The 96th Academy Awards will be held this Sunday, March 2, and we’ve already chosen our picks for the Oscars. However, this year’s ceremony will be the first time in years that none of the five nominees for Best Original Song will be given the chance to perform on the industry’s biggest stage.
There’s no good justification for the academy moving away from that tradition. The Oscars are always going to be bloated mess that stretches beyond the allotted three-hour run time. But watching the musical performances is almost always the best part. We’ll be shocked if the best song performances don’t make a comeback at next year’s ceremony. In the meantime, we’re sharing our picks for the best musical performances at the Oscars. It’s moments like these that illustrate why it’s so important for the songs to get their due on Oscar night.
10. Belle and Be Our Guest, Beauty and the Beast (1992)
When Beauty and the Beast arrived at the Oscars in 1992, it came with three different songs that were up for the big prize: Be Our Guest, Belle, and the eventual winner, Beauty and the Beast. All three were performed that night, including Beauty and the Beast by Celine Dion, Angela Lansbury & Peabo Bryson. That was a great performance in its own right.
However, we’re giving the nod to the double bill of Belle and Be Our Guest because these elaborate recreations actually featured the voice actors from the film — Paige O’Hara, Richard White, and Jerry Orbach — who got to step into their characters in live-action. Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman provided the music and lyrics for all three songs.
9. My Heart Will Go On, Titanic (1998)
There was no escaping this ballad when Titanic was in theaters. Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On was simply the song that defined 1997. Of course, it also won the an Academy Award for Best Song alongside Titanic‘s wins for Best Picture, Best Director, and more. There’s no denying that Dion is a great performer who put on an instant classic performance on the night she took home Oscar gold.
8. When You Believe, The Prince of Egypt (1999)
DreamWorks Animation’s first-ever animated film, The Prince of Egypt, has largely been forgotten and overshadowed by Shrek and the CGI movies that followed. But who could ever forget this Oscar moment when two legends — Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston — took the stage to perform When You Believe.
Needless to say, this song won the Oscar that year.
7. A Kiss At The End of the Rainbow, A Mighty Wind (2004)
Annette O’Toole and her husband, Michael McKean, co-wrote the Oscar-nominated A Kiss At the End of the Rainbow, but in A Mighty Wind, the song was performed by Mallory (O’Toole) and her ex-partner, Mickey (Eugene Levy).
This was a very stripped down performance compared to many of the over-the-top Oscar extravaganzas. But simplicity is exactly what this song needed. And yes, there really is a kiss at the end of this rainbow.
6. Glory, Selma (2015)
John Legend has had more than one chance to perform at the Oscars, but he was never better than this performance of Glory from Selma. The song was sung by Legend and his collaborator, Common, and both men made it an Oscar moment for the ages. It’s as much an anthem for action as it is an Oscar-winning song.
5. Blame Canada, South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999)
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is just lucky they didn’t nominate the song that starts with “Uncle” from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Matt Stone and Trey Parker wrote a lot of terrific songs for their extremely adult musical, and Blame Canada was probably the most socially acceptable of the bunch. It’s also the song that should have won the Oscar that year.
The late Robin Williams famously stepped in to perform Blame Canada at the Oscars, and he somehow made it even funnier. Williams is so wildly entertaining in this performance that he ranks among the all-time Oscar greats.
4. Shallow, A Star Is Born (2019)
Ever since A Star Is Born hit theaters in 2018, fans have been trying to manifest a love affair between Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. There’s no question that the pair have great chemistry when playing off each other, and they delivered a stunning duet of Shallow that demonstrated why it earned the Oscar that year. Cooper is a very good singer, but Gaga is on an entirely different level.
3. I’m Just Ken, Barbie (2024)
One of the funniest things about this clip is watching Barbie‘s eventual Oscar-winner for Best Song, Billie Eilish, struggle not to laugh as Ryan Gosling begins his performance of I’m Just Ken right in front of her. Gosling may not be the greatest singer, but he put everything into this absolutely epic showstopper. This performance included cameos from the other Kens in the movie, Slash, Margot Robbie, dozens of dancing Kens, and even Gosling’s La La Land co-star, Emma Stone.
2. Streets of Philadelphia, Philadelphia (1994)
They don’t call Bruce Springsteen “the Boss” for nothing. The team behind the Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington-led drama, Philadelphia, asked Springsteen to do something he had never done before by creating a song specifically for their film. Springsteen’s Streets of Philadelphia not only hit the mark, his live performance at the Academy Awards was breathtaking. Springsteen and Hanks were both deservedly given Oscar gold on that night.
1. Skyfall, Skyfall (2013)
Amazingly, none of the James Bond opening themes had won an Oscar before Adele’s Skyfall in the film of the same name. There’s a haunting quality to both Adele’s performance and the song itself, which perfectly embodied Bond’s anguish. Adele and the academy also resisted the urge to go over-the-top with Skyfall‘s presentation. Adele is accompanied by a backing orchestra and singers, but the song’s greatest special effect was her own unforgettable voice.
