Three first-timers won Oscars in the two music categories, Adele and Paul Epworth for best original song, and Mychael Danna for original score. Adele’s song was the title track to the James Bond film “Skyfall”; Danna scored “Life of Pi.”
The “Skyfall” win marks the first time a song from a James Bond film has won the Oscar. Previously nominated were Paul McCartney for “Live and Let Die,” Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager for “Nobody Does It Better,” which Carly Simon performed, from “The Spy Who Loved Me” and Bill Conti and Mick Leeson for “For Your Eyes Only,” which Sheena Easton recorded.
With an Oscar to go with her Grammys, Adele offered a suggestion on how she might secure and Emmy and Tony to go alongside them on the mantle.
“Maybe I’ll do an HBO special like Beyonce did,” she said backstage at the Dolby Theater, where the 85th annual Academy Awards were held on Sunday. “And a Tony, I’m not so sure. Maybe someday I’ll do a musical.”
She said that “Skyfall” came together in two sessions and went on to explain how she works with Epworth, who collaborated with her on “Skyfall and the singer’s 2011 album, “21.”
“Sometimes it just happens great like it does with us,” Adele said of collaborations. “You just got to connect and hope for the best. Be really honest with whoever you are working with. I cried the first time when I talked to Paul about my ex and then ‘Rolling in the Deep’ happened.”
Of the last nine winners in the category, eight have been first-time nominees. Few, though, have been as a big a hit: “Skyfall” has sold 1.6 million downloads, according to Nielsen Soundscan.
Danna’s win is the fourth time in the last five years that the winner is a first-time nominee. Last year went to Ludovic Bource and “The Artist”; Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won for the 2010 film “The Social Network.” [Billboard.biz]