2014 Oscars: Ranking the Musical Performances From Worst to Best

It's no surprise that everyone's favorite Disney song of the moment topped our list

By Jenna Mullins Mar 03, 2014 4:57 AMTags
Pharrell Williams, Meryl Streep, OscarsKevin Winter/Getty Images

There was only one song that had the celebs up out of their chairs dancing, but it takes more than that to win the top spot on our list of Oscar performances.

From a haunting ballad about a different kind of love story to the Disney song that no one can stop singing, all the Oscar-nominated songs were performed tonight on the big stage, plus a couple surprise performances. And even though Frozen took home the Oscar for Best Original song and Best Animated Film, this list is much more important than an Academy Award, right?!

OK, it's not, but we ranked the musical performances anyway:

ABC/Adam Taylor

6. Karen O Performing "The Moon Song" From Her: It's a gorgeous song and Karen O sang it beautifully, but sorry, the performance was a bit of a snoozefest.

 

A.M.P.A.S./Michael Yada

5. U2 Performing "Ordinary Love" From Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom: We don't know what it was about this performance, but it gave us chills. In a good way. There was no flash, but Bono and Co. had just enough power to stand out. The standing ovation they got from the crowd says it all.

 

John Shearer/Invision/AP

4. Pharrell Performing "Happy" From Despicable Me 2: The hat is back, y'all! The background dancers looked like the cast from The Mickey Mouse Club circa the '90s, but Lupita Nyong'o shimmying with Pharrell made this performance go from good to great.

 

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3. Pink Performing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow": To honor the Wizard of Oz's 75th anniversary, Pink performed an amazing version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." It was a nice change to hear Pink's husky, rock-star voice belt out that famous tune instead of another starlet singing it ballad-style like always. Pink definitely nailed it.

ABC/Adam Taylor

2. Bette Midler Performing "Wind Beneath My Wings": Um, an icon performing an iconic song? There is no way we could rank this lower than two. No chance. But there was one more performance we loved slightly more…

 

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1. Idina Menzel Performing "Let It Go" From Frozen: Was there ever any doubt that this would be the best performance? Even though the song had to be sped up, this was the performance everyone was waiting for. And it was worth the wait.