We all watched as Sam Smith strode to the stage at the Dolby Theatre, collected his Oscar and then dedicated said Oscar to the LGBT community.
While dedicating the Oscar to the LGBT community across the world was a noble thing to do, there is something genuinely wrong about Sam Smith winning an Oscar for Writing's On The Wall. For one thing, it's a terrible, terrible song. Drippy, half-formed, whingey and completely, wholly unoriginal, Writing's On The Wall paled in comparison to Adele's bravura Skyfall. Adele, rightfully, won an Oscar for Skyfall, a respectful callback to the glittering era of Shirley Bassey and Matt Munro. Writing's On The Wall, meanwhile, was a tepid, ill-conceived reminder that Bond themes since the '90s have been largely terrible and that Sam Smith was a poor choice to replace Radiohead.
This isn't snobbery against Sam Smith, either. His work with Disclosure has been quite good, even if they're doing the heavy-lifting for him. Together, a song from the summer of 2014, was one of the best songs released that year. However, when we compare Sam Smith and Writing's On The Wall compared to what was in competition that year, it's clear that not only did he not deserve the Oscar, it's clear that he was most likely chosen to win and perform because he's the most bankable singer on the roster next to The Weeknd. Let's look at the other nominees.
You had Youth's Simple Song #3; that's basically a piece from an opera. It's interesting, sure, but it's rare that anything too classical would be picked up for an Oscar - unless it's something from Lord of the Rings.
Next is Manta Ray, by Anohni and J. Ralph - who boycotted the entire ceremony. That's pretty much a forfeit, although after Lady Gaga, they're the most deserving winners here. Moving on, we have the aforementioned Weeknd with Earned It. A huge radio hit in its own right, there was no way anything even remotely related to Fifty Shades Of Grey was going to win at the Oscars. That's out.
Lady Gaga's Til It Happens To You was clearly robbed on the night. A heartbreaking, emotionally honest song about sexual assault and a fantastic performance to boot wasn't enough to win over the voters in the Best Original Song category. Plus, there's always the fear that Lady Gaga will grab the mic when she wins and do something crazy or say something she shouldn't. She couldn't win either.
That, by logic and rationale, leaves Writing's On The Wall. Winning by default.
The category is called Best Original Song, but there's nothing all that original about Writing's On The Wall. Sure, while Adele might have nodded in the direction of Shirley Bassey, it still had elements from her own work. Sam Smith just copied what Adele did and tried to put his own spin on it, essentially creating a copy of a copy. The reason why Writing's On The Wall won was simply because it was self-referential to both films and Bond itself. Academy Awards voters love that shit. They love it when their industry is referred to in glowing terms, when the grandeur and glamour is acknowledged and it's all tuxedos and ball-gowns. A song about women being marginalised in colleges, a song about extinction of the natural resources of our planet, a song about deeply wanting someone - no, it's got to be a rip-off of a Bond theme that wins it.
What's more, Sam Smith is a big draw with audiences. He's safe, he's dependable, he's never going to go off book and do something outlandish or weird. In an Oscar ceremony that was under heavy fire, it needed something it could control. Sam Smith and his wishy-washy Bond theme was perfectly controllable. Furthermore, the performance might endear itself to younger audiences, whom Sam Smith invariably ingratiates himself to. The Academy Awards' ratings this year, however, dropped to an eight-year low. That means less and less people care about the Oscars and care who plays what.
Ten years from now, probably less, Writing's On The Wall will be referred to as one of those head-scratching Oscar winners. We'll all scratch our heads and wonder what happened there. It's the same way we scratch our heads and wonder how it happened. Sam Smith's win at the Academy Awards is comparable to the year John G. Avildsen won Best Director with Rocky against Alan J. Pakula in All The President's Men, Martin Scorsese in Taxi Driver and Sidney Lumet for Network.
