Filed under: Oscar Contenders

Slumdog's Jai Ho vs. O Saya… Which One Yah Got?

Fox Searchlight is banking on 'Jai Ho' for the win

Tom O'Neil at Gold Derby is reporting Fox Searchlight has chosen to push one Slumdog Millionaire original over the other. In this case it is "Jai Ho" over "O Saya" for Best Original Song at the 2009 Oscars.

It makes plenty of sense why they would choose the closing song from the film that has energized so many that have seen it as it is the obvious front-runner and why run the risk of the two songs hurting the other's chances due to people that can't decide between them. On top of that, I am sure they are also looking at last year's race where Disney's Enchanted was nominated for three songs and ultimately lost to Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová's "Falling Slowly" from Once after the long debate as to whether it actually qualified.

Of course, last year, "Falling Slowly" was obviously the superior song and the Enchanted tracks didn't necessarily stand much of a chance, but had Academy voters split between "Jai Ho" and "O Saya" it certainly could have opened the doors for "Down to Earth" from WALL•E.

I have added both songs below. Now you decide which one is better. Did the Academy make the right decision? Is "Jai Ho" or "O Saya" your final answer?

"O Saya" "Jai Ho"
Related post categories: Oscar Contenders :

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Post #1
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None, I am hoping for Down to Earth to upset them!

- adu
( February 7th, 2009 | 2:09 pm )
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Post #2
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Down to Earth is definitely my favorite.

- Garrett
( February 7th, 2009 | 2:28 pm )
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Post #3
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I like Jai Ho the best.

- JM
( February 7th, 2009 | 3:07 pm )
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Post #4
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Down to Earth will win it. The Best Pic omission will galvanize Wall-E supporters within the Academy. This will be one of it's at least 2 Oscar wins.

- USC film 04
( February 7th, 2009 | 3:07 pm )
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Post #5
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The same thing happened with Dreamgirls, which had three song nominees but lost to one from "An Inconvenient Truth" or something ridiculous like that.

- Danny D.
( February 7th, 2009 | 3:29 pm )
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Post #6
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I think they both deserve it more than Down To Earth. Jai Ho deserves it more for me though. It has more of a multiethnic aspect with the integrated latin and the classical/new age ending (the classical ending is 58 seconds long in the actual song; it was cut in the video above). O…Saya is great too, but I think the Academy did make the right decision.

- McGillian
( February 7th, 2009 | 4:18 pm )
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Post #7
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I suspect the same thing would happen this year. Down to Earth would won because of the split votes between two songs from Slumdog.

Had any song with a foreign language won an Oscar before?

I pick Jai Ho. Because it has a 'classic meets modern' vibe

- lizer
( February 7th, 2009 | 10:22 pm )
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Post #8
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whoever wins…it's gonna come to India….but i think Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman's song "Dpwn to Earth" has big chance of winning it….i am sad that Bruce Springsteen was not nominated for the Wrestler song….

- Abhishek-The Oscar Maniac
( February 7th, 2009 | 11:30 pm )
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Post #9
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u just can't write off the O saya….the starting song was good………..

- Abhishek-The Oscar Maniac
( February 7th, 2009 | 11:34 pm )
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Post #10
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Jai Ho!! because 1) i speak Hindi and the lyrics are just exquisite (though i don't know if the academy considers that)

and 2) the song was shot really well (trust me, its no joke to shoot a film at the CST station in Mumbai)

- mihirkula
( February 8th, 2009 | 4:58 am )
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Post #11
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Jai Ho! Should win best song of the year.

- Rickey
( February 9th, 2009 | 1:43 am )
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Post #12
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@mihirkula:

And to make Jai Ho even more interesting, it was originally written for Yuuvraaj! AND the train station dance scene had already been filmed, so ARR took Jai Ho, which lay unused from Yuuvraaj, and recalibrated it to match the movements of the people dancing!!

Speaking of good lyrics in Slumdog, I don't speak Hindi but thought the (translated) lyrics for Ringa Ringa were great, and the whole chik a chik thing creates the perfect aural image for a bedbug.

People have no idea how really great ARR is and I hope they pay attention to his other film music.

And I really hope to see Sukhwinder perform Jai Ho at the Oscars!

- nmlhats
( February 10th, 2009 | 1:14 pm )
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Post #13
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yey for rahman nay for sukhwinder singh (cringe) ARR has done better music in other movies… but the world seems to be going crazy over SDM… me ? not so much

i still prefer the dark knight for best original score… that is an epic fail… this is LOTR all over again… so now nolan makes the third batman movie and the Robin get best supporting actor and catwoman the best actress and bale the actor nod too?

oscars are fast becoming irrelevant

- viral
( February 11th, 2009 | 6:38 am )
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Post #14
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@viral:

True, Viral. Slumdog Millionaire id definitely not ARR's best work. I prefer several others over this…like Rang de Basanti, Lagaan, Guru…there are so many and it's hard to say which is best overall. I have heard parts of his latest, Delhi-6, and it sounds excellent.

Just curious, do you dislike Sukhwinder on this song in particular or dislike him in general?

- nmlhats
( February 13th, 2009 | 2:25 pm )
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Post #15
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O Saya is definately better overall , but the last few fading seconds of the Jai Ho track makes up for it , i mean the last 10-12 seconds when the track is about to come to end ….it's theme , " eternal triumph of life " kind of stuff.

- Arunava
( February 17th, 2009 | 6:45 am )
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Post #16
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My god… I feel o saya was much better than jai ho… And should have fetched an oscar…

- Prawin
( April 21st, 2009 | 10:46 am )
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Post #17
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I honestly think O Saya was much better, because i feel that it has a truly unquie mix of culture. I used to prefer Jai Ho, but after I saw Slumdog Millionaire, I feel as though O Saya really deserved to win

- Not telling the Stalkers my name
( July 30th, 2009 | 4:53 am )
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