General News
The Academy Announces Common and John Legend To Perform At Oscars, “Team Oscar” Winners & FROZEN Composers Writing Musical Number For Neil Patrick Harris
Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures
In today’s Academy News:
Musical artists Common and John Legend will perform their Oscar-nominated song “Glory” at the 87th Oscars, show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced today.
“Common and John Legend are artists who have always lifted our spirits and made us think,” said Zadan and Meron. “The Oscar stage is that much more profound because of their presence and we welcome them.”
“Glory,” written by John Stephens (a.k.a. John Legend) and Lonnie Lynn (a.k.a. Common) for the film “Selma,” is nominated for Original Song. The four other nominated songs are “Everything Is Awesome” from “The Lego Movie,” “Grateful” from “Beyond the Lights,” “I’m Not Gonna Miss You” from “Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me” and “Lost Stars” from “Begin Again.”
Common won a Grammy in 2002 for Best R&B Song for “Love Of My Life (An Ode To Hip Hop),” and in 2007 for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for “Southside,” with Kanye West. His many acting credits include the films “American Gangster,” “Wanted,” “Date Night” and “Selma,” in which he plays the role of Civil Rights leader James Bevel.
Legend is a nine time Grammy-winning singer/songwriter. His critically acclaimed debut album, “Get Lifted,”scored multiple Grammy Awards in 2006, including Best R&B Album, Best New Artist and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. The follow up was the platinum-selling “Once Again,” which garnered a Best Male R&B Performance nod. Legend’s most recent highly acclaimed fourth studio album, “Love in the Future,” scored two Grammy nominations and features his break out hit, “All of Me,” which is his highest selling and charting song to date and also earned a 2015 Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Solo Performance.
Actor Channing Tatum announced the winners of “Team Oscar” during his appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” The winners will deliver Oscar statuettes to celebrity presenters at the 87th Oscars on Sunday, February 22, live on ABC. Team Oscar winners were selected by Oscar producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, Tatum, and the Academy, based on a creative 60-second video on the subject, “The best piece of advice I’ve ever received.”
“Now in its third year, our Team Oscar program has become a real tradition for The Academy. We love giving these incredibly talented young filmmakers the experience of what it’s like to be on the Oscars stage, and making sure that everyone on that stage is connected to the future of film,” says Zadan and Meron.
The Team Oscar winners are:
- Chris Carmona – Hometown: Bell, CA
- Justin Craig – Hometown: Ballston Spa, NY
- Kelly FitzGerald – Hometown: Geneva, NY
- Justin Floyd – Hometown: Compton, CA
- Rhianna Shaheen – Hometown: Virginia Beach, VA
- Patrick Walker – Hometown: Atlanta, GA
The winners’ videos can be viewed here.
“I’m so impressed by the creativity, passion and hard work that went into this year’s Team Oscar submissions,” said Tatum. “It was difficult to pick just six winners, but I’ll be proud to share the Oscars stage with these talented, young filmmakers in a few weeks.”
Team Oscar was open to U.S. citizens, ages 18 to 30. Filmmakers submitted, through the Academy’s Facebook page, a creative 60-second video on the subject “The best piece of advice I’ve ever received.”
United Airlines, the official airline sponsor of the Academy and of the Oscars telecast, will roll out the red carpet to fly the winners to Los Angeles to participate in Team Oscar.
In addition to their appearance on the Oscars, the winners will have a chance to explore the renowned collections at the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library, tour motion picture studios, and participate in meet-and greets-with filmmakers at Oscar Week events.
Davis Barber / ©A.M.P.A.S.
Oscar host Neil Patrick Harris and show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron shared that the Oscar-winning songwriting team from “Frozen,” Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, are in the midst of writing an original multimedia, musical sequence, “Moving Pictures,” which Harris will perform on Oscar Sunday, February 22, on ABC. Harris made the initial announcement on his Twitter account, posting the network’s first tweet using its new mobile video camera feature.
“On the heels of the international success of last year’s “Frozen” and their Oscar for “Let It Go,” we couldn’t be happier to have Kristen and Bobby Lopez write an incredibly special song for Neil Patrick Harris and special guests to perform this year on the Oscar stage,” said Zadan and Meron. “YouTube, get ready!”
“We love the Oscars and have always been huge Neil Patrick Harris fans, so when he asked us to write him a song for this year’s show we said, ‘Yes!’ before he could finish the sentence – it’s possible he may have been asking us for something else,” said the Lopezes. “We are having so much fun collaborating, and have even enjoyed weaving our experience as Oscar nominees into the song.”
Lopez is an Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy winning songwriter and co-creator of the worldwide smash-hit Broadway musicals “Avenue Q” and “The Book of Mormon.” Anderson-Lopez in an Oscar-winning songwriter for film and television, who along with her husband, co-wrote songs for “Frozen” and “Winnie the Pooh.” The pair won an Oscar for original song for “Let It Go” from the 2013 Oscar-winning animated film “Frozen,” and are currently working on music for the upcoming stage musical “Up Here.”
The 87th Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. The Oscars, produced by Zadan and Meron, also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.
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