Oscars: “Slumdog” Scores Best Picture and Music Category Sweep

Slumdog Millionaire dominated at last night’s 81st Academy Awards, nabbing eight Oscars from its 10 nominations, including Best Picture. In addition to winning Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and a slew of technical awards, Slumdog also swept the major music categories as composer A.R. Rahman took home Oscars for both Best Original Song (”Jai Ho”) and Best Score.

In the musical introduction prior to the Best Original Song presentation, Rahman performed both his nominated songs, “Jai Ho” and “O Saya.” While the version of “O Saya” on the Slumdog soundtrack features M.I.A., the rapper did not perform at the Oscars, presumably because she has just given birth. The third nominee for Best Original Song, Peter’s Gabriel’s “Here on Earth” from Wall-E, was performed by John Legend after Gabriel boycotted performing at the ceremony due to the mandated shortened version of his song. In another of the ceremony’s music numbers, Beyonce joined host Hugh Jackman for a tribute to musicals of Hollywood and Broadway past.

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SOURCE: Rolling Stone