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Her scene lasts only a few minutes, but it is as memorable as it is relevant for the narrative of Poor Things. Portuguese fado singer and songwriter Carminho plays “O Quarto (Fado Menor)” in the Oscar-nominated film, captivating Emma Stone’s Bella, and marking a turning point in the character’s arc. And you don’t need to speak the language to get the feeling of melancholy.
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Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things follows the evolution of Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (played by Willem Dafoe). In the scene with Carminho, Bella is alone, strolling through a fantastical version of Lisbon, where she traveled with lover Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) in a coming-of-age journey of self-discovery. Suddenly, she is completely captured by this piercing, emotional voice.
“I was very happy to see how beautiful the scene was, how intense. It’s the first time there’s silence in the movie and Bella is alone,” Carminho tells Billboard Español. “I thought this is the transition of Bella’s character from a child to a woman. It was very beautiful to see that Yorgos used the fado to make that, because there’s such feeling of sadness in fado, even if we don’t understand [the lyrics,] there’s a little bit of pain in each of those interpretations,” she adds of the popular Portuguese music genre, characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics.
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This is not Carminho’s first movie appearance. Before Poor Things, she participated in the Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura’s Fados (2007), and then in the Portuguese director João Botelho’s Filme do Desassossego (2010), in one case as a singer, in the other as herself. “But this is my first Hollywood movie,” she says, beaming.
And is also the one that has put her more on the international map. Armed with a Portuguese guitar — an iconic 12-string instrument Carminho learned to play specifically for the role — her powerful vocals were recorded live in only one shot, enough to fill the room with commanding force.
How she got to be in such a big production — one of the most acclaimed movies of 2023, with 11 Oscar nominations (including for best picture, best director and best actress) — is something that took her by surprise. “The director of casting just sent an email to my team asking if I was interested in doing a cameo in this film with this director, and I was completely excited with that idea — but I needed to understand first what the expectations were from Yorgos, and what he was looking for,” she recalls. “I needed to understand what he was seeing when he invited me.”
So, they had a “beautiful meeting” where Carmniho remembers Lanthimos saying, “‘I was looking for you because I think that you work the traditional fado [with a contemporary twist].’” She got to ask the director all the questions she had for him, and even suggest the song to play: “O Quarto (Fado Menor)” — “something very melancholic, something simple and traditional”, which is public domain and which she had just recorded for her then upcoming album. “I made the song in the film with music and lyrics that I wrote, and in my album Portuguesa, I do the same lyrics with another music,” she explains. “So, the version in the movie is unique.”
And “the lyrics were perfect for the moment,” she recalls the director telling her, translating part of it during our interview in New York City: “In this room so tight that I thought was just mine/ Infiltrated such a poison, it’s the loneliness and I/ And then, I don’t know how, the cold came in/ So now we are three, and the three don’t make one […] You come in as you don’t see me/ A heart that’s broken is this room that is so empty/ Even the air won’t fit.”
Carminho attends the “Poor Things” premiere at DGA Theater on Dec. 6, 2023 in New York City.
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
Daughter of the renowned fado singer Teresa Siqueira, Carminho released her debut album Fado in 2009, followed by Alma in 2012, Canto in 2014, Carminho canta Tom Jobim in 2016, Maria in 2018 and Portuguesa in 2023 — the last of which earned her a Latin Grammy nomination.
Beyond that and her Poor Things-stealing scene, last year was a big year for the artist, with dozens of shows in Portugal and other European countries — as well as in Brazil, Mozambique, and the United States. She also performed for Pope Francis in Lisbon during a World Youth Day celebration, and sang at the New York City premiere of the Academy Award-nominated film.
Now she is set to come back in April to the U.S. as a guest on Caetano Veloso’s The U.S. Farewell Tour, where she’ll join the Brazilian legend to sing their collaboration “Você-Você,” included in his 2021 album Meu Coco.
Watch Carminho’s scene with Emma Stone in Poor Things here:
Foreigner is having a moment. The band, which is currently nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, is also being saluted in an ad promoting the Oscars, which are set for March 10. The ad tweaks the title of Foreigner’s 1977 breakthrough hit “Feels Like the First Time” with the copy […]
The 2024 Oscars will have strong Latin representation. Two Puerto Rican superstars of different generations — Bad Bunny and Rita Moreno — have been added as presenters for the March 10 ceremony, along with Chris Hemsworth, Dwayne Johnson, Michael Keaton, Regina King, Jennifer Lawrence, Kate McKinnon, John Mulaney, Catherine O’Hara, Octavia Spencer and Ramy Youssef.
Moreno won an Oscar in 1962 for West Side Story. In 1977, she became the first Latina (and just the third person overall) to complete the EGOT. In 2022, Bad Bunny made history when Un Verano Sin Ti became the first Spanish-language album to top Billboard’s year-end chart and to receive a Grammy nod for album of the year.
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On Wednesday, the Academy announced that another popular Latin star, Becky G, would perform the nominated “The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot on the telecast. Becky G was born in Inglewood, Calif., to Mexican American parents.
Previously announced Oscars presenters are Mahershala Ali, Nicolas Cage, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Fraser, Jessica Lange, Matthew McConaughey, Lupita Nyong’o, Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ke Huy Quan, Sam Rockwell, Michelle Yeoh and Zendaya.
The 96th Oscars will air live on ABC and broadcast to outlets worldwide on Sunday, March 10, at the new, earlier time of 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.
Jimmy Kimmel is hosting the show for the fourth time. It will be held at its usual home, the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
Raj Kapoor is executive producer and showrunner for the 2024 Oscars. Molly McNearney and Katy Mullan are also executive producers. Hamish Hamilton is directing. Rickey Minor is music director.
This year’s Oscars ceremony will be broken up by performances from all five of the night’s best original song nominees. Two of those five are tracks from Greta Gerwig’s Barbie blockbuster: “What Was I Made For?” and “I’m Just Ken.” The former will be performed by Billie Eilish and her brother/producer Finneas during the March […]
All five of this year’s Oscar nominees for best original song will be performed live at the 2024 Oscars on March 10. Billie Eilish and Finneas will deliver “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie, which is widely expected to win the award. This will mark the third time in five years that the brother-and-sister pair have performed on the Oscars. They performed “Yesterday” as the In Memoriam song on the 2020 Oscars and their nominated “No Time to Die” on the 2022 ceremony. It went on to win the award.
Becky G will perform “The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot, but won’t be joined by the song’s writer Diane Warren, who has accompanied the singer on two other of her other recent nominated songs, joining Laura Pausini on “Io sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead and Sofia Carson on “Applause” from Tell It Like a Woman.
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Mark Ronson will join Ryan Gosling to perform “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie, which Ronson co-wrote with Andrew Wyatt. Ronson and Wyatt won five years ago for co-writing “Shallow” from A Star Is Born, but the song was performed by the film’s stars, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga.
Jon Batiste will perform “It Never Went Away” from American Symphony, which he co-wrote with Dan Wilson.
Scott George and the Osage Singers will perform “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon, which George wrote.
The 96th Oscars will air live on ABC and broadcast outlets worldwide on Sunday, March 10, at the new, earlier time of 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.
Jimmy Kimmel is hosting the show for the fourth time. It will be held at its usual home, the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
Raj Kapoor is executive producer and showrunner for the 2024 Oscars. Molly McNearney and Katy Mullan are also executive producers.
Rob Paine returns as co-executive producer, and Taryn Hurd returns as talent producer. Producers Sarah Levine Hall, Erin Irwin and Jennifer Sharron, music director Rickey Minor and lighting designers Bob Dickinson and Noah Mitz also rejoin the team.
The show’s production team also includes director Hamish Hamilton and production designers Misty Buckley and Alana Billingsley.
Ryan Gosling is set to perform “I’m Just Ken” live at the 2024 Oscars on Sunday, March 10. Variety was first to report the news.
It had been uncertain if Gosling would agree to perform the song, which is a comic highlight of Barbie. He and Emma Stone declined to perform “City of Stars” from La La Land on the Oscar telecast seven years ago — and “City of Stars,” a loping, easy-tempo ballad, is a much easier song to sing live than “I’m Just Ken,” a dynamic, comic showcase.
When Gosling and Stone passed on performing “City of Stars,” Oscar producers enlisted John Legend, who also appeared in La La Land, to perform the song – and also a second nominated song from the film, “Audition (The Fools Who Dream).” “City of Stars” went on to win the Oscar for best original song.
Gosling is nominated for best supporting actor for Barbie. Robert Downey Jr. is widely expected to win in that category for his performance in Oppenheimer, but Gosling has the opportunity to bring the house down.
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In a Variety cover story in early February, Gosling said that the Academy hadn’t yet asked him to perform. “It might be too much of a risk to have me do it,” he said. “I don’t know how that would work. But I’m open to it.”
Mark Ronson, who wrote the song with Andrew Wyatt, told Variety at the Grammys that he wasn’t interested in any other singer subbing for Gosling on the Oscars. When asked if he’d consider a sub, Ronson said, “No. I think if Ryan doesn’t do it then we’re not doing it.”
“I’m Just Ken” is one of two Barbie songs that received an Oscar nomination for best original song. The other is “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish and Finneas. Barbie might very well have received a third nomination in that category for “Dance the Night,” which Ronson and Wyatt co-wrote with Dua Lipa and Caroline Ailin, but Oscar rules limit films to two nominations in that category.
In a conversation on Billboard’s Pop Shop podcast, Ronson agreed that the exclusion of “Dance the Night” made his nod for “I’m Just Ken” feel “bittersweet.”
“It is because Dua’s song is still the biggest song from the soundtrack and Dua was really the first artist of anywhere near her stature that committed to the film. It really set the bar for what the whole soundtrack could be,” he said. “So Dua definitely deserves all the credit for that, and it would have been lovely to have her as well.”
The 96th Oscars will air live on ABC and broadcast outlets worldwide on March 10 at the new, earlier time of 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.
Jimmy Kimmel is hosting the show for the fourth time. It will be held at its usual home, the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
While the Academy hasn’t officially confirmed Gosling’s booking, they have announced the first presenters for the Oscar telecast, including Zendaya and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Mahershala Ali, Nicolas Cage, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Fraser, Jessica Lange, Matthew McConaughey, Lupita Nyong’o, Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ke Huy Quan, Sam Rockwell, Michelle Yeoh and Zendaya will present at the 2024 Oscars, which are set for Sunday, March 10. All are previous Oscar winners except for Pfeiffer, a three-time nominee, and Zendaya, who […]
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No song in Eilish’s lifetime has achieved this double victory, and none has achieved it since Finneas was 18 months old.
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02/20/2024
That’s a fast turnaround, but one songwriting team and one individual songwriter did even better, winning back-to-back Oscars.
02/20/2024
Diane Warren has entered rarified Oscar territory. On Jan. 23, she was nominated for best original song for the seventh year in a row, for her song “The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot. That’s the longest continuous streak of nominations in this category since Sammy Cahn was nominated eight years in a row from 1954-61. […]