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.

GLAAD Media Award Nominations Go to Anderson Cooper, Lady Gaga, Chaz Bono and More

It must make GLAAD very glad to see the works of Chaz Bono, Anderson Cooper and Lady Gaga.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has nominated these fine folks, along with other artists, movies and television series, for the 23rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards, which recognize and honor media for outstanding images of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Who else made the cut?

GET LAST YEAR'S LIST: GLAAD-Handed: The Kids Are All Right, Glee, Scott Pilgrim, Burlesque and More

When it comes to the big screen, Beginners, a story about a father coming out to his son after the death of his wife, starring newly minted Golden Globe winner Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor, made the list. And alongside of it is the biopic J. Edgar, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Armie Hammer.

Of course, some of television's favorites (including some returning nominees) also got a special honor from GLAAD: Shameless, The Big C, Glee, Modern Family, NCIS, the AIDS documentary We Were Here, Dancing With the Stars, the wedding of a gay staffer on Conan and TheRoot.com's "Black and Transgender: A Double Burden," got recognized as well.

Ricky Martin scored a nom for his Spanish album, Música + Alma + Sexo.

MORE: View the full nominations list

"As media continue to tell new stories about LGBT people and families, a majority of Americans now support full equality of LGBT Americans," said Mike Thompson, GLAAD's acting president. "This year's nominees enlighten and entertain, while spotlighting the diversity of our community. 

Audiences expect to see their own worlds reflected in media, and today more than ever, those include the lives of LGBT people. 

Viewers know that LGBT characters and stories are simply natural extensions of, and glimpses into, their own experiences from across America."

Read more: http://www.eonline.com/news/glaad_media_award_nominations_go/287618#ixzz1juDLTv7o

Lady Gaga Nominated For Grammy Nominees 2012

Lady Gaga earns three nominations, including Album of the Year for "Born This Way"

OMAHA, Neb. -- One of the biggest pop stars in the world, Lady Gaga, sings about her "Nebraska guy" in one of her biggest songs. But another Nebraska guy is also getting credit for the song.

On the radio and on iPods everywhere, Lady Gaga's song "You and I" still gets a lot of play. Her voice track for the song was recorded in Omaha, and the guy who runs the studio has been nominated, along with the music superstar, for a Grammy.

Tom Ware, of Ware House Productions, runs one of the most acoustically perfect studios in the world. Back in March, when Lady Gaga was in town for show at the CenturyLink Center, she recorded the vocal track for the song.

"It was one of those moments. It was all about capturing the performance, capturing the magic," Ware said.

Ware said after spending two hours mixing the track, he sent it off to producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange is Switzerland.

The song became an instant No. 1 hit, and it's found on Lady Gaga's Born This Way album.

Ware learned that the album has been nominated for a Grammy last week. And after 30 years of recording and creating music, Ware said this is one of his proudest moments. But he doesn't plan to make any career changes if it wins.

Ware said Lady Gaga was so down to earth, and she even took his feedback and opinions into consideration during the recording.

The Grammy Awards Ceremony is Feb. 12.

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.

Lady GaGa Voted Billboard's 'Most Overrated' Artist

Lady GaGa has been named the 'Most Overrated' artist of 2011 by voters inBillboard's Year in Music poll.

The Marry The Night singer topped the list with 30% of the votes, beating second-placeBritney Spears with 29% and Justin Bieber, who came third with 21%.

Despite topping the most overly hyped act of the year poll, GaGa was also top in the Best Fashion list, pulling in 30% of the votes due to her daring dress sense.

Bajan babe Rihanna was close behind Lady Gaga with 25%, while outlandish rapper Nicki Minajsecured 13% of the votes.

Earlier this week, the Born This Way star was also crowned the highest-earning female artist of the year by Forbes, after apparently pocketing a cool $90milion in 2011.

The 25-year old beat the likes of Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Beyoncé  - with Adele being the only UK act to feature in the list, thanks to her record-breaking album 21.

Lady Gaga's 14-minute music video puzzles, pleases

Lady Gaga made her music video directorial debut with a 14-minute production which was met on Friday with a mix of weariness and adulation by fans and pop culture watchers.

"Marry the Night" -- the fifth single from her "Born This Way" album -- sees the Grammy-winning performance artist making a trip to the hospital, dying her hair mint green, throwing Cheerios over her naked body and hanging upside down in a car -- all in the eight minutes before the song comes in.

Gaga, 25, told E! News that the surreal video, released on Thursday, was a portrait of the day she thought she saw her dreams slipping away from her when she was dropped from her first record label.

It was, she said, "one of the worst days in my life," but added that parts of the video were "meant to be comical."

People magazine called the video "an enigma" and said the autobiographical clip will "certainly leave fans talking, if not scratching their heads."

"AMAZING. Not just a pop singer, she's an artist," wrote Danny on the E! online message boards.

But others were clearly beginning to tire of the outrageous pop star and wondered whether Gaga was losing her touch.

"She has gone from bold to being an exhibitionist. You can't help but wonder if she has gone from a normal person to actually believing she is the persona. Poor girl," wrote Marko on the E! online board.

But Michael Gragg, writing for Britain's Guardian newspaper website, liked the fact that Lady Gaga was "embracing the ridiculous."

"Superstars are at their best when they're simultaneously aware and unaware of their own ridiculousness, and that's what 'Marry the Night' delivers for Lady Gaga. Oh, and the song's pretty good too," Gragg wrote on Friday.

Despite widespread publicity for the music video, and a performance by Lady Gaga of the new song on a Grammy nominations concert on U.S. television on Wednesday, "Marry the Night" has so far failed to catch fire.

On Friday, the song was in 38th place on the U.S. iTunes singles charts.

"I think she needs to do more editing of her creative ideas and songs ... If she gets too difficult to relate to she'll lose her fans by losing sight of the reasons they love her: fantasy, escape and her ideas about relationships, love and hard work," wrote Dragnfly on the People.com comments page.

Grammys: Lady Gaga goes zombie and the record of the year noms

Lady Gaga opened the annual Grammy nomination concert in what looked to be a "Nightmare Before Christmas" zombie costume, performing the dance-meets-hair metal mix-up that is "Marry the Night." The Halloween-like choreography played out like a nod to Michael Jackson's "Thriller," and Gaga's voice was strong enough to outshine the album's cornball guitar. 

From there, it was Nicki Minaj going straight into the nominations for record of the year. So let's go to it:

The category: Record of the yearThe nominations: 

"Rolling In the Deep" — Adele
"Holocene" — Bon Iver
"Grenade" — Bruno Mars
"The Cave" — Mumford & Sons
"Firework" — Katy Perry

The good: In terms of singers in 2011, it's hard to outshine Adele, and anything she sings and is submitted for a Grammy trophy has a shot at getting a nod. Her performance of "Rolling In the Deep" can bring a room to a halt. Mumford & Sons' "The Cave" is energetic, crowd-pleasing folk rock worthy of an audience.

The bad: A nomination for Bon Iver's "Holocene" is a nice win for the independent world, but the song is truly an insufferable listen, marrying unpleasant imagery with sweater-soft vocals and arrangements that completely drown the aggression in the lyrics. As for Katy Perry's "Firework," it's a throwaway self-esteem cheerlead, and Bruno Mars' "Grenade" is the precise definition of over-dramatic. 

What was missed? Kanye West's "All the Lights" was an exquisitely built anthem, Wilco's "I Might" was all funky power-pop energy, Mary J. Blige's "25/8" was a stop-and-star scorcher and TV on the Radio's "Will Do" was soul music for the digital age. And that's just a random look at the Grammy ballot.