You can not only forget about Beyonce Knowles winning an Oscar for best actress this year. (If you haven't heard, a certain ingenue keeps upstaging her throughout "Dreamgirls.") Now it looks like Beyonce won't win as a songwriter either — for "Listen," one of the original new tunes added to the original Broadway score. Officially, she's listed as one of the song's four writers, but the motion-picture academy only permits three names — max — as a credit.
The Oscars' songwriting branch has decided to qualify Henry Krieger, Anne Preven and Scott Cutler. No explanation is given for why Beyonce is excluded over the others. Is this just one of those cases of where the singer insisted upon having her name added to credits as part of her performance deal? Beyonce says "No!" In media interviews, she's often said that she was truly involved in its songwriting. Apparently, not to the extent as her three collaborators.



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I just watched "Dreamgirls" last night and when Jennifer Hudson sang "And I'm Telling You (I'm not going)", everyone in that theater applauded, but when Beyonce sang "Listen", people were booing. I have to agree that the booing was a little-bit warranted because of the whole scenario in the film. Deena married Effie's man...what a bitch! You don't do that to your friends....damn, they were beyond friends; they were family. I actually really liked the song, "Listen", before I watched the movie. Now, I find it disturbing that she tried to sound all strong after stabbing her sister in the back...I still think it's a nice song though. Sorry, but even Eddie Murphy outshined Beyonce in this movie...I'm not even going to go into detail on the ass-kicking performance that Jennifer Hudson gave over Beyonce. But, back on the subject. I hate when any artist gets written in as co-writer...co-writing could mean that they just threw a "baby" in the chorus. Since, I don't think that co-writing deserves any award nominations, I'll just give a hug , a wink : , and a pat on the head Better luck next year.

VoicesCarry said:

May I please play the race card now?!?

BTW, does this mean that being creole isn't good enough anymore?

TonyVanDam said:

No you may not. Bill Condon said in an interview that the song was written before Beyonce came on board but then they met with her and she made changes to it. That is why they are not considering her a principal writer.

daddy knoweles will not be pleased...

VoicesCarry said:

BTW VC, I'm just grandstanding! I think the Academy Award Committee did a good job of seeing right through Beyonce's BS.

TonyVanDam said:

Moonwalkbjrain said:

F*** Matthew. Daddy's little girl can't win everything.
[Edited 1/2/07 18:32pm]

Moonwalkbjrain said:

i was waiting for this...i knew there was a limit on the number of nominees but i figured beyonce's daddy was aware and had negotiated all this prior...i assumed another one of the writers would be dropped...


oopsies!!! poor b-weav-a.

The songwriting credits are usually listed in order of contribution. In the case of Lennon/McCartney, it was just what they agreed on (as a partnership). Paul McCartney is actually petitioning to get his songs reclassified as McCartney/Lennon. Seems fair.

So for example, if the credits were listed as Smith/Jones/Doe/Knowles, you can be sure that Beyonce didn't really do squat but change a few lyrics.

Anne Previn deserves credit over bouncy. Isn't she satisfied that she managed to make the Oprah show all about her? You know she most likely bargained that she would not even appear if Jennifer Hudson sang on the show. Obviously she wanted to upstage her and show she could sing. I can't stand this witch

will the real Beyonce please sit down....

She said she did some rearranging with Irreplaceable and that's how she got writing credit...

ABeautifulOne said:

I enjoyed her contribution to Resentment, a song everybody had already sung. She added the word "six" to it.

VoicesCarry said:

I heard that one of the ex Spice Girls sung it before her except it was unreleased any truth to it?

wtf is this?

Sparkle (1976) Irene Cara, Lonette McKee, and Dwan Smith star as singing sisters from Harlem who hit it big as a pop trio in the first movie loosely inspired by the story of Diana Ross and the Supremes. This one is even looser that Dreamgirls, with a rags-to-riches soap opera script by Joel Schumacher and music by Curtis Mayfield. A pre-Miami Vice Philip Michael Thomas stars as the bad boy who makes good, Mary Alice, Dorian Harewood, and Tony King co-star, and Sam O'Steen directs. Details: Color, 98 mins, Warner, Widescreen anamorphic, 1.85:1. Supplements: Theatrical trailer; Bonus five-track Aretha Franklin CD: Sparkle, Hooked On Your Love, Look into Your Heart, Loving You Baby, Something He Can Feel. Audio: English (Dolby Digital 1.0). Optional English subtitles.

ABeautifulOne said:

Yep, I have that track.

VoicesCarry said:

Which is better?

sosgemini said:

You've never seen/heard of "Sparkle"? Those Aretha songs aren't familiar? En Vogue covered two of them in the '90s.

learned something new on the org yet again.

It's very common for a major league "artist" to be credited for contributing nothing to the writing of a song and has been for years. Remember two songwriters called Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly? They wrote "Like A Virgin", "True Colors", "So Emotional" and "Eternal Flame" amongst others. They ended up composing a song for Mariah Carey, whose manager said that she really wanted to record it but would only do so if she was given a writing credit. They didn't allow this and pretty much fell from favour within the industry. Proof that pricks run it.

It was/is? a common practice. Leonard Chess and people he owed favors to were counted as "songwriters" on many Chess artists' records, when in fact, he nor his business associates wrote a word or strummed a chord. Berry Gordy was also known to change a word or two in a song and get credit as a co-writer...
[Edited 1/2/07 19:54pm]

sosgemini said:

This is THE classic girl-group movie. If you ever saw the envogue video for "something he can feel", it emulates a scene from the movie

http://www.youtube.com/wa...P3cwLrDs3o

If you're not up on Sparkle, you need to be

Moonwalkbjrain said:

Especially since he is listed as one of the album's three "executive producers."

AWWW poor baby...

Mong said:

That reminds me back in the day When Elvis wanted to rerecord a Dolly Parton song, the catch was that Elvis wanted to have songwriting credit also, Dolly said NO.

BlaqueKnight said:

Change a word, claim a third.