Oscar Shortlist for Best Original Song Includes Elton John, Mary J. Blige

Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Smirnoff

The Academy Awards have issued a list of 39 movie-related songs eligible for nomination in the Best Original Song category, and it includes Elton John, Mary J. Blige, Zooey Deschanel and Jónsi of Sigur Rós. Conspicuously absent is Madonna, whose "Masterpiece" from W.E. (which she also directed) was recently nominated for a Golden Globe; according to Academy rules, the song appears too late in the credits to qualify.

Sir Elton is eligible for two songs from Gnomeo & Juliet, including "Hello Hello," his duet with Lady Gaga. Other eligible songs include Deschanel's "So Long" from Winnie the Pooh, Blige's "The Living Proof" from The Help and three songs from The Muppets. Jonsi is eligible for his ethereal soundtrack for We Bought a Zoo; other contenders include Chris Cornell (for Machine Gun Preacher) and Will.i.am (for Rio).

The 84th annual Academy Awards will take place on February 26th, 2012.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

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