Are Golden Globe Winners Elton John & Bernie Taupin and Hildur Guenadóttir Now Oscar Front-Runners?
Talk about perfect timing. Hildur Guenadóttir won a Golden Globe for best original score for Joker on Sunday night (Jan. 5) — right smack in the middle of the five-day voting period for the Oscar nominations (Jan. 2-7).
Likewise, Elton John and Bernie Taupin took the Globe for best original song for “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman just as Oscar voters are gearing up to meet the deadline.
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So are these now the front-runners to win the Oscars in these categories? That’s probably fair to say, especially after Taron Egerton and Joaquin Phoenix won Globes of their own for their lead performances in those films. But it’s hardly a done deal.
Six of the last 10 Globe winners for best original song went on to win the Oscar, as did seven of the last 10 Globe winners for best original score. But last year’s score winner at the Globes, Justin Hurwitz‘s First Man, wasn’t even nominated for the Oscar. So Globe winners can’t get too comfortable.
Hildur is the first woman to win a Globe on her own for best original score. Lisa Gerrard won the 2000 award in collaboration with Hans Zimmer. Hildur is the second Icelandic composer to win in this category. The late Jóhann Jóhannsson won five years ago for The Theory of Everything. Hildur won an Emmy in September for her work on HBO’s Chernobyl. She is nominated for a Grammy on Jan. 26 for that same piece. (Her Joker score was released after the Grammys’ Aug. 31, 2019 eligibility cut-off, but it will be eligible next year.)
Both John and Taupin had won the Golden Globe for best original song before, but separately. John won for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King (1994), which he co-wrote with Tim Rice. Taupin won for “A Love That Will Never Grow Old” from Brokeback Mountain (2005), which he co-wrote with Gustavo Santaolla. John’s song went on to win the Oscar as well. Taupin’s song wasn’t even nominated for the Oscar.
As John pointed out in his Globes acceptance speech, this is the first major award they’ve won as a team. They never won a Grammy as a team. In fact, they have had only one Grammy nomination as a team: their 1971 score for the film Friends was nominated for best original score written for a motion picture or a television special. (For the record, they were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame the same year: 1992.)
The Globes first presented an award for best original score in 1948. The award for best original song originated in 1962.
This year’s Oscar nominations will be announced on Jan. 13. Final-round Oscar voting runs from Jan. 30 to Feb. 4. The 92nd annual Academy Awards will be presented on Feb. 9.
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