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Everything Everywhere All at Oncecleaned up at the 2023 Oscars.
We were in the midst of a storm of music, Lott says.
There were over a hundred cues of music to create for the score.
Would you like to do a song at the end?
Once Byrne came on, the song itself shifted.
The band had envisioned celebratory end-credits like a party.
Byrne had another idea.
I realized this has a real emotional core to it.
Byrne wanted to accent the emotional core that people may not have entirely absorbed when the movies done.
It was the perfect last note to end on for our movie, she says.
Thats the thread of ambiguity of our film there is no happy ending, she says.
This is bothoursand onlyalife.
Rehearsals
Rehearsals moved quickly.
Hsu had the job of slotting her Broadway-trained voice into a song developed forMitskis softer voice.
It was important for me as a performer to not necessarily make it my own, Hsu says.
But I wasnt doing a karaoke version of a Mitski and David Byrne song.
That vocal developed throughout the process.
I thought Stephanie did an incredible job letting the Mitski vocal approach flow through her, Byrne adds.
Ive heard other things that Stephanie has sung, and thats not her typical vocal style.
They only had a few brief run-throughs on the awards stage.
Toward the end of one, the Academy added poster-board versions of all the attendees to the seats.
We knew where theEverything Everywherefamily was gonna be.
We dont stand a chance, Byrne thought.
Look at this list.
Despite the nomination, it was not a guarantee they would perform.
Every nominated song is usually invited to perform, Lott remembers.
But they did get the offer, like all the nominated songs did, and so planning began.
Pretty early on, it was clear that Mitski would not be a part of the performance.
She did, however, present ideas about what it should be.
I actively ignored the email for 24 hours, Hsu remembers.
When she did reply, her email included a question: Is this actually happening?
One thing became clear from the earliest stages of planning: David Byrne would wear hot-dog fingers.
That was from the outset, Bhatia remembers.
We got the email about maybe performing at the Oscars, and he was like, Oh, cool.
Im gonna wear hot-dog fingers.
Byrne, meanwhile, feels lucky he got them at all.
There was only one pair left.
Those were Michelles hot-dog fingers.
And so David Byrne got what he wanted and wore Michelle Yeohs hot-dog fingers onstage at the Oscars.
That weirdness, though, was kind of the point.
The response has been divisive, Son Lux says.
Id prefer that to everyone being like, That was okay.
Everybody in the group had a good time after the ceremony.
David Byrne recalls dancing with his partner and Karen O. of Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
And Son Lux met Pedro Pascal in the elevator.
Lott went home and told his 6-year-old the Mandalorian himself said he could watch the show.
But the goal wasnt to hey everybody or meet the Mandalorian.
