Oscars sing the praises of actors who sing

It’s a good year for the musically inclined. This awards season is full of actors who sing. And that doesn’t just mean the performers who were already known for their vocal chops like musical theater star Cynthia Erivo and pop singer Ariana Grande in “Wicked.” There are a number of singing actors for whom music isn’t their primary claim to fame, like Timothée Chalamet in “A Complete Unknown,” Zoe Saldaña in “Emilia Pérez,” Angelina Jolie in “Maria,” Kingsley Ben-Adir in “Bob Marley: One Love,” and even Saoirse Ronan in “Blitz.” Will those stars get a bump for showing their vocal range in addition to their dramatic range?

Some stars over the last 20 or so years were recognized for expanding their repertoires. Nicole Kidman earned an Oscar nom for the 2001 musical “Moulin Rouge!” — though her co-star Ewan McGregor was snubbed despite also doing his own singing. “Chicago” (2002) earned a quartet of Oscar acting noms; recording artist Queen Latifah‘s singing was no surprise, but not as many were familiar with Renee Zellweger, John C. Reilly, or Best Supporting Actress champ Catherine Zeta-Jones‘ musical stylings.

“Walk the Line” (2005) stars Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon learned to sing in the style of real-life country legends Johnny Cash and June Carter; Phoenix was nominated for Best Actor, while Witherspoon won Best Actress. Johnny Depp earned a Best Actor nom for “Sweeney Todd” (2007). Jeff Bridges sang for his Best Actor Oscar in “Crazy Heart” (2009). Hugh Jackman scored his Oscar bid for “Les Misérables” (2012), though he had already won a Tony for musical theater by then. Emma Stone won Best Actress for “La La Land” (2016), and her co-star Ryan Gosling did it twice: a Best Actor nom for “La La Land,” and a Best Supporting Actor bid for being “Just Ken” in “Barbie” (2023). Adam Driver even sang a little Sondheim in his Best Actor-nominated turn in “Marriage Story” (2019).

That’s just a few examples. But do you need to do your own singing to be recognized by the Academy? Not necessarily. Though Jamie Foxx is a singer, he mostly used Ray Charles‘ vocals in “Ray” (2004), but he won Best Actor anyway. Likewise, Marion Cotillard didn’t do most of the singing as Edith Piaf in “La Vie en Rose” (2007), but still won Best Actress. Rami Malek did some vocal work as Freddie Mercury for his Best Actor-winning turn in “Bohemian Rhapsody” (2018), but his voice was blended with others, similar to how “One Love” portrays Bob Marley and “Maria” recreates performances by Maria Callas.

“Singing, to me, was a journey,” Ben-Adir told us earlier this season about performing as Marley in “One Love.” “I was scared. There was never any real pressure. They all told me from the beginning, you don’t need to play, we can just cheat it, but I wanted to learn how to play because I was like, I want to feel what this feels like. I want to understand.” Jolie was “terribly nervous” when it came to performing music in “Maria.” “I spent almost seven months training,” she said at the Venice Film Festival. “My first time singing I remember being so nervous,” but director Pablo Larraín “started me in a small room and ended me in La Scala, so he gave me time to grow.”

Chalamet told Rolling Stone about becoming Bob Dylan as both a singer and guitarist, “This is the kind of pressure I want in my life. This is the kind of pressure I love.” And when the stakes are as high as they are when you’re playing a recognizable icon, success is all the more likely to be rewarded, as we’ve seen in many other high-degree-of-difficulty biographical performances that won Oscars, from Daniel Day-Lewis in “My Left Foot” (1989) to, well, Daniel Day-Lewis in “Lincoln” (2012). The pressure is still on, though, even when you’re not trying to recreate the sound of a legendary vocalist. Saldaña told ScreenRant that singing in “Emilia Pérez” “was never about hitting that note … Once you go through the journey of a scene, and you’re in the emotional state of your character, then that defines the tone of your voice. We were surprising ourselves a lot.”

Ronan only sings one song in “Blitz,” the original tune “Winter Coat,” but she has to sing it in front of hundreds of extras playing bomb factory workers during World War II. She worked with vocal coach Fiona McDougall, and Ronan explained to Variety that director Steve McQueen only gave her the role after McDougall “reported back to him and said that I wasn’t tone deaf.” Finally shooting the scene “was really beautiful. You know, it was a very emotional day … It really felt like we were singing about something deep, and something that would be a source of comfort.”

That’s the thing about music. It can often convey emotion in a way that spoken dialogue can’t, which may be why musical performances strike such a chord in awards voters, especially when those performances reveal a hidden depth of talent in an actor. And this year there’s no shortage of that.