Live performances of WICKEDan emotional musical number dedicated to Los Angeles and a tribute to Quincy Jones, will be part of Gala number 97 of the Oscar, according to EFE The producers of this Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan ceremony.
“This year it will be a little more about the love of cinema, and one of those musical moments will touch the theme about Los Angeles, you know the city we love so much and what has happened here, we want to celebrate that we are the heart of Hollywood, there are so much cinema that is done here,” says Kapoor.
This decision came in solidarity with those affected by the fires that impacted the city of the stars for three weeks in January and devastated the areas of Palisades and Altadena.
“It will be a lovely moment,” added the producer, who also advances that the reconstruction efforts that have been carried out in the city will be addressed throughout the gala.
The musical numbers of this edition were one of the issues that generated the most challenges to the producers: “We had to re -imagine and reimagine how we could address the ceremony in a different way,” explains Kapoor.
The intention was to put a special focus at the 23 categories of awards that will be delivered during the transmission, And with this, decisions were made, a little controversial, such as withdrawing live performances from the category of best original song.
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These adjustments “were not only in the original song, but in all, and this year we wanted to focus on the composers and not only the songs,” says Kapoor.
The executive producer of these awards explained that they are preparing a “beautiful film” to present the nominees of this edition in which artists such as Adrian Quesada and Abraham Alexander are nominated for Like a Bird of SING SING or Elton John and Brandi Carlile by Never Too Late of Elton John: Never Too Late.
“We have a beautiful film that is being made at this time that gives a small look at the process of composition of the original songs in a really unique way,” said Kapoor.
‘Wicked’ and Quincy Jones
However, The ceremony will have powerful musical numbers that, will continue with the festive atmosphere that Ryan Gosling created when he interpreted I’M Just Ken In 2024, as confirmed by Mandy Moore, supervisory choreographer of this edition, at a conference on Wednesday, February 26.
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Kapoor also ensures that the voices of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo will star in a number dedicated to ‘Wicked’, without specifying what popular Broadway musical songs will be; And in addition, this Wednesday made public that Queen Latifah will be part of a posthumous tribute to producer and musician Quincy Jones.
The 97 Óscar edition will be held on Sunday, March 2 at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, where the film Emilia Pérez part like the most nominated for the night with 13 of them.