Mary J. Blige Joins Illustrious Group of Golden Globes Double Music-Acting Nominees
Perhaps the most surprising double-nomination for this year’s Golden Globes: the twin nods given to Mary J. Blige for best supporting actress and best song — for the film “Mudbound” and its song “Mighty River.” With those, Blige becomes the first performer to be simultaneously nominated in song and acting since John C. Reilly got dual nods for “Walk Hard” 10 years ago. Barbra Streisand, Bjork and Dolly Parton are the other female singer/actors who have scored nominations in both categories in the past, while Reilly and Neil Diamond are the male dual nominees. Only Streisand has won both (for the 1976 film “A Star Is Born”).
Few other surprises popped up in the Globes’ music categories. Other best song contenders include “Remember Me” from “Coco” and “This is Me” from “The Greatest Showman,” both of which are frequently cited as among the frontrunners in the Oscars’ best song contest.
Two songs sung and co-written by major pop stars for animated films also made the cut — Mariah Carey’s “The Star” (from the film of the same name) and Nick Jonas’ “Home” (from “Ferdinand”). Neither of which has been as prominently predicted in the awards chatter. In a poll of Oscar-watching journalists at GoldDerby.com, the Carey and Jonas songs had only come up at 22nd and 23rd place, respectively.
The score category largely matches up with the prevailing Oscar nomination wisdom. The Globes put up John Williams for “The Post,” Hans Zimmer for “Dunkirk,” Alexandre Desplat for “The Shape of Water,” and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood for “Phantom Thread,” all of whom have come to dominate awards predictions in recent weeks.
If there’s a surprise choice for score, it’s Carter Burwell’s work on “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” a folk-oriented piece that’s decidedly lower-key than some of the other efforts. “Billboards” is clearly riding a crest, with six Globe nominations, including Burwell’s.
Most surprising of the so-called snubs in the best song category: Sufjan Stevens’ “Mystery of Love,” from “Call Me By Your Name,” which has been widely picked as an Oscar shoo-in, despite the indie-rocker’s lack of previous Hollywood gold. Other oft-named contenders left out by the Globes include “Evermore” from “Beauty and the Beast,” “Stand Up for Something” from “Marshall,” “It Ain’t Fair” from “Detroit,” Chris Cornell’s title song for “The Promise,” and “Truth to Power” from “An Inconvenient Sequel.” Taylor Swift had previously been nominated by the Globes, for her song from “One Chance” in 2013, but came up short this time with “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever (Fifty Shades Darker), the biggest pop hit from among this year’s movie theme songs.
Talked-about scores that didn’t make it into the top five included “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (not screened in time for Globes voting, although Williams faces long odds for a double Oscar nomination, in any case), “Darkest Hour,” “Blade Runner 2049,” and “War for the Planet of the Apes.”
Blige is getting her first Globe nomination as an actress, but she’s previously been up for best song, for “The Living Proof” from “The Help” in 2011. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is clearly partial to Blige; another song she sang, but did not co-write, “Never Gonna Break My Faith” from 2006’s “Bobby,” was also nominated. Blige did not make an acting appearance in either of those films.
The Globes’ music winners often match up with the Oscars’, although they’ve occasionally rewarded songs by superstars that don’t even make it into Academy Award contention, like Madonna’s song from “W.E.” (deemed ineligible for an Oscar), a Cher-sung, Diane-Warren-written tune from “Burlesque,” and a Prince composition from “Happy Feet.”
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