8 Oscar Music Facts You May Not Know
You watched the Oscars. You may have even caught the pre-show and stuck around for the post-show. Even so, you may not know these eight facts about music people who appeared on this year's show.
1. Robert Lopez, who co-wrote "Let It Go," the winner for Original Song, became the 12th winner of the celebrated "EGOT," which signifies those versatile (and lucky) people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. Moreover, Lopez, who turned 39 on Feb. 23, is the youngest person to complete an EGOT. That distinction was formerly held by Rita Moreno, who was 45 in 1977 when she completed the awards sweep.
2. Lopez co-wrote the power ballad from "Frozen" with his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez. They're the fourth married couple to win an Oscar for Original Song. They follow Alan & Marilyn Bergman (who won for both "The Windmills Of Your Mind" and "The Way We Were"), Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager ("Arthur's Theme [Best That You Can Do"]), and Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie ("Up Where We Belong"). (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who co-wrote "Falling Slowly," were romantically involved, but weren't married.)
3. This marked the 10th time in the past 25 years that a song from an animated movie has won for Original Song. Songs from animated movies had won Oscars dating back to "When You Wish Upon A Star" from 1940's "Pinocchio," but the contemporary winning streak started with "Under The Sea," from 1989's "The Little Mermaid."
[Related: See Oscars Red Carpet Arrivals]
4. Jared Leto became just the fourth actor or actress who has had sustained success as a singer to win an Oscar for a non-singing role. The first three: Frank Sinatra (1953's "From Here To Eternity"), Shirley Jones (1960's "Elmer Gantry"), and Cher (1987's "Moonstruck"). Leto, who fronts the band Thirty Seconds To Mars, won for his touching portrayal of the transgender character Rayon in "Dallas Buyers Club." Leto, 42, is also doing well in his music career. Thirty Seconds To Mars landed its first top 10 album, "Love, Lust, Faith And Dreams," last spring.
5. Pharrell Williams's "Happy" reached No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 last Wednesday. Sales for the infectious song have increased single every week since the week ending Dec. 8. (Last week, they reached a robust 405K.) And sales may well increase again in the coming week thanks to Williams's performance on the show. "Happy" is set to top the 2 million mark in U.S. sales this coming week. It also returns to No. 1 on the U.K.'s Official Singles Chart this week. The song will also boost sales of Williams's album "G I R L," which is due on Monday (March 3).
6. This was U2's second performance on the Oscars. Eleven years ago, the band performed the nominated "The Hands That Built America" from "Gangs Of New York." U2's song, "Ordinary Love" (from "Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom"), entered the Hot 100 last Wednesday at #99. It's the band's first chart single since "Magnificent" in 2009.
7. "Over The Rainbow," which P!nk performed as part of a 75th anniversary salute to "The Wizard Of Oz" was the sixth winner of the Oscar for Original Song. Judy Garland, then just 17, performed the song on the Academy Awards on Feb. 29, 1940, when it took the award. Garland won a special Oscar that night inscribed, "To Judy Garland for her outstanding performance as a screen juvenile during the past year."
8. "20 Feet From Stardom" won for Documentary Feature. This is the second year in a row a music doc has won. "Searching For Sugar Man" (about the search for American folk musician Sixto Rodriguez) won last year. This is the first time in more than 40 years that music docs have won back-to-back awards in this category. "Arthur Rubinstein — The Love Of Life" and "Woodstock" were the winners for 1969 and 1970, respectively. Morgan Neville directed "20 Feet." Gil Friesen and Caitrin Rogers jointly produced it. Friesen, who had the idea for the movie, was president of A&M Records from 1977-1990. He died in December 2012, one month before the movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
