Oscars 2013:The Musical

Last night's Oscars had more than it's fair share of ups and downs(not a slam about Jennifer Lawrence's stumble on the stairs,honest!) but despite the hit and(mainly)miss jokes by Seth McFarlane and dull moments such as Kristen Stewart's low energy(Sorry,hon,but you were more lifelike as a Twilight vampire than you were on stage there),there were some fun moments to be had.

 The theme of the show was Music of the Movies,which was a nice treat considering that for some time now,that portion of the awards was getting the short shift. This was made up for in abundance with a number of great performances that saluted the song and dance style of cinema very handily:

MRS. GOLDFINGER: The salute to 50 years of James Bond films had the expected clip montage and a delightful surprise as Dame Shirley Bassey appeared live to serenade the audience with "Goldfinger".

 Not only did she look amazing,her powerhouse vocals were in fine form. There have been many great theme songs from the Bond films but Bassey set the bar for that standard long ago and you can see and hear why.

Such a pleasure was worth sitting through those awkward presenter moments,if you ask me:

SKYFALL SIREN: Speaking of Bond girls,Adele performed her Oscar nominated theme for SkyFall(which tied with Zero Dark Thirty for the Best Sound Editing award,something that hasn't happened for over a decade) and later picked up her Oscar for Best Song.

The old school flair of her singing style was on full display and after Bassey's number,it was good to see that the musical legacy of James Bond was in good hands at this point in time.

Congrats to Adele for her win and much thanks for giving us a such beautiful Bond bouquet:

  DREAMGIRL GLORY: As part of a tribute to musicals of the past decade, Jennifer Hudson came out to do what she does best. Granted,the version of "And I Am Telling You"  she did was a condensed one but that didn't mean that Jennifer was going to verbally walk through this song at all.

 You could hear the impressed sighs in the audience as she pulled out all of the stops and rang every bell and whistle there. I know that some people consider this type of singing as screaming but with vocal harmony this strong and skillfully done,clearly there is a world of difference between singing your heart and soul out and screeching.

 Jennifer needs to do another musical(appearances on Smash are not enough!) movie ,Hollywood,pay attention and get on this,stat!:

Other musical highlights included Norah Jones singing her nominated tune from Ted and reenactments of  key numbers from Chicago and Le Miz. All in all,this Oscars may not have been as good as hoped for,yet they weren't quite that bad either.

 Congrats are in order for Argo(four wins,including Best Picture which gave Ben Affleck that award he was denied for in the Director's category),Daniel Day-Lewis,Anne Hathaway,Ang Lee,Christoph Waltz,Quentin Tarantino and Jennifer Lawrence. As for the musical segments helmed by Seth McFarlane,pretty good but fancy footwork can't make up for lame Lincoln jokes and a "We Saw Your Boobs" number.

 When all is said and done, we all had a memorable moment to treasure after this,plus a few songs to hum as it was over. For those who lost,take heart- at least there was a song to salute you on the way out: