Oscar Music Shortlists Arrive: Yes to Multiple ‘Barbie’ and ‘Color Purple’ Song Submissions, but No to Bruce Springsteen, ‘Wonka’ and ‘Wish’

J. Kim Murphy Warner Bros. is continuing to beat out Warner Bros.

Usher and H.E.R. stripped down to just their underwear for the new music video set to their song “Risk It All“!

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer Nestled amid a tale of hardship and torment, “Keep It Movin'” is a bright spot in the newly released adaptation of “The Color Purple.” Just as sisters Nettie and Celie (Halle Bailey and Phylicia Pearl Mpasi) are about to be torn from one another, they find a brief moment of respite and optimism as they sing to one another on the beach. “Nothing’s gonna take you down, oh / Just let it go / Life can never break your soul,” sings Nettie, instilling a feeling of hope that flickers and wanes in Celie as the film endures.

LaChanze, the actress who played the central character Celie Harris Johnson in the 2005 Broadway musical adaptation of The Color Purple, posted yesterday about the new movie musical produced by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg.

Ciara might only be in the new movie The Color Purple for a few minutes, but she makes an emotional impact in her one scene.

Oprah Winfrey, was even the Queen of Talk.And the very same year, Stephen Bray — executive music producer of the new “Color Purple” movie musical that opens on Christmas Day — scored his first hits with the future Queen of Pop, Madonna, as co-writer of both “Into the Groove” and “Angel.”But Bray and Madonna shared a different kind of rhythmic history even before that — when they were both living in Ann Arbor, Michigan.“I used to play percussion in some of the dance classes that she was in,” Bray told The Post. “And then she moved to New York and was playing drums for [the band] Breakfast Club in ’79.

Angelique Jackson Turning 30 is always a memorable moment, but “The Color Purple” actor Phylicia Pearl Mpasi rang in her third decade with a birthday serenade from Oprah Winfrey. Coincidentally, Mpasi’s birthday (November 16) fell on another special occasion: the first screening of the musical reimagining of “The Color Purple.” The atmosphere was charged with anticipation since this was the debut of the film before critics and press, but the mood backstage was particularly jovial since it was the first time the cast — Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, Taraji P.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Choreographer Fatima Robinson fused hip-hop, dance, African history, tap, jazz and even Jamaican moves as she crafted the musical numbers in “The Color Purple,” but there was one person in particular whose energy she wanted to capture: Beyoncé. Specifically, the energy of Beyoncé’s “Renaissance.” Director Blitz Bazawule blends Alice Walker’s text and the Broadway musical to reimagine the classic as a vibrant movie musical. “American Idol’s” Fantasia Barrino plays Celie, a woman who slowly finds her voice with Shug Avery’s (Taraji P.

The Color Purple often succeeds as a thoughtful fusion of two other adaptations of Alice Walker’s landmark novel that still confidently hums its own tune.In shakier moments, though, confidence gives way to nostalgia, when the film hammers home its reinterpretations of quotable scenes and dialogue from the Quincy Jones-produced, Steven Spielberg-directed 1985 adaptation with an insistence that borders on flashing “Hey, remember this?” in bold type onscreen.Creating and saying something new with such proven material, while also purposely coaxing audience sentiment for a beloved original, surely posed a formidable challenge for Bazawule and company. And having Jones, Spielberg, and Oprah Winfrey — the big guns and big breakout from the 1985 film — onboard as producers must have eased and complicated the gig in unfathomable ways.Oprah and Jones also had a hand in the original Broadway musical adaptation, which has spun off its own lore and legacy, and adds another meta layer of pop-lit gloss to what this film aims to freshly reinterpret.The stage musical — with a book by Marsha Norman, and lyrics and music by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray — has amassed its own roster of breakout stars, including American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino, who made her 2007 Broadway debut stepping into the lead role of Celie, and Orange Is the New Black‘s Danielle Brooks, Tony-nominated for playing Sofia opposite Cynthia Erivo in the 2015 Broadway revival.Barrino and Brooks reprise their respective roles here with a lived-in grace and fortitude that does freshly illuminate Walker’s moving narrative, the lifeblood that courses through every iteration.

A column chronicling events and conversations on the awards circuit.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Who says you can’t laugh and win Oscars, too? In a stunning year for cinema, the candidates for the coveted best picture category are overflowing with prime comedic endeavors that surpass their dramatic counterparts. From a toy doll to an author with a triumphant “Black book” to a reverse Frankenstein tale that shows a whole lot of sex, the Academy has an opportunity to invite the softer side of cinema to its ceremony.

Ted Nugent has hit out at Taylor Swift, dismissing her music as “all poppy nonsense” with “no fire” and “no sensuality”.Nugent, who has been a musician since the 1970s and later became a right-wing commentator, was asked his opinions on modern music during an appearance on the The Joe Pags Show and his thoughts on Swift were particularly unsparing.“So I’m afraid to say in this world that’s gone down the toilet in all aspects, I’m afraid the success of Taylor Swift, and God bless her work ethic, God bless her musical dreams, but that’s cartoon music,” Nugent said [via Blabbermouth]. “I mean, it doesn’t have any piss and vinegar.

Fantasia Barrino, “The Little Mermaid” star Halle Berry and five-time Grammy winner H.E.R. to bring the belting in “The Color Purple,” the new movie musical adaption of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that opens in theaters on Christmas Day.But Oscar and Emmy-nominated actress Taraji P. Henson also flexes some surprise vocal chops as blues singer Shug Avery.And Executive Music Producer Stephen Bray already envisioned the former “Empire” diva in the role when she came to see the “Color Purple” musical on Broadway in 2005.“We were sitting together, and at intermission I said, ‘You know, you’d make a great Shug Avery,’ ” Bray — who co-wrote the songs for both 2005’s original stage production and its 2015 revival — told The Post.

Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo and more have received mentions on the shortlist for the 2024 Academy Awards. Yesterday (December 21), the Academy announced its shortlists in 10 categories, including Best Original Song and Best Original Score.

American Symphony, the Obamas-executive produced documentary about Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste, scored a remarkable hat trick today as the Oscar shortlists were revealed, but a couple of documentary icons were left on the bench.

While the Oscar original song shortlist is typically good about spreading the wealth around, three movies dominated close to half the spaces with Barbie cleared to be nominated for three songs, The Color Purple two and Apple Original Film’s Flora and Son two. Of the 15 spots, Warner Bros owns five of ’em between Barbie and Color Purple.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the shortlists in 10 categories for the upcoming 96th Oscars ceremony. Overall, Greta Gerwig’s meta-comedy “Barbie” had the most mentions with five including sound, original song for its three submissions from Billie Eilish (“What I Was Made For?”), Dua Lipa (“Dance the Night”) and Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt (“I’m Just Ken”), and original score, from the latter duo. The big miss for “Barbie” was in makeup and hairstyling, which was the category that yielded the most surprises.

Today is not just significant for the solstice and the passing of fall into winter, it also is the first bell ringing in the race for Oscar as the Academy has just announced semi-finalists in 10 categories.

Supernova: The Music Festival Massacre, an upcoming documentary about October 7’s Hamas attack on Israeli music festival Supernova Sukkot Gathering, is being planned for release in the UK and other parts of the world.Per a report from Variety, the hour-long documentary has been acquired by a “major” broadcaster in the UK, and has been picked up by the BBC World Service, ZDF in Germany, SVT in Sweden, DR in Denmark, RAI in Italy, VRT in Belgium, CNews in France and Record TV in Brazil.Supernova: The Music Festival Massacre – co-directed by Duki Dror (Netflix‘s Inside The Mossad) and Yossi Bloch (Netflix‘s The Devil Next Door) – is set to premiere in Israel on December 23.In the documentary, survivors of the attack and first-responders share their testimonies and open up about the horrific events that transpired at the music festival in October at the hands of Hamas terrorists.Producer Reinhardt Beetz said in a statement to Variety that “the full details of this coordinated terror attack are only now coming together, providing a comprehensive story that will undoubtedly resonate for years to come.”Co-drector Duki Dror added: “The scenes and testimonies we have documented are almost inconceivable and unprecedented.

Alice Walker started the phenomenon with her 1982 Pulitizer Prize winning book, and three years later Steven Spielberg turned it into a movie that won 11 Oscar nominations. In 2005 it took on new life as a Broadway musical, and in 2015 that musical got a Tony and Grammy winning revival.