‘La La Land’ sparkles with best score, song win at Oscars

Team Udayavani, Feb 27, 2017, 10:56 AM IST

Los Angeles: Justin Hurwitz took home best song and music score for his much-loved number ‘City of Stars’ and the enchanting soundtrack of “La La Land” at the 89th annual Academy Awards. 

The track, whose lyrics are by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, features Ryan Gosling as an LA-based musician playing to the tunes of jazz and crooning, “City of stars… Are you shining just for me?… City of stars… There’s so much that I can’t see.”

Just three-film-old Hurwitz not only created an original song that stands toe-to-toe with the extraordinary tracks of musicals of the past, but also made sure that it creates a special place in the hearts of audience. 

The track comes twice in the movie, at first with Gosling’s character Sebastin Wilder singing it longingly and the other time Mia, played by Emma Stone, humming it along with him. 

Just before announcing the winner for the best song category, singer John Legend recreated the “City of Stars” moment on live piano with a group of dancers. 

This is not the first time Hurwitz collaborated with Chazelle, they have previously worked in Miles Teller starrer “Whiplash”. 

Hurwitz started his professional journey to Hollywood with Chazelle when they met as freshmen at the Cambridge institution. 

The film features over 14 songs but the task of fitting them into various situations throughout the movie has been beautifully done by the director-composer duo. 

Some of the tracks from the album include “A Lovely Night”, “Another Day of Sun”, “Start A Fire” and “Engagement Party”. 

For “La La Land”, Hurwitz also won Golden Globes for best original score and best original song (for “City of Stars”), a BAFTA for best film music and was nominated for three Academy Awards, including best original song twice (for “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” and “City of Stars”).