Last year, music was minimized at the Academy Awards ceremony, with the nominees for Best Original Song not performed as they often are at the Oscars. It seems like the 2013 Academy Awards ceremony is aiming to make up for that the lack of tunes last year, with numerous musical performances lined up for the event. And that now includes a closing number featuring Oscar host Seth MacFarlane, and Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth.
The Academy Awards show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron made the announcement this week that Chenoweth and MacFarlane will close out the movie-focused award ceremony with a musical performance. Typically, the event ends with the announcement of Best Picture, but it looks like they're changing things up a bit this year, and given MacFarlane's appreciation for musical numbers and Chenoweth's vocal talent, this seems like a fitting pairing.
MacFarlane and Chenoweth's anticipated closing number is one of numerous planned musical performances. Adele is expected to sing "Skyfall" from Skyfall, and Norah Jones will take the stage to sing nominated song "Everybody Needs a Best Friend" from MacFarlane's comedy Ted. And then there's the star-studded musical performance, which will celebrate musicals from the last decade. In addition to most of the leads from Les Miserables (Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit and Helena Bonham Carter), that number will also include Chicago star Catherine Zeta-Jones and Dreamgirls Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson. Barbra Streisand and Dame Shirley Bassey are also expected to perform at the ceremony.
Needless to say, there will be music. And that'll certainly add more time to the ceremony, but if the performances are good, it'll also add a bit more entertainment to the event.
We'll find out when the Oscars air this Sunday, February 24 at 7:00 p.m. ET on ABC.
