■"Uruguay Is Asking Why the Oscars Snubbed Jorge Drexler: Antonio Banderas Got to Sing His Award-Winning Song; National Pride at Stake,'" by Katy McLaughlin, Wall Street Journal, 2 March 2005, p. A1.
I really loved this story: guy gets nominated for first Spanish-language song nominated for Best Song Oscar (The Motorcycle Diaries), but doesn't get to sing it. And man is he-and his country-pissed off!
Antonio does a sort of flamenco version, according to Drexler, and he's simply flabbergasted, saying that everyone in US thinks that any ol' Spanish-speaker would do the song justice. Uruguay the nation is all up in arms. I mean, they have a new socialist president and it's all anyone down there is talking about. Huge deal. First Oscar winner from the nation. They're already comparing his a capella bit upon acceptance to a legenday soccer match decades ago against Brazil (a "triumph of dignity," it was proclaimed in a six-page spread in the country's largest paper).
Uruguay is only about 3.3 million people, so any sort of connectivity with the larger world is a big deal, especially when it shows them artistically in a favorable light. Hey, this country got excited when its name was said on the "Simpsons," even though it was used as a "you're a gay" punchline.
Why was he snubbed? Because no one knows who this guy is and Antonio is a huge star, that's why!
And yet, it's a real harbinger: the first Spanish-language song to win.
The connectivity southward grows . . .
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