A month after winning the song of the year Grammy Award for “I Can’t Breathe,” H.E.R. added an Oscar to the trophy shelf.
The insightful R&B singer-guitarist earned the prestigious best original song hardware for “Fight for You,” her song written for “Judas and the Black Messiah.”
Accepting her Academy Award at Los Angeles’ Union Station during the unconventional telecast Sunday night, H.E.R., clad in a purple sequined pantsuit and hooded wrap, joked that her years listening to Sly and the Family Stone and Curtis Mayfield with her dad “finally paid off.”
But, addressing the visceral content of the Shaka King-directed film, H.E.R. pronounced that musicians and filmmakers have “an opportunity and responsibility to tell the truth and write history in the way that it was. Knowledge is power, knowledge is music.”
Flanked by co-writers Dernst Emile and Tiara Thomas, H.E.R. concluded with a rallying cry.
“As long as I’m standing, I’m always going to fight for us. I’m always going to fight for my people and what’s right. That’s what music does. That’s what storytelling does.”
The best original score honors landed with longtime musical partners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – their second win including 2011′s “The Social Network” – alongside jazz musician (and bandleader for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”) Jon Batiste for Disney’s “Soul.”
“God gave us 12 notes,” Batiste said from the stage, with Nine Inch Nails’ Reznor and Ross behind him. “Every contribution that comes from the divine into the instruments, into the film, into the minds and hearts and souls of every person who hears it… I’m just thankful to God for those 12 notes.”
But formalities aside, the most memorable music-related moment of the show - one completely devoid of its usual performances and production numbers - was celebrated actress Glenn Close performing her version of E.U.’s “Da Butt” as part of a bit with actor/comedian Lil Rel Howery.
Close might have lost her eighth Oscar, but she won this year’s ceremony.
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