Elton John, Lady Gaga among pop stars snubbed in Oscar best song category

The consolation for Elton John, Lady Gaga, Mary J. Blige, Elvis Costello, Willie Nelson, Brad Paisley, Chris Cornell, Zooey Deschanel and other superstar pop, rock and country musicians who got snubbed in the best song Academy Award nominations announced Tuesday is that they’re in pretty stellar company.

With just two songs earning nominations —“Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets” and “Real in Rio” from “Rio” -- the list of also-rans includes a bounty of heavyweight performers and songwriters.

Yet they didn’t score enough points with Academy voters to make the final nomination list. Voters had 39 songs to sort through this year, for which they were asked to assign a score to each on a scale of 6 to 10 points, after viewing clips from each film that included the eligible song.

FULL COVERAGE: The Oscar nominees

Only songs that received an average of 8.25 points or more could be nominated, with a maximum of five songs in the category, and no more than two songs from the same film.

Among the songs that fell short of that score were two Elton John songs from “Gnomeo and Juliet”: “Love Builds a Garden” and his duet with Lady Gaga, “Hello Hello.” Mary J. Blige’s “Living Proof” from “The Help” and Elvis Costello’s “Sparkling Day” from “One Day” were under consideration, along with Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell’s “The Keeper” from “Machine Gun Preacher,” Deschanel’s “So Long” from “Winnie the Pooh” and Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am’s “Hot Wings,” also from “Rio.”

One of the most powerful songs to appear in a movie last year was J. Ralph’s “Hell and Back,” sung by Willie Nelson. But because it appeared in a documentary, director Danfung Dennis’ “Hell and Back Again” about the war in Afghanistan, it was a longshot for a nomination.

Country musicians with songs in mainstream hits didn't fare any better: Zac Brown was one of the writers of “Where the River Goes” from the remake of “Footloose,” and Brad Paisley was eligible, with co-writer Robbie Williams, for “Collision of Worlds,” from “Cars 2.”

And even being an Academy Award veteran was no guarantee of a nomination this year: Eight-time Oscar winner and 19-time nominee Alan Menken didn’t make the cut with “Star Spangled Man” from “Captain America.”

As others have noted, if this year’s Oscar telecast runs late, it won’t be because of a surfeit of nominated song performances.

Lady Gaga 'So Happy' About Oscar Recognition

Pop star's duet with Elton John, 'Hello Hello,' is on short list for Best Original Song.

How does Lady Gaga feel about making the short list for the Best Original Song race at the Oscars? Well, she's pretty excited.

"Just heard my duet 'Hello, Hello' with Elton [John] is up for nomination at the Oscars! 'Gnomeo & Juliet' is such a beautiful film," she wrote on Twitter. "I'm so happy!!"

On Monday, it was announced that the Gaga/Elton duet is one of the 39 tracks vying for a nomination. will.i.am's "Rio" track, "Hot Wings," Mary J. Blige's "The Living Proof" from "The Help," and Zooey Deschanel's "Winnie the Pooh" track, "So Long," along with multiple tracks from "The Muppets," are also in the running. The final nominations will be announced January 24, and the awards show is slated to take place February 26 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles.

Gaga is celebrating her latest achievement in Japan, where she will spend the holidays. "Well, I'll be in Japan right up until Christmas Day," she recently told MTV News. "So I'll be eating with all my Japanese Little Monsters. I like shabu shabu [a type of Japanese hotpot]."

Since touching down, Mother Monster has been keeping her fans up-to-date on what she's been up to on Twitter. "Sipping tea in Japan with Haus. Feeling so grateful," she wrote. "We sold about 1 million albums a month worldwide since the release of BORN THIS WAY."

The busy holiday season caps off an even busier year for Lady Gaga, who happened to be MTV News' Top Newsmaker of 2011. She tirelessly released singles, videos, personas and a chart-topping album (Born This Way) and scooped up awards at seemingly every show from the Grammys to the VMAs. She was also #5 on our list of Best Artists of 2011, and her disco empowerment track "Born This Way" snagged the #5 spot on theBest Songs of 2011 list as well.

Lady GaGa Named On The Oscars 'Best Song' Longlist

She's picked up a mention for Elton John duet, Hello Hello...

09:28, Tuesday, 20 December 2011

Lady GaGa has been named on The Oscars2012 longlist in the Best Song category.

The Marry The Night singer is mentioned in the list of 39 songs hoping for a nomination, with her Gnomeo and Juliet duet, Hello Hello, with Elton John in the race for a place in the final list.

Elton's solo track Love Builds A Garden also features, while Mary J. Blige has received a nod for The Help's Living Proof.

Robbie Williams and Brad Paisley's Cars 2 collaboration Collision of Worlds will also go head-to-head with Will.I.Am's track Hot Wings from the movie Rio and Zooey Deschanel's So Long, taken from Winnie the Pooh.

Madonna has missed out on a place in the longlist as her song Masterpiece from flick W.E.featured too far into the movie's end credits - with the rules stating it must be a lead song to received a nomination.

Out of the 39 tracks appearing on the longlist, only five will secure a nod and make the shortlist in the Best Song category.

However, if not one song receives enough votes from members of the Academy, there could be no category at all.

The voting process begins on 5th January, while the full 2012 Oscars nominations will be announced live on 24th January 2012, at 5.30am PT at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theatre.