‘A Star Is Born,’ ‘Black Panther,’ ‘Mary Poppins’ Lead Oscar Music Nominations

By Jon Burlingame

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Songs from “A Star Is Born,” “Black Panther,” “RBG,” “Mary Poppins Returns” and “The Ballad of Lester Scruggs” were nominated for Best Song for the 2019 Academy Awards, announced Tuesday morning, while “BlacKkKlansman,” “,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Isle of Dogs” and “Mary Poppins Returns” received nods for Best Score.

Specifically, the Best Song nominees are Lady Gaga and her co-writers (Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt) for “Shallow” from “”; Kendrick Lamar and his co-writers (Sounwave, SZA, Top Dawg) for “All the Stars” from “Black Panther”; Diane Warren for “I’ll Fight” from the documentary “RBG”; Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman for “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from “Mary Poppins Returns”; and “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings,” the amusing punchline from the first segment of “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” by David Rawlings and Gillian Welch.

There are always surprises in the Oscars’ original song and original score categories, and this year is no exception: There were no nods for Dolly Parton or “First Man.” Parton (and co-writer Linda Perry) were widely expected to be named for their “Girl in the Movies” from “Dumplin’.” But the bigger shock was the absence of Justin Hurwitz, who has already won the Golden Globe and Broadcast Film Critics awards for his score for “First Man,” but was left off Oscar’s top-five list. Hurwitz is a past double winner for his score and a song from “La La Land.”

Perhaps the biggest news in the score category was the first nomination for Terence Blanchard for his music for Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman.” Blanchard has been scoring Lee’s films for nearly 30 years, including “Malcolm X” and “25th Hour,” but this marks his first time with Oscar.

Also nominated for the first time is Ludwig Goransson, the Swedish-born composer of “Black Panther.” He is joined by three repeat Oscar contenders: Nicholas Britell (“Moonlight”) for “If Beale Street Could Talk,” two-time winner Alexandre Desplat (“Grand Budapest Hotel” and last year’s “Shape of Water”) for “Isle of Dogs,” and five-time nominee Marc Shaiman (“The American President”) for “Mary Poppins Returns.”

Shaiman is the only person nominated in both song and score categories. If he wins in either category, he will become an EGOT — that rare individual who has won all four major show-biz awards, having already won the Emmy, Grammy and Tony. This year also marks Diane Warren’s tenth nomination.