OSCARS
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Boosted by its high-energy performance on the Academy Awards (March 12), best original song winner “Naatu Naatu” scored a 260% increase in on-demand official streams in the United States, according to initial reports to data tracking firm Luminate (whose information powers Billboard’s weekly charts).
On March 12 and 13 combined, “Naatu Naatu,” performed by vocalists Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava, garnered 176,000 official on-demand streams in the U.S. – up 260% from the 49,000 that the track collected in the two previous days (March 10 and 11).
In terms of digital song sales, the song sold a little over 1,000 on March 12-13 – up from a negligible sum in the two days prior.
The best original song Oscar is awarded to the writers of the song. “Naatu Naatu” was written by M.M. Keeravaani and Chandrabose, who both accepted the Oscar onstage during the live ABC-TV broadcast.
“Naatu Naatu” had the third-most streams of the five nominees for original song, all of which were performed on the Oscars, which aired live on ABC. Here’s a recap of the other four nominees and their streams on March 12-13, versus March 10-11: Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” (1.447 million vs. 1.446 million; up less than 1%), Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand” (580,000 vs. 389,000; up 49%), “This Is a Life” (84,000 vs. 38,000; up 121%) and Sofia Carson’s “Applause” (37,000 vs. 5,000; up 593%).
In addition, Lenny Kravitz’s “Calling All Angels,” which he performed for the In Memoriam portion of the broadcast, collected 35,000 streams on March 12-13 – a gain of 3,449% compared to the 1,000 streams that it garnered on March 10-11.
Collectively, the six performances helped generate 2.359 million on-demand official streams in the U.S. on March 12-13 – a gain of 22% compared to the 1.929 million on March 10-11.
News of further significant streaming and sales gains will be reported in the coming days on Billboard.com. Streaming, sales and airplay activity generated in the week ending March 16 will be reflected on the weekly Billboard charts dated March 25.
It’s Rih-ANN-a, not Rih-AH-na. Many viewers tuning in to the 2023 Oscars on Sunday night (March 12) assumed that the show’s host Jimmy Kimmel had incorrectly said Rihanna‘s name during the opening monologue — but turns out, he was right all along.
The Jimmy Kimmel Live! host’s executive producer (and wife!) Molly McNearney revealed in a Variety interview published Monday (March 13) that Kimmel had actually personally researched the correct pronunciation of “Rihanna” before the show began. “Jimmy is obsessed with pronouncing people’s names correctly,” McNearney said. “We always find video of the person saying their own name on camera.”
“And that is the way you pronounce Rihanna,” she continued. “There’s a whole interview with her about it. Jimmy said, ‘I want to call her the way the name that she calls herself.’ And that’s how she says it in Barbados. It felt funny to people.”
The interview McNearney referred to may very well have been a 2010 chat between the Fenty mogul and Ellen Degeneres, during which the former daytime talk host specifically asked Rih to clarify her name’s pronunciation. “I say Rih-ANN-a, but Rih-AH-na’s okay,” she said at the time. “I think it’s my accent that makes me say Rih-ANN-a.”
“Now America knows how to pronounce her name, although they won’t,” McNearney added. ‘They’ll just assume Jimmy f–ked up but no, he did not!”
Getting Rihanna’s name right was extra important on Oscars night because of how much the singer — who was nominated for best original song with “Lift Me Up” — was the focus of jokes Kimmel had planned for his opening remarks. “We had two versions of the monologue,” McNearney revealed. “One if Rihanna was in her seat, one if she was not in her seat. One if Rihanna had her baby on her lap, which she wanted to do. And one if her baby was not on her lap.”
“A lot of our jokes were kind of at the mercy of people being in their seats,” she recalled. “As they were pulling Jimmy up on that harness for the open, we’re shouting up to him, ‘Rihanna is not in her seat! We’re going to adjust the prompter!’”
Watch Rihanna herself clarify how to pronounce her name on The Ellen Degeneres Show below:
Whether it was the lingering drama of The Slap or the prominence of blockbusters in the best picture race, a bigger audience was lured back to the Oscars this year.
The 95th Academy Awards, which aired Sunday night on ABC, was viewed by an estimated 18.7 million, according to preliminary Fast National Live+Same Day numbers released Monday by ABC. That’s up 12% from last year’s show, but still low compared to most years.
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The evening’s main counterprogramming, the season finale of “The Last of Us” pulled in 8.2 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max. The show began at 9 p.m. EST, an hour after the Oscars started.
A frequent criticism of the Oscars is that the show celebrates films that don’t have wide appeal. This year was markedly different, however, with two billion-dollar blockbuster sequels in the mix: “Top: Gun Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” were both nominated for best picture. Angela Bassett was nominated for a Marvel movie, a first. Even the winning film, A24’s “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” made over $100 million at the global box office and played in theaters for months.
For many years, the Oscars were often the second most-watched television program of the year behind the Super Bowl. Until 2018, the Oscar telecast had never slipped below 30 million viewers, according to Nielsen records. The high-water mark was the 55 million people who watched “Titanic” clean up in 1998.
From the 43.7 million who watched in 2014, viewership declined steadily to 26.5 million in 2018, then went back up to 29.6 million in 2019, and 23.6 million in 2020. The bottom fell out with the pandemic-diminished show in 2021, seen by 9.85 million. It rebounded last year to 16.6 million, which was the second lowest-rated show ever.
Jimmy Kimmel, who presided over the ceremony in 2017 and 2018, returned to host the show, parachuting on to the Dolby Theatre stage. The show also featured performances from pop stars like Rihanna and Lady Gaga.
Broadcast television viewership has gone down across the board in the streaming era, and awards shows have illustrated that. The show boasted 27.4 million total social interactions across Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and was the No. 1 worldwide trending topic on Twitter for its duration.
By Monday afternoon, Ke Huy Quan’s acceptance speech had over 1.3 million views on YouTube, and Brendan Fraser’s was up to 2.6 million.
The ABC broadcast also had 1.8 million views of the American Sign Language live stream.
“What we wanted to do was go out and execute a show that people would really like and a show people would talk about,” Oscars producer Glenn Weiss told The Hollywood Reporter in the hours after the show. “We think we did accomplish that. I sure hope that (Monday) delivers good news in the ratings front, but either way, I think it was a successful evening.”
Ciara is never a stranger to high fashion. Following the 95th annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, the “1, 2 Step” singer was one of many musicians who dazzled at the Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty and took to the red carpet to pose for photos at the event. Ciara, however, went for one of the more daring looks of the evening, showing up in a barely there mesh dress.
The 37-year-old posed for pictures at the even in a sheer and shimmering netted halter gown by Dundas that left little to the imagination, using black underwear and flesh-colored pasties to cover up. Ciara accessorized the look with diamond drop earrings courtesy of Cartier, black velvet elbow-length gloves and black strappy Santoni heels.
After the fashion-filled evening came to a close, Ciara shared a series of snaps in a video posted to her Instagram on Monday (March 13). Megan Thee Stallion, who also attended the Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty, makes a brief cameo in the set of photos, as well as the singer’s husband, Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson, who matched alongside her in a black velvet suit jacket. M.I.A.’s 2012 hit “Bad Girls” soundtracks the video.
Cardi B also attended the Vanity Fair party alongside husband Offset, Billie Eilish took boyfriend Jesse Rutherford of The Neighbourhood as her date and Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner wore matching black ensembles to the party.
See all the celebrities who attended the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscars After Party here, and see Ciara’s video below.
The Banshees of Inisherin was one of just three films to receive nine or more Oscar nominations this year, along with Everything Everywhere All at Once and All Quiet on the Western Front. But while EEAAO and All Quiet each piled up multiple Oscar wins on Sunday (March 12), Banshees was shut out.
The film, which was written, directed and co-produced by Martin McDonagh, is one of only nine films in Oscar history to receive nine or more nominations and wind up with no wins at all. Six films did even worse than Banshees — four went 0-10, while two went 0-11.
Martin Scorsese directed two of the films on this list. Scorsese is universally regarded as one of the greatest directors in film history, so experiencing a shutout (or even two) does not consign someone to a hall of shame.
It’s important to keep in mind that all of these films did very well with Oscar voters. Amassing nine or more nominations is a tremendous achievement. The Oscars have just 23 categories, about one-quarter as many as the Grammys (which has 91).
So Banshees did well. It’s just that other films this year did better. Banshees lost in six categories to the unstoppable force that was EEAAO.
It’s probably not much fun for the cast and crew of a film to sit in a theater and watch their film get shut out. But there are worse fates, like not being nominated at all, or getting just a few token nods. Nothing should take away from the high the filmmakers felt when the nominations were announced – even an Oscar Night that fell short of their hopes.
Here are all the films that received nine or more nominations yet wound up with no hardware, along with the categories in which they scored their many nods.
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022, 9 nods)
Best picture: Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh
Best actor: Colin Farrell
Best supporting actor: Brendan Gleeson
Best supporting actor: Barry Keoghan
Best supporting actress: Kerry Condon
Best directing: Martin McDonagh
Best original screenplay: Martin McDonagh
Best film editing: Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
Best original score: Carter Burwell
Notes: Everything Everywhere All at Once beat The Banshees of Inisherin in six categories, including best picture. McDonagh received three nominations for his work on the film.
Peyton Place (1957, 9 nods)
Best picture: Jerry Wald, producer
Best actress: Lana Turner
Best supporting actor: Arthur Kennedy
Best supporting actor: Russ Tamblyn
Best supporting actress: Hope Lange
Best supporting actress: Diane Varsi
Best directing: Mark Robson
Best adapted screenplay: John Michael Hayes
Best cinematography: William Mellor
Notes: The Bridge on the River Kwai beat Peyton Place in four categories, including best picture. Sayonara prevailed in both supporting acting categories.
The Little Foxes (1941, 9 nods)
Best picture: Samuel Goldwyn Productions
Best actress: Bette Davis
Best supporting actress: Patricia Collinge
Best supporting actress: Teresa Wright
Directing: William Wyler
Writing (screenplay): Lillian Hellman
Best art direction (black and white): art direction: Stephen Goosson; interior decoration: Howard Bristol
Film editing: Daniel Mandell
Music score of a dramatic picture: Meredith Willson
Notes: How Green Was My Valley beat The Little Foxes in three categories, including best picture. Willson went on to create the beloved Broadway musical The Music Man.
The Irishman (2019, 10 nods)
Best picture: Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Emma Tillinger Koskoff, producers
Best supporting actor: Al Pacino
Best supporting actor: Joe Pesci
Best directing: Martin Scorsese
Best adapted screenplay: Steven Zaillian
Best cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto
Best costume design: Sandy Powell and Christopher Peterson
Best film editing: Thelma Schoonmaker
Best production design: production design: Bob Shaw; set decoration: Regina Graves
Best visual effects: Pablo Helman, Leandro Estebecorena, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser and Stephane Grabli
Notes: Parasite beat The Irishman in two categories – best picture and best directing. Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood and 1917 also each beat The Irishman in two categories. Scorsese received two nominations for his work on this film.
American Hustle (2013, 10 nods)
Best picture: Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison and Jonathan Gordon, producers
Best actor: Christian Bale
Best supporting actor: Bradley Cooper
Best supporting actress: Amy Adams
Best supporting actress: Jennifer Lawrence
Best directing: David O. Russell
Best original screenplay: Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
Best costume design: Michael Wilkinson
Best film editing: Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers, Alan Baumgarten
Best production design: production design: Judy Becker; set decoration: Heather Loeffler
Notes: 12 Years a Slave beat American Hustle in two categories – best picture and best supporting actress. Dallas Buyer’s Club, Gravity and The Great Gatsby also each beat American Hustle in two categories. Russell received two nominations for his work on this film.
True Grit (2010, 10 nods)
Best picture: Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, producers
Best actor: Jeff Bridges
Best supporting actress: Hailee Steinfeld
Best directing: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Best adapted screenplay: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Best cinematography: Rogers Deakins
Best art direction: production design: Jess Gonchor; set decoration: Nancy Haigh
Best costume design: Mary Zophres
Best sound editing: Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
Best sound mixing: Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Notes: The King’s Speech beat True Grit in three categories, including best picture. Inception also beat it in three categories. Alice in Wonderland beat it in two. The Coen Brothers received three nominations for their work on True Grit. Lievsay and Berkey each received two. The original True Grit in 1969 didn’t receive nearly as many nominations – just two – but it managed to parlay one of those into a win (John Wayne’s first and only Oscar, for best actor).
Gangs of New York (2002, 10 nods)
Best picture: Alberto Grimaldi and Harvey Weinstein, producers
Best actor: Daniel Day-Lewis
Best directing: Martin Scorsese
Best original screenplay: screenplay by Jay Cocks and Steve Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan; story by Jay Cocks
Best cinematography: Michael Ballhaus
Best art direction: art direction: Dante Ferretti; set decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
Best costume design: Sandy Powell
Best film editing: Thelma Schoonmaker
Best original song: “The Hands That Built America,” music and lyric by Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen
Best sound: Tom Fleischman, Eugene Gearty, Ivan Sharrock
Notes: Chicago beat Gangs of New York in five categories, including best picture. The Pianist beat it in two key categories – best actor and best directing.
The Color Purple (1985, 11 nods)
Best picture: Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Quincy Jones, producers
Best actress: Whoopi Goldberg
Best supporting actress: Margaret Avery
Best supporting actress: Oprah Winfrey
Best adapted screenplay: Menno Mevies
Best cinematography: Allen Daviau
Best art direction: art direction: J. Michael Riva, Robert W. Welch; set decoration: Linda DeScenna
Best costume design: Aggie Guerard Rodgers
Best makeup: Ken Chase
Best original score: Quincy Jones, Jeremy Lubbock, Rod Temperton, Caiphus Semenya, Andrae Crouch, Chris Boardman, Jorge Calandrelli, Joel Rosenbaum, Fred Steiner, Jack Hayes, Jerry Hey, Randy Kerber
Best original song: “Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister),” Music by Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton; Lyric by Quincy Jones, Rod Temperton and Lionel Richie
Notes: Out of Africa beat The Color Purple in five categories, including best picture. Jones received three Oscar nominations for his work on The Color Purple. Temperton and Richie each received two. The first sign of trouble for The Color Purple came when Steven Spielberg was passed over for a nod for directing the film. But if he had been nominated in that category, the film would presumably have wound up 0-12 and would occupy the cellar position on this list all by itself. At least this way, it has a little company.
The Turning Point (1977, 11 nods)
Best picture: Herbert Ross and Arthur Laurents, producers
Best actress: Anne Bancroft
Best actress: Shirley MacLaine
Best supporting actor: Mikhail Baryshnikov
Best supporting actress: Leslie Browne
Best directing: Herbert Ross
Best original screenplay: Arthur Laurents
Best cinematography: Robert Surtees
Best film editing: William Reynolds
Best art direction: Albert Brenner, art direction; Marvin March, set decoration
Best sound: Theodore Soderberg, Paul Wells, Douglas O. Williams, Jerry Jost
Notes: Annie Hall beat The Turning Point in four categories, including best picture. Star Wars beat it in three categories; Julia in the two supporting acting categories. Ross and Laurents each received two nominations for their work on The Turning Point.
The producers behind the 2023 Academy Awards revealed in a new interview Monday (March 13) just how Lady Gaga‘s performance came together at the eleventh hour.
As reported ahead of the awards show, the Oscar-winning pop star was originally not slated to perform due to her busy schedule filming the upcoming Joker sequel Folie à Deux opposite Joaquin Phoenix. However, that changed the morning of the show, when she was announced as a last-minute performer in a surprise about-face.
“Honestly, and this is not to pat ourselves on the back, because we’re very bad at that, but we’ve built up trust in the relationship with Gaga over the years,” Oscars executive producer Ricky Kirshner told The Hollywood Reporter. “I did the Super Bowl with her and Glenn has done many awards shows with her, including the ‘Shallow’ performance on the Oscars.
“She really wanted to do something,” he continued. “She honestly was shooting her movie — there was no trickery involved. And Thursday, at four-something, we got a text that she wanted to try something, didn’t have time to put together a big performance, but wanted it to be raw and people to see the real Gaga, and, with a voice like that, you don’t need much more than that.”
Mother Monster’s resulting performance of her best original song nominee “Hold My Hand” was far from a grandiose spectacle, with the singer opting instead to wear a simple black T-shirt and ripped jeans to run through a stripped-down rendering of the Top Gun: Maverick track. “It’s deeply personal for me, and I think that we all need each other. We need a lot of love to walk through this life,” she told the audience before launching into the song.
Revisit Gaga’s latest Oscars performance below.
Is a new Meghan Thee Stallion album on the way? That’s what the rapper confirmed while attending the Vanity Fair Oscar party on Sunday night (March 12).
When asked by Entertainment Tonight about the prospect of new music, the Queen of the Hotties cheekily replied, “Oh I am, new album, f–k y’all hoes, bye!” before sauntering off with a laugh. Megan didn’t offer any more details, but a new full-length would serve as a follow-up to her 2022 sophomore effort Traumazine, which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and contained hit singles “Sweetest Pie” with Dua Lipa, “Plan B,” “Pressurelicious” featuring Future, “Her” and the Key Glock-assisted “Ungrateful.”
Ahead of teasing her new project, Megan got hilariously real about getting her hands on tickets to Beyonce’s highly anticipated upcoming Renaissance World Tour, admitting she wasn’t above calling Queen Bey herself for help. “They gon’ be hatin’ on me, but I got ’em!” she said. “Oh baby, you know I called up them directly: ‘Beyoncé, lemme get a ticket!’”
She also shared that after hitting up the Vanity Fair bash — which musicians such as Cardi B, Olivia Rodrigo, Shawn Mendes and more attended — she’d be heading to another afterparty thrown by her “Savage (Remix)” collaborator. (“You know Beyoncé is my auntie!” she gushed.)
Watch Megan spill the tea on her new album and her “direct line” to Beyoncé below.
Less than two months after Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo welcomed their third child together in January, the couple took a night off to enjoy the Vanity Fair Oscars After-Party on Sunday (Mar. 12), posing on the red carpet together.
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The duo matched in all black, with the supermodel rocking a Dolce & Gabbana sequined gown. The Maroon 5 frontman, meanwhile, wore a sleek black suit with a V-neck t-shirt underneath, complete with a bleached buzzcut.
Neither Levine nor Prinsloo have publicly announced the baby’s arrival, and have not yet shared the sex or name. The couple’s new addition joins big sisters 6-year-old daughter Dusty Rose and 4-year-old Gio Grace. “It’s zoned defense, as they say. It’s awesome,” the musician previously told Ryan Seacrest during an recent appearance on On-Air With Ryan Seacrest. “I love the chaos. I embrace the chaos.”
The Victoria’s Secret model shared the news that she and the “Moves Like Jagger” singer were expecting back in September, when she posted a casual photo on Instagram showing off her baby bump. However, the exciting news was somewhat overshadowed by a texting scandal involving Levine last fall, in which Instagram model Sumner Stroh shared alleged flirtatious messages exchanged between her and the singer. Stroh claimed she and Levine saw each other for a year and that in June, Levine asked if it would be OK to name his baby “Sumner” if it was a boy — just a few days after it was confirmed that Prinsloo was pregnant with the couple’s third child.
Levine denied having an affair, but took responsibility for having “poor judgement in speaking with anyone other than my wife in ANY kind of flirtatious manner.”
While many of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities were at Sunday night’s Academy Awards at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theater (March 12), Elton John was busy putting his star status to good use across town.
The annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards viewing party took place on Sunday at West Hollywood Park in Los Angeles. Hosted by John and his husband David Furnish, with special guests Eric McCormack and Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, the event reportedly raised over $9 million for the “Rocket Man” singer’s charity organization.
The event was well-attended by plenty of A-list artists, including stars like Maren Morris, Wiz Khalifa, Dove Cameron, Hilary Duff, Kesha, Saweetie, Tyga, Sharon Osbourne, Maggie Rogers and Smokey Robinson. Rina Sawayama served as the event’s headline performer, where she took to the stage and performed a number of tracks, including “This Hell” and “Catch Me In The Air” off her latest album Hold the Girl.
“I’m delighted to have reunited with all of my friends tonight after such a long time apart and better yet, to have raised over $9 million for the fight against AIDS,” John said of the event in a statement. “We mustn’t forget that HIV is still causing needless suffering around the world and we must protect those most vulnerable to this disease with testing and compassionate care. We can see an end to AIDS in our lifetimes, but first we must break down stigma and discrimination and provide equal access to healthcare to finally end the epidemic for everyone, everywhere.”
The Elton John AIDS Foundation was founded in 1992 with the stated goal of bringing an end to the AIDS epidemic. The annual Oscars viewing party, which began the same year as the organization’s inception, regularly raises millions of dollars for the foundation — in 2022, the event raised $8.6 million for AIDS research.
Halle Bailey, you are all of us. Freaking out just like anyone would upon meeting a super famous actress, the 22-year-old Little Mermaid star reacted excitedly when she crossed paths with Jamie Lee Curtis Sunday night (March 12) on the Oscars red carpet.
The sweet moment was captured in the middle of Bailey’s red carpet interview with Variety, during which a reporter advocated for the singer-actress by waving Curtis over and saying, “Jamie, someone wants to meet you.”
Meanwhile, as Curtis made her way over, Bailey nervously whispered, “Oh my god.”
“I know who you are,” the Halloween actress graciously told Bailey, who’d begun introducing herself.
“I’m such a big fan,” the Chloe x Halle musician told Curtis. “You look beautiful, you look so pretty!”
After Curtis posed for a photo with Bailey, squeezed her admirer’s hand before walking away, Bailey gushed, “She’s so nice!”
“Oh my gosh, so many!” she added when asked to name her favorite of Curtis’ films. “Freaky Friday is the one that comes up for me.”
Both Bailey and Curtis had blockbuster evenings at Sunday night’s awards show. Curtis took home her first ever Oscar, earning best supporting actress for her role in this year’s best picture winner, Everything Everywhere All At Once. And Bailey — who looked stunning in an aptly aqua-colored gown fit for a princess — joined costar Melissa McCarthy in debuting the first official trailer for their live-action The Little Mermaid remake during the Oscars telecast.
Watch the adorable moment Halle Bailey met Jamie Lee Curtis at the Oscars below: