'Naatu Naatu' Makes History With 2023 Oscars Win

The Oscars have rolled around again for another year, celebrating the outstanding achievement of all things film. That includes the outstanding contribution that musicians give to movies, whether through scores or an original song. This year's winners are as below. 

The crowd favourite of Naatu Naatu from epic action drama RRR won Best Song, beating out Tell It Like a Woman's Applause by Diane Warren, Lady Gaga and BloodPop's Hold My Hand from the action-packed film Top Gun: Maverick, Rihanna's Lift Me Up from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and This Is a Life from major nominee Everything Everywhere All at Once. 

The win for Naatu Naatu marks the first time in the Academy Awards history that a Telugu song has won in this category. During his acceptance speech, which he sang, music composer M. M. Keeravani also spoke about listening to The Carpenters and how this is a proud moment for every Indian. 

Original performers of Naatu Naatu, Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava, also gave a standout performance of the Oscar winning song, which received a standing ovation and is being contested by many as the best performance of the night. 

The award for Best Score went to Volker Bertelmann for his contribution to the World War I epic All Quiet on the Western Front. The German pianist and composer beat out Justin Hurwitz for Babylon, Carter Burwell for The Banshees of Inisherin, Son Lux for Everything Everywhere All At Once, and John Williams for The Fabelmans. This is Bertelmann's first Academy award win. However, he was previously nominated under his stage name Hauschka, for his music for the 2016 film Lion (co-composed with Dustin O’Halloran). 

As well as the wins, plenty of talented musicians took to the stage as the evening's entertainment, including the aforementioned performers of Naatu Naatu, Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava. In addition to their electric performance, Rihanna performed her nominated song Lift Me Up off the back of her stunning Super Bowl halftime show; Sofia Carson and Diane Warren gave the audience a taste of their nominated song Applause for Tell It Like A Women, and David Byrne, Stephanie Hsu and Son Lux also jumped in with This Is a Life from the top picked film Everything Everywhere All at Once.

The crowd were also treated to a surprise performance from Lady Gaga who showed off her nominated song, Hold My Hand from Top Gun: Maverick.