To punctuate how little the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences cares about music this year, Deadline reports the Oscars will not allow the two nominees for Best Original Song — Bret McKenzie for The Muppets‘ "Man or Muppet" and Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown, and Siedah Garrett for Rio‘s "Real in Rio" — to perform at the February 26 ceremony, as has been the the custom since as far back as 1946.
The decision follows the Academy’s snub-tastic nomination of the bare minimum in the category (not to mention only songs from family-friendly, animated flicks), despite there being a whopping 39 other eligible songs in the running. Songs on the shortlist that were overlooked include Mary J. Blige’s "The Living Proof" for The Help (which was nominated for a Golden Globe) and Madonna’s "Masterpiece" for W.E. (also nominated and won the same award last month), and songs by the National (for Win-Win‘s "Think You Can Wait") and Jónsi (for We Bought a Zoo‘s "Gathering Stories”).
The Oscars did yank performances in 2010 in an attempt to save precious telecast minutes, but that part of the ceremony returned last year (remember A.R. Rahman and Florence Welch’s duet? No?) and this year there are, as we mentioned, only two candidates for the prize. This means the world will not get a nationally televised rendition of "Man or Muppet" anytime soon, but we’ll always have My Morning Jacket’s Muppet cover, "Our World," to console us.
