Love her or loathe her, the appeal of Lana Del Rey – from her music to pouty-lipped persona – is intended to be tied with a nostalgia for Hollywood glamour.
So it’s rather befitting that the ‘Video Games’ hit-maker could be gracing the Academy Awards podium next year (and no, it’s not for her short film Tropico).
Lana Del Rey’s ‘Young And Beautiful’, her syrupy contribution to The Great Gatsby soundtrack, is one of five songs from the Baz Luhrmann blockbuster up for potential Oscar glory, as the 86th Annual Academy Awards long list was revealed recently, including the 75 songs that are eligible for the Original Song category, as Billboard reports.
But of the five original songs from the year’s best-selling soundtrack of 2013 up for Oscar contention, Academy rules stipulate that no more than two tracks from a single film can make the cut for the final nominations. While Lana Del Rey is the obvious contender for the F. Scott Fitzgerald silver screen adaptation, an anonymous group of campaigners are trying to stop the US singer from ever reaching the Awards podium.
According to Deadline.com, the would-be saboteurs have started a smear campaign against Del Rey, reportedly sending members of the Motion Picture Academy’s music selection committee envelopes with an article that stated ‘Young And Beautiful’ had been disqualified from Oscar consideration due to a technicality over the film’s shifting release date.
But the article, a printout of a Variety.com piece, apparently didn’t run in any actual publication, making Lana Del Rey still eligible for the coveted golden statuette.
Though ‘Young And Beautiful’ was clearly used in promotion for trailers and TV spots in the lead-up to the film’s release, Warner Bros. isn’t taking any chances, apparently creating a new featurette that focuses on Lan Del Rey’s song and its use and strong ties to The Great Gatsby.
Smear campaigns and hatchet jobs in the lead up to the film industry’s night of nights is nothing new, and as Billboard points out, in 2004 a similar attempted sabotage erupted over Crash’s use of Kathleen ‘Bird’ York’s ‘In The Deep’, where unfounded rumours had claimed the song was several years old and therefore ineligible under Academy rules.
As for who could be undermining Del Rey as a contender, that’s anyone’s conspiratorial guess. It could be any number of the music-makers on the Oscars long list for Best Original Song, or even one of the singer’s fellow guests on The Great Gatsby soundtrack, with Jay Z’s ‘100$ Bill’, Florence + The Machine’s ‘Over The Love’, The xx’s ‘Together’, and ‘A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)’ from Fergie, Q-Tip, and GoonRock vying for the two final nomination slots.
There are a number of other notable musicians up for Oscar contention in the 75-strong Best Original song category. Dave Grohl’s Sound City has two mentions, including the Paul McCartney-fronted Nirvana reunion track, ‘Cut Me Some Slack’ and ‘You Can’t Fix This’ featuring Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks.
Coldplay’s ‘Atlas’, their contribution to The Hunger Games franchise also appears, along with U2’s new single and Nelson Mandela tribute ‘Ordinary Love’, Pharrell Williams’ Despicable Me 2/24 hour music video soundtrack, ‘Happy’, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O for ‘The Moon Song’, taken from Spike Jonze’s Her (which also sees Arcade Fire up in the Best Original Score Oscar stakes).
Judging by the Academy’s previous selection efforts, with last year’s Oscars snubbing the likes of Neil Finn, Arcade Fire, Fiona Apple, and The Black Keys, don’t get too excited at the prospect of Dave Grohl, Chris Martin, or Lana Del Rey walking away with an Academy Award.
Especially when you take into account that the 75 Best Original Songs need to be whittled down to the final nominations list, announced on Thursday 16th January at a Los Angeles presentation. Last year’s Best Original Song winner went to Adele for her 007 theme, ‘Skyfall’.
86th Annual Academy Awards Best Original Song Long List
“Amen” from “All Is Lost”
“Alone Yet Not Alone” from “Alone Yet Not Alone”
“Doby” from “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues”
“Last Mile Home” from “August: Osage County”
“Austenland” from “Austenland”
“Comic Books” from “Austenland”
“L.O.V.E.D.A.R.C.Y” from “Austenland”
“What Up” from “Austenland”
“He Loves Me Still” from “Black Nativity”
“Hush Child (Get You Through This Silent Night)” from “Black Nativity”
“Test Of Faith” from “Black Nativity”
“Forgiveness” from “Brave Miss World”
“Lullaby Song” from “Cleaver’s Destiny”
“Shine Your Way” from “The Croods”
“Happy” from “Despicable Me 2”
“Gonna Be Alright” from “Epic”
“Rise Up” from “Epic”
“What Matters Most” from “Escape from Planet Earth”
“Bones” from “For No Good Reason”
“Going Nowhere” from “For No Good Reason”
“Gonzo” from “For No Good Reason”
“The Courage To Believe” from “Free China: The Courage to Believe”
“Let It Go” from “Frozen”
“100$ Bill” from “The Great Gatsby”
“A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)” from “The Great Gatsby”
“Over The Love” from “The Great Gatsby”
“Together” from “The Great Gatsby”
“Young and Beautiful” from “The Great Gatsby”
“The Moon Song” from “Her”
“I See Fire” from “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”
“Bite Of Our Lives” from “How Sweet It Is”
“Try” from “How Sweet It Is”
“Atlas” from “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”
“Better You, Better Me” from “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete”
“Bring It On” from “Jewtopia”
“Aygiri Nadani” from “Kamasutra 3D”
“Har Har Mahadeva” from “Kamasutra 3D”
“I Felt” from “Kamasutra 3D”
“Of The Soil” from “Kamasutra 3D”
“Sawariya” from “Kamasutra 3D”
“In The Middle Of The Night” from “Lee Daniels’ The Butler”
“You And I Ain’t Nothin’ No More” from “Lee Daniels’ The Butler”
“Let’s Take A Trip” from “Live at the Foxes Den”
“Pour Me Another Dream” from “Live at the Foxes Den”
“The Time Of My Life” from “Live at the Foxes Den”
“Ordinary Love” from “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”
“Monsters University” from “Monsters University”
“When The Darkness Comes” from “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones”
“Sacrifice (I Am Here)” from “Murph: The Protector”
“The Muslims Are Coming” from “The Muslims Are Coming!”
“Oblivion” from “Oblivion”
“Sweeter Than Fiction” from “One Chance”
“Nothing Can Stop Me Now” from “Planes”
“We Both Know” from “Safe Haven”
“Get Used To Me” from “The Sapphires”
“Stay Alive” from “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”
“So You Know What It’s Like” from “Short Term 12”
“There’s No Black Or White” from “Somm”
“Cut Me Some Slack” from “Sound City”
“You Can’t Fix This” from “Sound City”
“Let It Go” from “Spark: A Burning Man Story”
“We Ride” from “Spark: A Burning Man Story”
“Becomes The Color” from “Stoker”
“Younger Every Day” from “3 Geezers!”
“Here It Comes” from “Trance”
“Let The Bass Go” from “Turbo”
“The Snail Is Fast” from “Turbo”
“Speedin'” from “Turbo”
“My Lord Sunshine (Sunrise)” from “12 Years a Slave”
“Make It Love” from “Two: The Story of Roman & Nyro”
“One Life” from “The Ultimate Life”
“Unfinished Songs” from “Unfinished Song”
“For The Time Being” from “The Way, Way Back”
“Go Where The Love Is” from “The Way, Way Back”
“Bleed For Love” from “Winnie Mandela”
