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And Finally Artist News Awards
Eminem turns up for Oscars seventeen years late
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 10 February 2020
Eminem made a surprise appearance at the Oscars last night. The rapper performed his track ‘Lose Yourself’ seventeen years after it won the Best Original Song prize at Hollywood’s big awards show, making up for the fact he didn’t do so at the time.
The rapper was named the winner of the Academy Award in 2003 for the song from his film ‘Eight Mile’. However, given that no rapper had ever taken the prize before, Eminem did not attend the ceremony, assuming he had no chance of winning. This meant that not only was he not there to accept the award in person, but it was also the first time in fourteen years that the winner had not performed their song at the show.
With Eminem coincidentally in promotional mode for his latest album ‘Music To Be Murdered By’, Oscars organisers clearly saw an opportunity to set things right. So, after a montage of memorable film music moments had been crowbarred into the proceedings, Eminem appeared on stage to deliver ‘Lose Yourself’ with a backing band.
The response seems to have been positive, although there are reports that some attendees and viewers were somewhat perplexed by the sudden and unexpected rendition of a song nearly two decades old. Martin Scorsese was shown apparently falling asleep, while a photo of ‘Frozen’ star Idina Menzel with her face screwed up in apparent confusion has been widely circulated. Although video footage shows her dancing in her seat, so it seems likely she was just rapping along. And who wouldn’t want to hear Elsa rapping?
Anyway, following the show, Eminem tweeted a video of Barbara Streisand announcing him as the winner in 2003, writing: “Look, if you had another shot, another opportunity… Thanks for having me [The Academy]. Sorry it took me [seventeen] years to get here”.
This year’s Best Original Song prize, in case anywhere cares, went to Eminem’s mate Elton John for ‘(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again’ from ‘Rocketman’.
