Exclusive: Siedah Garrett Talks About Her Oscar Nominationby Wilson Morales
January 25, 2012
As the Oscar nominations were announced yesterday, one of the surprising aspects mentioned were the number of nominees in the Best Song category. Normally, there are five choices, but this year and the for the first time ever, only two were chosen out of the 39 songs that were eligible for a nomination. Some of those songs were sung by notables such as Mary J. Blige, Elton John, Chris Cornell, Zooey Deschanel, and others.
The two songs that finally made the cut were Bret McKenzie’s “Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets,” and Brazilian musician Sergio Mendes’ “Real In Rio” from the animated film “Rio.”
Mendes shares his nomination with Carlinhos Brown and singer-songwriter Siedah Garrett, who wrote the lyrics to the song.
For Garrett, who’s written dozens of songs and is known for her association with Michael Jackson, having sung a duet with Jackson on “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” and co-writing the #1 single “Man in the Mirror,” this is her second Academy Award nomination in the Best Song category. In 2007, she received a nomination for Best Original Song for the Jennifer Hudson solo “Love You I Do” from the musical film, “Dreamgirls.”
In speaking exclusively with Blackfilm.com, Garrett gave us her reaction over the nomination.
How did you hear about the nomination?
Siedah Garrett: I was up late last night writing and I was trying to send my finished lyrics to my co-writer and I started getting all these emails from the east coast. I ignored them at first because I was in work mode and went to sleep closer to 6am. Then I woke up to a slew of congratulatory message for my second Oscar nomination.
Had you known that your song was in contention for a nomination?
SG: No. I didn’t really pay attention. I’m not up on these things. I don’t check the newspapers everyday and check to see what was in the running. So, it’s quite a pleasant surprise when it comes together unbeknownst to you. It’s cool and I’m still buzzing. I’ve been emotionally high all day. To be in this with Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown is great. They have been at this for years. I’m really happy for Sergio. This is his first Oscar nod and he’s been in the business for 50 plus years. He’s so deserving of this nomination.
How did you initially come to write the song?
SG: I was invited very early on in the making of this film. The original music was all in Portuguese and they had asked somebody to do direct translations, which were weird. It’s always weird when you try to do that, from one language to another. My dear friend Sergio (Mendes) remembered that I had done something for ‘Dreamgirls’ and asked that I be given a shot and see what I could come up with. It was literally trial by fire. I thought I was going in to show and sing my lyrics to the director and composer, and it turned out to be like eight background singers, four execs from Fox, the director, and the producer, and they were like, “Hit it.” That was crazy. They loved what I did and when I left that day they gave me another song to write. I came a couple of days later and they another song to write. So I had like four or five songs in the film and this song and another were I thought would be considered. One of the songs was sung by Jamie Foxx but because there was a little bit of animated dialogue mixed in with the song, some new Oscar qualifying rule disqualified that song for that reason. I thought my hopes were dashed. I didn’t know that they were going to consider ‘Real in Rio.’ There it is.
There are usually five songs in the Best Song category, but to be one of the two songs nominated must be extra special.
SG: The last time I was nominated, it was for the movie ‘Dreamgirls’ and there were three songs from the film in the competition. The odds at that time were 20 percent of winning. This time, it’s me and a frog. I hope to make someone green with envy. Normally they ask us to perform the Oscar nominated songs, so hopefully that’s going to happen. I’m looking forward to so much of this process. My favorite part of this whole thing is the week before the Oscars, you can meet all the nominees at this big luncheon.
What are you working on now?
SG: I just begun a relationship with this company called ArtistShare. It’s a company that allows recording artists who don’t have a presence with a major record label to connect with their fans, and their fans sort of fund their album project. When Michael (Jackson) passed, a lot of his fans were alerted to me because they wondered how they can still stay connected with him now that he’s gone, and all the people that were associated with him weren’t on their list. I started getting all these hits on my website with fans asking me when I’m coming out with a new record and can they talk to me about Michael. There was so much information coming at me from the time that has passed. From that, my handlers were telling me that I should give fans what they want. If they want you to make a record, and I want to, and the fans want to support it, I have no desire but to give them exactly what they want. That’s where I’m at right now. I’m recording with Michael Jackson’s producer and a man I’ve recorded with for many years with Quincy Jones, and his name is Bruce Swedien. He’s the best sound engineer on the planet. I wrote a song as a dedication to Michael and it’s like my answer to our duet, ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ and I wanted him to hear the song and he loved it, but wanted to do some re-recording. We ended up doing three songs so far. We’re going back to do more and I will also be collaborating with Glen Ballard again on this upcoming album.
