Oscar news! In the Best Original Song, the following are nominated. Rihanna was nominated for her 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' song “Lift Me Up,” Lady Gaga got a nomination for “Hold My Hand” in 'Top Gun: Maverick,' Sofia Carson is up for 'Applause' from 'Tell It Like a Woman', Son Lux’s song 'This Is a Life' featuring Mitski and David Byrne from 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' is also up for Oscar, as well as 'Naatu Naatu' from 'RRR' by Rahul Sipligunj, Kaala Bhairava, and M.M. Keeravani. In the Best Picture category, music-themed 'Elvis', and 'Tár' are nominated. Rolling Stone reports.

An interesting conversation by David Byrne and Lorde in Rolling Stone about catchy songs. Here's the elderly statesman: "You can say something quite profound, something kind of radical, even, but the melody can sound quite beautiful and seductive on the surface. And then it sucks you into something where it might really change your way of thinking. There was a time when I thought things had to be edgy. I was maybe afraid that if things sounded too beautiful or pretty, then it was shallow. Like a greeting card. You can’t be saying anything serious this way".

"A celebration of humanity, as well as a call to better ourselves and better our connections and interactions with each other" - Brooklyn Vegan writes in a review of the new concert film 'American Utopia', based on David Byrne's concert show of the same name. Spike Lee's Spike’s direction is "spectacular. Cameras are situated everywhere, yet they never intrude on the proceedings and astoundingly his choices are perfect. There are moments we are on stage with the band, behind them, above them and, at times, in the crowd dancing and singing with the audience".

A Spike Lee documentary 'American Utopia' about Talking Heads frontman David Byrne's 2019 concert show has opened the 2020 Toronto Film Festival, and the critics love it, BBC reports. 'American Utopia' shares its name with Byrne's 2018 album and 2019 Broadway show. Variety said it was "playful and entrancing", the Hollywood Reporter called it "simply spectacular", while IndieWire says it isn't "just a concert doc, but also a life-affirming, euphoria-producing, soul-energising sing-along protest film".

'American Utopia' began as a David Byrne album, it was then turned into a Broadway musical, and now movie director Spike Lee is adapting a feature-length film version. “Pinch me. This couldn’t have worked out better for this project” - Byrne commented on the project. 'American Utopia', the album, came out in 2018, and the musical opened in October 2019 with Byrne joined onstage by 11-piece mobile ensemble playing songs from the album, other tracks from his solo catalog, and Talking Heads material. The movie is coming out this year.