Oscars 2019: Kendrick Lamar and SZA will not play "All Stars"

A few days before the Oscars 2019, Variety announced Thursday that Kendrick Lamar and SZA would not play their nominated song "All the Stars", taken from Black Pantherduring the Sunday broadcast. And nobody else will do it either.

This means that out of five nominees in the Best Original Song category, only four will be played live during the broadcast.

It's a bit odd, especially in light of the chaos around this year's show. At the end of January, the performances of the nominated songs became part of a series of controversial hot spots, after Variety announced that only two of the five candidates had been included: "All the stars "and" Shallow ", from A star is born. (Notably, they were also the only two nominees.)

But widespread criticism of this plan – which was presumably designed to streamline and shorten the spread – The Academy said the five songs would be played after all, but in a "truncated, 90-second" form.

A few weeks later, however, it appears that the Academy failed to convince Lamar and SZA to appear. (The duo also did not play "All the Stars" at the Grammys, where the song was nominated for four awards, including the record of the year and the song of the year.)

According to Variety, a source close to the situation explained that the imminent absence was due to "logistics and timing".

Emma McIntyre / Getty Images for the Recording Academy

So now, unless something changes again, the Oscars will only present four of the five nominees for the best original song (as well as a special appearance by Queen, the band featured in the Best Film nomination Bohemian Rhapsodydirected by Adam Lambert).

We do not know if other artists have been invited to play "All Stars". This is what happens with "The place where lost things go" from Mary Poppins is back, which was played in the film by Emily Blunt, but will be played at the Oscars by Bette Midler.

The other three nominated songs will be performed by the artists who originally recorded them. "Shallow", of A star is bornLady Gaga and Bradley Cooper (who also directed the film). Jennifer Hudson will play a selection of "I'll Fight", documentary RBG. And Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings will play "When a cowboy swaps his spurs for wings" of The ballad of Buster Scruggs.

The 2019 Oscars will air on Sunday, February 24 at 8 pm Eastern Time / 5 pm Pacific Time on ABC.