Taylor Swift’s life is like a master chess game at this point.
Yesterday she found out late in the day that her song, “Beautiful Ghosts,” wasn’t shortlisted by the Motion Picture Academy for Best Song for an Oscar from “Cats.” (No other songs from “Cats” will go to the Oscars because they all existed before. “Ghosts” was written specifically to get that spot.)
Unfortunately, this was right before “Cats” premiered at Alice Tully Hall with a big after party at Tavern on the Green. Taylor looked stunning in a beautiful gown on stage before “Cats” was screened. But that’s the last we saw of her. She didn’t surface at Tavern on the Green. Since she’s terrific in the movie singing another song, and “Beautiful Ghosts” is used twice in the movie, she can’t be unhappy with the film. She was certainly disappointed by the Oscar snub.
It’s a shock that she wasn’t nominated. Frankly, she should just “Shake it off.” But Taylor’s already got an issue with the Grammys two weeks before the Oscars. Her “Lover” album wasn’t nominated for Album of the Year. She also wasn’t nominated for Record of the Year. Very odd. Very. So she probably was planning on performing at the Oscars, and not the Grammys. Now, all bets are off. And the chess game is on.
The songwriters branch of the Academy nominated 15 songs. Two of them are from Elton John! My favorite of those is “Never Too Late” from “The Lion King.” I love that song. The minute it started playing at the end of “The Lion King” I knew it was headed to the Oscars. What a year Elton has had!
More shortlists in the next item.
The shortlisted songs are: (asterisk next to my picks)
“Speechless” from “Aladdin”
*“Letter To My Godfather” from “The Black Godfather”
*“I’m Standing With You” from “Breakthrough”
“Da Bronx” from “The Bronx USA”
“Into The Unknown” from “Frozen II”
*“Stand Up” from “Harriet”
“Catchy Song” from “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part”
*“Never Too Late” from “The Lion King”
“Spirit” from “The Lion King”
“Daily Battles” from “Motherless Brooklyn”
“A Glass of Soju” from “Parasite”
“(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from “Rocketman”
“High Above The Water” from “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am”
“I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” from “Toy Story 4”
*“Glasgow” from “Wild Rose”
