The 92nd Academy Awards will forever be remembered as the night Parasite made history by becoming the first international film to win Best Picture. It’s also one of the rare Oscars where the Academy actually got it right with most of the winners. Except for Renee Zellweger. I’m still baffled by that one.
Another baffling thing about this year’s show though (besides that Cats joke) is that there were a lot of musical numbers. Like, more than a dozen, and it got to the point where I wasn’t sure if I was watching the Oscars or the Grammys.
And the musical number that highlighted that confusion was Eminem performing “Lose Yourself.” The performance itself was fine – Em seemed to be rapping some of the time while other moments he appeared to be lip-syncing – and the crowd was head-bobbing and enjoying it, too. Except for Martin Scorsese, who was all but asleep.
But why? The track is 18 years old. It did win the Oscar for Best Song back in 2002, but Eminem didn’t bother to show up because he didn’t think he was going to win. In a recent interview, though, the rapper explained why he returned for the 2020 Oscars, saying:
“I kinda figured maybe since I didn’t get a chance to do it at the time, maybe it would be cool. Back then, I never even thought that I had a chance to win, and we had just performed Lose Yourself on the Grammys with the Roots a couple of weeks before the Oscars, so we didn’t think it was a good idea. And also, back at the time, the younger me didn’t really feel like a show like that would understand me.”
His performance did follow a montage celebrating music in movies, but it was still odd to see the 47-year-old up there. The idea certainly didn’t come from the man himself, but rather from someone at the Oscars, and as he explains, it was a good opportunity since he’s just released a new album.
“I think that’s pretty much how it went. And it was cool because we just put out an album, so we said maybe that’ll make sense with the timing of the new album.”
Honestly, I usually skip past the musical numbers because again, I’m here for movies, not music. But seeing Eminem up there was certainly a trip down memory lane. It also makes me wonder what will it be next year? Celine Dion singing “My Heart Will Go On”? Quite possibly.