Are The Oscars The New Grammys?: Your 2025 Musical Oscars Round-up

The Dolby Theatre Los Angeles

The 2025 Academy Awards incorporated music in a big way. And it wasn’t just in awards for Best Original Score that this year’s 97th Oscars took an especially musical turn.

Opening up the night

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande presented the first musical number of the 2025 Academy Awards in a medley that included “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz, “Home” from The Wiz, and “Defying Gravity” from Wicked. Super fans may have caught composer Stephen Schwartz’s Beethoven-inspired triads and hidden references to “Over the Rainbow” in the melody of “Defying Gravity.”

The host’s obligatory song and dance

As has become requisite for an Oscars host, Conan O’Brien closed his opening monologue with an original song and dance featuring the Sandworm from Dune 2 playing Chopsticks on the piano.

An inexplicably long James Bond tribute

This year, the Oscars opted not to have Original Song nominees perform their nominated songs. Instead, audiences were treated to performances of major songs from James Bond performed by Raye, Doja Cat, and Lisa. The franchise, which was recently acquired by Amazon, was marking its 60th anniversary in what some remarked felt like an In Memoriam. Why Adele didn’t perform her hit song, “Skyfall,” is anybody’s guess. Eagle-eyed Swifties also noticed 5 Eras Tour dancers onstage for the medley. 👀

Late musicians honoured over movie directors

Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg reunited onstage to honour the late composer, arranger, trumpeter, and producer Quincy Jones, followed by a tribute to Jones sung by Queen Latifah. All this would’ve been fine if Jones hadn’t already received a lengthy Grammys tribute while the 4-time Oscar nominee David Lynch, who died on January 16th, only got a 4-second mention.

Prepared piano and synth pop takes a trophy

The experimental musician and producer Daniel Blumberg took home a trophy for Best Original Score for The Brutalist. His versatile and expansive score draws inspiration from jazz, synth-pop, and John Cage’s use of the prepared piano.

Why the Oscars oriented so musically this year is a mystery. If they keep this up, they might consider joining forces with the Grammys for a fully musical night. The full winners list is up at oscars.org, for those looking to catch up.

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Sara Schabas

Sara Schabas is a Dora-nominated soprano, writer and yoga teacher. She has performed and created leading roles with companies including Vancouver Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, the Dayton Opera, and Aspen Opera, and is a former member of Barbara Hannigan’s Equilibrium Young Artists. Currently based in Montreal, she is a doctoral student at McGill University — where she recently received the Wirth Vocal Prize — and editor of Art Song Canada magazine.