When Netflix's Will Ferrell vehicle Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga was released on the service last year, nothing about it really screamed Oscar contender — except for the soaring climactic number, "Husavik." (And Dan Stevens' wink, but we all knew the Academy wasn't ready for that.)
In a year where everyone was either very much at home or felt very far away from their home towns, and where whole cities stopped at the same time each day to applaud their hometown heroes, there was something heartwarming about "Husavik" — a passionate, Disney-worthy ode to the simple beauty of the place where you're from and the love that always waits there for you. The residents of Husavik, the real-life fishing town in Iceland that Ferrell and Rachel McAdams' lead characters were from, were so thrilled by the song's success that they even made their own For Your Consideration video.
Sadly, while this gorgeously earnest belter from a goofy Netflix movie did nab a nomination, the pared-down pandemic Oscars didn't have room for the usual sweeping staged renditions of the Best Song contenders. They were pre-taped and relegated to the pre-show instead, so you might have missed deserving winner H.E.R. moving seamlessly from behind her drum kit to centre stage while singing Judas and the Black Messiah's "Fight For You", Leslie Odom Jr.'s understated performance of One Night In Miami's "Speak Now" on a stark white stage, and Molly Sanden's note-perfect rendition of "Husavik" from the IRL town itself, complete with an angelic choir of Icelandic children in knitted sweaters and even fireworks lighting up the fishing boats.
The Oscar telecast's producers made some extremely interesting choices with this year's show, but perhaps the most unfair was denying all these talented artists — and those adorable kids — a bigger moment on the night.
Topics Oscars
