vote for the best performance on the pre-show. The Swedish pop star took on the song “Husavik” from “Eurovision Song Contest” (watch above), stepping in for Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams who memorably performed it during the Netflix movie. She tops our poll results with 64%, more than four times her closest competitor. Here’s a closer look at the poll results:

64% — Molly Sanden (“Husavik”)

14% — H.E.R. (“Fight for You”)

11% — Leslie Odom Jr. (“Speak Now”)

11% — Laura Pausini (“Io Si: Seen”)

0% — Celeste and Daniel Pemberton (“Hear My Voice”)

See Everything to know about the 2021 Oscars

For the first time in Academy Awards history, performances for the five Best Song nominees were recorded in advance and shown during ABC’s Oscars pre-show. Blame a combination of Covid-19 safety protocols...

Things are of course very different this year, and all performances for the Academy Award nominees for Best Original Song were performed during the preshow, which began at 6:30 p.m. Et., rather than being interspersed and performed live during the Oscars event at Union Station in Los Angeles.

The nominees for Best Original Song span H.E.R.’s soulful anthem from Judas and the Black Messiah to Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams’ melodramatically hilarious track from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. Songwriter Diane Warren, who has yet to win an Oscar,...

Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony was historic in more ways than one, making the 441-day wait for the 93rd Academy Awards well worth it.

“The Father” star Anthony Hopkins nabbed actor, Frances McDormand (“Nomadland”) took home the actress prize, Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Black Messiah”) won for supporting actor and “Minari’s” Yuh-Jung Youn claimed supporting actress, becoming the first Korean actor to do so. Nine actors of color earned Academy Award nominations — an Oscar record for diversity in those categories — but only two won. Additionally, more women were nominated in 2021 than in any previous year.

“Nomadland’s” Chloé Zhao made history as well, becoming the second woman and the first woman of color to win an Oscar for directing. The film also won best picture.

Unlike other awards shows during the Covid-19 pandemic, Hollywood’s biggest night was held in person, and televised live on ABC from the...

“Fight For You” from Judas and the Black Messiah took home the Academy Award for best original song during the 2021 Oscars Sunday night.

H.E.R.’s song beat out fellow nominees “Husavik” from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga; “lo Sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se); “Speak Now” from One Night in Miami and “Hear My Voice” from The Trial of the Chicago 7.

H.E.R. — whose real name is Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson — collaborated with D’Mile and Tiara Thomas for the “Fight for You” anthem. During her ...

“Fight For You” from Judas and the Black Messiah took home the Academy Award for best original song during the 2021 Oscars Sunday night.

H.E.R.’s song beat out fellow nominees “Husavik” from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga; “lo Sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se); “Speak Now” from One Night in Miami and “Hear My Voice” from The Trial of the Chicago 7.

H.E.R. — whose real name is Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson — collaborated with D’Mile and Tiara Thomas for the “Fight for You” anthem. During her ...

For the first time in Academy Awards history, performances for the five Best Song nominees were recorded in advance and shown during ABC’s Oscars pre-show. They were: Celeste and Daniel Pemberton (“Hear My Voice” from “The Trial of the Chicago 7”), H.E.R. (“Fight for You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah”), Leslie Odom Jr. (“Speak Now” from “One Night in Miami”), Laura Pausini and Diane Warren (“Io Si: Seen” from “The Life Ahead”) and Molly Sanden (“Husavik” from “Eurovision Song Contest”). So who gave the best 2021 Oscars performance? Vote in our poll below.

SEEEverything to know about the 2021 Oscars

This year’s group contains a record five female nominees, including most notably Warren (music and lyrics for “Io Si: Seen”), who’s up for her 12th individual Oscar. (See her previous 11 nominations right here.) The other women are all first-time contenders: Pausini (lyrics for “Io Si: Seen”), Celeste (lyrics for “Hear My Voice”), H.

Another virtual ceremony, another missing red carpet? Not for the Oscars. Just as the Academy somewhat controversially brought the nominees to the show in real life, rather than attempting the fully virtual shows we’ve seen for Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG awards, the Oscars kicked off in style Sunday with a real red carpet. Usually the pinnacle red carpet show of the year, the Oscars tried its best to bring some pre-pandemic level glamour to tonight’s awards at Los Angeles’ Union Station.

Oscar-winner Halle Berry and Promising Young Woman producer Margot Robbie debuted new hairstyles for the occasion. Berry teased her short bob by posting a photo of a pile of hair on Instagram earlier in the evening.

Nominees Carey Mulligan — Best Actress, Promising Young Woman — and Daniel Kaluuya — Best Supporting Actor, Judas and the Black Messiah — put their own twists on classic looks. Mulligan was elegant in...

Union Station serves as backdrop for this year’s socially distant red carpet

The 2021 Oscars arrivals were highlighted with bright colors and bold cuts as stars returned to a (shortened and socially distanced) red carpet for the first time in a year. Click through TheWrap’s gallery here to see the night’s most vibrant looks as the celebs made their way to Union Station in Los Angeles.

Colman Domingo (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) made a statement in hot pink.

Best original song nominee Tiara Thomas (“Judas and the Black Messiah”) wore a white suit with a plunging neckline.

Martin Desmond and Roe Travon Free, nominated for Best Live Action Short Film for “Two Distant Strangers” wore complementary black and yellow tuxes.

Flower power! Best Director nominee Emerald Fennell wore a gorgeous floral print.

Double nominee Leslie Odom Jr hopes this gold Brioni tux will bring him some luck.

“Minari...

It’s been the longest awards season ever after the Academy decided to delay the 93rd Academy Awards from February to April because of the pandemic, but the big show is finally upon us. The 2021 Oscars ceremony begins at 8pm Et Sunday on ABC, broadcasting live from both Union Station and the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. ABC is extending its coverage of the 2021 Oscars with a pre-show beginning at 6:30pm Et and a post-show airing after the Oscars ceremony.

All three programs — “Oscars: Into the Spotlight,” “The Oscars,” and “Oscars: After Dark” — will be available to watch live via ABC.Com and the ABC app, although you will have to provide a cable subscriber log-in in order to access the live stream. Viewers without cable can tune-in by subscribing to a variety of platforms that carry ABC, including Hulu + Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV, and FuboTV.

Roku users...

This year’s roster of Best Original Song and Score nominees includes a heavy dose of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (double nominees in the score category), more of the same from 12-time nominee Diane Warren, and the support of an entire Icelandic town. But while not every expected contender wound up cited in the Academy Awards’ two music categories (better luck next year to Taylor Swift and former winner Alexandre Desplat), the 2021 Oscar nominees for Best Original Song and Best Score include some very worthy musica

What are the Best Original Song nominees?

“Husavik” from “Eurovision Song Contest”

Music and lyrics by Rickard Göransson, Fat Max Gsus & Savan Kotecha (Watch the Gold Derby interview here)

“Fight for You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah”

Music by D’Mile & H.E.R.; lyrics by H.E.R. & Tiara Thomas

“Io Si (Seen)” from “The Life Ahead”

Music by Diane Warren; lyrics by Laura Pausini...

Oscars season is official underway, and Nomadland, Minari, Judas and the Black Messiah, Sound of Metal, and Promising Young Woman are all up for some of the biggest awards of the year.

Nomadland, Judas and the Black Messiah, and Minari lead the pack, with multiple Oscar nominations, including nods for Best Picture. Nomadland’s Chloé Zhao and Frances McDormand, are up for Best Director and Best Actress, respectively, while notable acting nods include Riz Ahmed, who scored a nomination for Best Actor for his starring role as Ruben in Sound of Metal; Steven Yeun,...

The songs in the running for the 2021 Best Original Song Oscar are “Fight for You” (“Judas and the Black Messiah”), “Hear My Voice” (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”), “Husavik” (“Eurovision Song Contest”), “Io sì (Seen)” (“The Life Ahead”), and “Speak Now” (“One Night in Miami”). Our current odds show that “Speak Now” (17/5) is favored to win, followed in order by “Husavik” (39/10), “Io sì (Seen)” (4/1), “Fight for You” (9/2), and “Hear My Voice” (9/2).

Eleven of the 12 individual songwriters included in this year’s lineup are first-time Oscar nominees, with Diane Warren (“Io sì (Seen)”) standing out as the only veteran. Since she was first recognized for “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” (“Mannequin”) 34 years ago, Warren has amassed 11 more nominations but has yet to win. Half of her bids have come over the last seven years, with her most recent loss being to Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s “(I’m...

With the Oscars just ten days away, Variety has learned a number of the original song performances will be pre-recorded this coming Monday and Tuesday.

At least some of the contenders will be performing their nominated songs on the rooftop of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. The recorded musical acts will serve a dual purpose: They will boast a dramatic, Hollywood-only backdrop and will also provide a plug for the costly and oft-delayed museum, which was originally intended to open on April 30 and will instead welcome guests on Sept. 30.

The original song contenders this year are: “Speak Now” with music and lyrics by Leslie Odom, Jr. and Sam Ashworth, “Io Si (Seen)” with music by Diane Warren; lyrics by Diane Warren and Laura Pausini, “Fight for You” with music by H.E.R. and Dernst Emile II; lyrics by H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas,...

With the Grammy eligibility period for the 2022 ceremony more than halfway done already, let’s consider which artists are looking for more than just an award. This year we saw Beyoncé break the all-time record for most Grammy wins by a female artist, Taylor Swift nab a record-breaking third Album of the Year win, and key noms and wins for Megan Thee Stallion, Roddy Ricch, and Jacob Collier. Who’s poised to break more records and make more history next year?

SEE2022 Grammy predictions: Song of the Year Bruno Mars’s general field dominance again?

With his highly anticipated album alongside Anderson Paak as the super duo Silk Sonic, Bruno Mars could make history in a couple of ways. First off, an Album of the Year win for “An Evening With Silk Sonic” would be Mars’ third Album of the Year win (he previously won as a producer on Adele...

When director Shaka King was looking for an artist to deliver the end credit song for “Judas and the Black Messiah,” he went to Grammy winner H.E.R.

Of the qualities that made her the perfect artist to complete the task, he says, “versatility in musicianship, soul, artistic and personal integrity. She’s a throwback.”

King’s approach was to give the Oscar-nominated singer-songwriter notes about what he didn’t want. He says, “I really wanted to give her as much space creatively as possible – while expressing a desire to hear something contemporary with echoes of 1968. When I heard the Curtis Mayfield inspiration, I was like, ‘Yes!’”

The end result was “Fight for You,” which she wrote with D’Mile and Tiara Thomas. The song has flavors of Marvin Gaye, Nina Simone and Sly and the Family Stone, and is reminiscent of the revolutionary sounds of the 1960s.

The film tells the...

Everyone in the music business is wondering the same thing: Could veteran songwriter Diane Warren, denied the Oscar 11 times over the past 33 years, finally win on her 12th try?

Warren, whose movie songs range from Celine Dion’s “Because You Loved Me” to Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” this year penned “Io Sì (Seen)” for Netflix’s “The Life Ahead.” Sung in Italian by co-lyricist Laura Pausini, it could become only the fourth foreign-language song to win.

But it’s far from a sure thing. Only one song (“Husavik” from “Eurovision Song Contest”) is actually performed during the film itself, and that can be a potent factor for voters; and the other three relate to the social-justice issues of the 1960s that continue to be relevant today. All but Warren are first-time nominees.

“Fight for You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah”

Invoking a ’70s...

Everyone in the music business is wondering the same thing: Could veteran songwriter Diane Warren, denied the Oscar 11 times over the past 33 years, finally win on her 12th try?

Warren, whose movie songs range from Celine Dion’s “Because You Loved Me” to Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” penned “Io Sì (Seen)” for Netflix’s “The Life Ahead.” Sung in Italian by co-lyricist Laura Pausini, it could become only the fourth foreign-language song to win an Oscar.

But it’s far from a sure thing. Only one song (“Husavik” from “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga”) is actually performed during the film itself, and that can be a potent factor for voters; and the other three relate to the social-justice issues of the 1960s that continue to be relevant today. All but Warren are first-time nominees.

“Fight for You”

From “Judas and the Black Messiah...

Under executive director Roger Durling, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (March 31 through April 10) has thrived by surfing the awards season wave, programming tons of onstage interviews with Oscar contenders. In this pandemic edition, the tributes and panels will be live-streamed, while films will be shown online and at two free ocean-front drive-in theatres.

Every year, screenwriters, directors, and producers promote their films on panels, and the likes of Brad Pitt, Bong Joon Ho, Adam Driver, Renee Zellweger, Laura Dern, Viola Davis, Lupita Nyong’o, Saoirse Ronan, Bruce Dern, Jeff Bridges, Melissa McCarthy, Isabelle Huppert, Viggo Mortensen, Rami Malek, Glenn Close, Ben Affleck, Christopher Nolan, and Sam Elliott submit to in-depth tributes from Scott Feinberg, Leonard Maltin, and Pete Hammond, among others.

The annual Producers Panel, moderated by the Los Angeles Times’ Glenn Whipp, assembles top producers to dig into the business and creative sides of producing the year’s top films.

Under executive director Roger Durling, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (March 31 through April 10) has thrived by surfing the awards season wave, programming tons of onstage interviews with Oscar contenders. In this pandemic edition, the tributes and panels will be live-streamed, while films will be shown online and at two free ocean-front drive-in theatres.

Every year, screenwriters, directors, and producers promote their films on panels, and the likes of Brad Pitt, Bong Joon Ho, Adam Driver, Renee Zellweger, Laura Dern, Viola Davis, Lupita Nyong’o, Saoirse Ronan, Bruce Dern, Jeff Bridges, Melissa McCarthy, Isabelle Huppert, Viggo Mortensen, Rami Malek, Glenn Close, Ben Affleck, Christopher Nolan, and Sam Elliott submit to in-depth tributes from Scott Feinberg, Leonard Maltin, and Pete Hammond, among others.

The annual Producers Panel, moderated by the Los Angeles Times’ Glenn Whipp, assembles top producers to dig into the business and creative sides of producing the year’s top films.