At an unforgettable Academy Awards ceremony, Billie Eilish won the Oscar for Best Song and the Questlove-directed Summer of Soul won the Oscar for Best Documentary feature.
Summer of Soul looks at The Harlem Cultural Festival, filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park), an event that celebrated African American music and culture, and promoted Black pride and unity. Over six weeks in the summer of 1969, and nearly 100 miles south of Woodstock (where another festival was taking place), the footage that makes up Summer of Soul was never seen and largely forgotten.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson brought this ‘Black Woodstock’ to light for his debut documentary, Summer of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised). Part concert film and part historical record, the documentary is an important piece of history that stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present. The trailer debuted during the 93rd Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday, April 25, 2021 where Questlove was serving as music director and DJ for the evening.
Questlove was joined on stage by fellow documentary producers Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent and David Dinerstein and appeared choked up when he mentioned his late father, musician Lee Andrews, who died in 2016.
It’s not lost on me that the story of the Harlem Cultural Festival should have been something that my beautiful mother and my dad should have taken me to when I was five years old. This is such a stunning moment for me right now. But it’s not about me. It’s about marginalized people in Harlem that needed to heal from pain. Just know in 2022, this is not just a 1969 story about marginalized people in Harlem.
Questlove attempted to finish his speech but was overwhelmed, saying “I’m gonna get myself together and thank everyone proper when I get offstage.”
Moments before Questlove’s category was introduced, future-Best-Actor winner Will Smith walked on stage and hit presenter Chris Rock for a comment made about his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith. The moment left Questlove somewhat shaken as he accepted the award for Best Documentary.
A short while later, Billie Eilish, along with Finneas O’Connell, won the Oscar for Best Original Song for “No Time to Die” from the most recent James Bond film of the same name. The song was written by the brother-sister duo, and with Eilish only 18 when the song was recorded, makes the song and artist the youngest to record a James Bond theme, let alone win an Oscar for Best Original Song. “No Time to Die” previously won the Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
Other nominees in the Best Original Song category this year included “Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto (music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda), “Be Alive” from King Richard (music and lyrics by Dixson and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter), “Somehow You Do,” from Four Good Days (music and lyrics by Diane Warren), and “Down to Joy,” from Belfast (music and lyrics by Van Morrison).
Since the 1960s, James Bond films have included memorable original songs, with two Best Original Song Oscars given to 007 films in recent years, including “Writing’s On the Wall” (Jimmy Nape, Sam Smith) from Spectre, and “Skyfall” (Adele, Paul Epworth) from Skyfall.
Other Bond film original songs that have been nominated in the past include “The Look of Love” (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) from Casino Royale (1968), “Live and Let Die” (Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney) from Live and Let Die (1974), “Nobody Does it Better” (Marvin Hamlisch, Carole Bayer Sager) from The Spy Who Loved Me (1978), and “For Your Eyes Only” (Bill Conti, Mick Leeson) from For Your Eyes Only (1982)
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