This year’s race for the best original song Oscar is getting way more attention than usual – in part for who’s in the race and, in part, for who isn’t.

There are only three nominees out of 49 eligible songs this year – “Down to Earth” from “Wall-E,” and “Jai Ho” and “O Saya” from “Slumdog Millionaire” – due to the music Oscar’s weird ranking system that only nominates songs that scored higher than 8.25 out of 10 with its members. Bruce Springsteen’s “The Wrestler,” which just won the Golden Globe for best song, didn’t make the cut.

Now Peter Gabriel’s “Down to Earth,” which plays over the “Wall-E” credits is nice enough, but the original songs of A.R. Rahman really are a major part of “Slumdog Millionaire.” The same goes for M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes,” which is so dominant in one segment that it not only looks like the film was edited to fit the song, but that it was shot with that song in mind.

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Yesterday’s 2009 Oscar nominations brought disappointment to legions of Bruce Springsteen fans expecting the Jersey legend to score a nod for “The Wrestler.” But it made one pregnant Sri Lankan MC who resides in Brooklyn pretty damn happy:

“This is a great honor. Thank you to all the people who are supporting us and the making of a real story of a slumdog millionaire,” M.I.A. says. “Maybe I can afford to book Dave Chappelle at the baby shower now. Thank you again; My mum wants everyone to know what wonderful news this is for her.”

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By Ann Donahue, L.A.

"Slumdog Millionaire" leads the way in the Oscar music categories, with songs "Jai Ho" and "O Saya" nominated for best achievement in music written for motion pictures (best song) and A.R. Rahman nominated for achievement in music written for motion pictures (original score.)

"It's been a dream to get an Oscar," Rahman tells Billboard.biz. "I thought maybe one nomination -- but three? It's really something. I was so excited."

For best song, the nominees are:

"Down to Earth" from "WALL-E" (Walt Disney), Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel

"Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight), Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar

"O Saya" from "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight), Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam, better known as M.I.A.

For best score, the nominees are:

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Alexandre Desplat

"Defiance" (Paramount Vantage), James Newton Howard

"Milk" (Focus Features), Danny Elfman

"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight), A.R. Rahman

"WALL-E" (Walt Disney), Thomas Newman

In the best song category, the Academy has the option of nominating anywhere between three to five songs; this year, only three made the cut. Not nominated? Bruce Springsteen, who won the Golden Globe for the title track for "The Wrestler."

By Cortney Harding, N.Y.

Composer AR Rahman might not be a household name in the States quite yet, but he’s one of most well-known musicians in his native India, where his musical scores appear in scores of films every year. He’s well on his way to breaking through in the West, though, with his Golden Globe win for Best Original Score for the film "Slumdog Millionaire." The soundtrack, which features MIA on several tracks, has sold 25,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. The soundtrack was released digitally Nov. 25, 2008 and physically Dec. 23.

Rahman got his start writing music for Indian TV ads in the early nineties and switched to film, for which he composed several soundtracks a year. In 2002, Andrew Lloyd Webber commissioned him to write the music for the play Bombay Dreams, which ran in London’s West End. Billboard spoke to Rahman about his recent victory and plans for the future.

Billboard: Do you feel your Golden Globe win represents a step forward for Indian music in the U.S.? Do you anticipate more Americans will begin to seek out Indian music?

Rahman: I think it’s probably the first major breakthrough, and it will create a bridge between the audiences. With the film winning so many awards and getting so much attention, I think it will lead to a crossover and more people exploring Indian music.

I also think MIA had something to do with it. It was great timing, because her song became such a hit right before the soundtrack was released.

Billboard: Many people in the States who do know about Indian music think that it is mainly Bollywood-style, up-tempo compositions, when in fact, India has a rich musical diversity. Is it your intention to try to introduce Americans to different genres of Indian music?

Rahman: The win is such a blessing in disguise. Bollywood music is definitely a big part of Indian music, and can be a great way to introduce people to the sound. But I hope to continue to incorporate other types of Indian music in to my work.

Compiled by JULIE BLOOM

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January 12, 2009, by Jon Sufrin

Slumdog Millionaire is sucking back the awards like nobody's business.

So too is its soundtrack. The film's score snagged Critic's Choice Awards last week and a Golden Globe on Sunday, making it a clear frontrunner for an Oscar.

But have you heard of this A.R. Rahman guy, who composed the widely lauded score?

Me neither. And we're not the only ones. As of Monday, the HMV Superstore in Toronto had just 1 (one) copy of an A.R. Rahman album in stock – Beyond Heaven and Earth (2004), one of Rahman's orchestral works.

Maybe it's because most of his best-known work lies in the realm of Bollywood. He is, after all, the first Indian composer to have won a Golden Globe, as Reuters reports.

His name may be unfamiliar to many of us, but Rahman is no composing newcomer. His discography is fairly lengthy, with 19 releases since 1995, most of them Bollywood soundtracks, according to allmusic.com.

Read the full story here: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/theampersand/archive/2009/01/12/slumdog-composer-a-r-rahman-is-a-big-deal.aspx

Mon Jan 12, 2009

By Shilpa Jamkhandikar

MUMBAI (Reuters) - A.R. Rahman, who won a Golden Globe award on Sunday for best musical score with "Slumdog Millionaire", is one of India's most famous Bollywood composers and has sold nearly as many albums as Madonna.

His scores for a host of Indian language movies have fused global influences from hip-hop and rap to Broadway musicals and Indian folk music in a way that critics believe could help Bollywood music become more global.

Rahman, 43, wrote the music for the rags-to-riches romance of a Mumbai slum boy. The film also bagged three more Golden Globe honours for best drama, best director and best screenwriter.

It is the first time an Indian has won a Golden Globe for composing in a country whose rich classical traditions have inspired oeuvres of global music. Yet, Indian film music is mostly popular only with lovers of Bollywood.

"This means so much for Indian music," said Gulzar, acclaimed filmmaker and Bollywood lyricist, who wrote one of the "Slumdog" songs.

"Not just classical (Indian) music, for which you can credit Pandit Ravi Shankar and all the other musicians, but when it comes to cinema and its music, Rahman has really brought it to the global stage."

Go to the full story: http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-37400420090112?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0

Jason Overdorf

January 12, 2009

NEW DELHI -- Calling India's A.R. Rahman -- who won a Golden Globe award for the score of "Slumdog Millionaire" last night -- the best composer you've never heard of is beyond understatement.

Known locally as "the Mozart from Madras," Rahman has sold over 200 million albums worldwide: more than Madonna and Britney Spears combined.

But the truth of the matter is you probably can't hum one of his songs. That's about to change.

"There are a number of gifts that single [Rahman] out as special. His handling of rhythmical elements is astonishing and his solutions very South Indian," said Ken Hunt, one of the authors of the upcoming third edition of "The Rough Guide to World Music." "His melodies are catchy, clever and reveal a command of theatrical music techniques," Hunt adds. "He was pretty much ready for the big time from the get-go."

And now the big time is ready for him. With a multicultural soundtrack unlike anything he's ever done for Bollywood, the 43-year-old composer-singer-producer might be on his way to becoming America's hottest new hand on the mixing board. Indian-origin DJs in New York and London have been saying it for years, but now it just may be true. Brown is the new black.

As far as Indians are concerned, it's about time. Audiences here, where "Slumdog Millionaire" has not yet been released, have been overjoyed by the film's surprise victories at the Critics' Choice and Golden Globe awards. Here's one tribute:

Only three Indian films ever have been nominated for an Oscar in the foreign language category, "Mother India" (1957), "Salaam Bombay!" (1988) and "Lagaan" (2001). None took home the prize.

So even though "Slumdog" -- written by Simon Beaufoy and directed by Danny Boyle -- is not technically an Indian production, or even a Bollywood-style film, the accolades for Rahman have provided some validation for the larger-than-life musicals that Indians often simply call "our films."

Rahman, who started to learn the piano at the age of 4, is something of a Slumdog Millionaire himself. After his father died, he was forced to start work as a keyboard player to support his family at just 11 years old. He later dropped out of high school to pursue his music career. About that same time, he converted from Hinduism to Islam, a brave choice in a country where Muslims often face persecution. But he says Islam "set [him] free."

From his humble beginnings, Rahman swiftly became one of Bollywood's biggest money spinners -- a kind of Indian Quincy Jones -- virtually owning the industry for more than a decade. His hits, like Chaiya Chaiya, Chhoti Si Asha and Thee Thee, have as much enduring appeal as any Beatles standard, and not only for Bollywood fans. "A.R. Rahman is nothing short of a melodic genius," Andrew Lloyd Webber has said. "I admire his unique sense of harmony, his staggering rhythms and his melodies that take an unexpected twist that no Western composer would dream of."

Bollywood insiders know that kind of staggering genius can make or break a film in India. "In Indian cinema, the music is such an important part of it that music can save a mediocre film," says film critic Jai Arjun Singh. "With Rahman, it happens frequently."

That's not an overstatement. Marketers use song-and-dance numbers from movies for the trailers, videos on Channel V and MTV drive repeat business, and soundtrack sales and music video rights account for a significant part of the picture's revenue.

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SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE SOUNDTRACK: AVAILABLE ONLINE EVERYWHERE NOVEMBER 25 AND IN STORES DECEMBER 23

INCLUDES PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED M.I.A. / A.R. RAHMAN COLLABORATION “O…SAYA”

NEW YORK… In composing the music for acclaimed director Danny Boyle’s intoxicating new film Slumdog Millionaire, now playing in select theaters, A.R. Rahman has conjured the sound of a city, fusing the frenetic scramble of daily life in Mumbai, India into beautiful fugues that ride upon the dust clouds kicked up by its everyday people.

From the movie’s first frames --- with children racing through alleyways, knocking over merchants and pottery, police kicking loose clay roof tiles, disrupted birds fluttering from gutters — we hear the sound of their commotion made manifest in “O… Saya.” It’s a rumbling hybrid of Bollywood and hip-hop, a brand new collaboration between Rahman and M.I.A. It’s the kind of cinematic moment where image and sound coexist. And that’s only the first five minutes.

Filmed in the streets and slums of Mumbai, India, Boyle needed just the right music to compliment the film’s cinema verité urban realism. He turned to internationally renowned composer A.R. Rahman (a huge star in South Asia—selling more than 100 million albums worldwide and 200 million cassettes—Rahman is one of the world’s top 25 all-time top selling recording artists.) The film’s score is central to the propulsive modern grit that pervades the story, but is also a nod to classic Bollywood productions where the music is front and center. And loud. Says Rahman, “We wanted it edgy, upfront. Danny wanted it loud.”

M.I.A.’s appreciation for Bollywood music led her to record much of last year’s Kala inside A.R. Rahman’s studio in India, although the two had never worked together until now. Referring to him in URB magazine as “the Indian Timbaland,” M.I.A. obviously jumped at the chance to work on “O… Saya” with the famed composer. Rahman says, “She’s a real powerhouse. Somebody played me her CD and I thought, ‘Who is this girl? She came here and knew all my work, had followed my work for ages. I said, ‘Cut the crap, this “my idol” crap. You have to teach me.’”

M.I.A. crops up again, later in the film, with the remix of her worldwide hit “Paper Planes” seemingly made for Slumdog, as the lyrics pronounce, “Sometimes I feel like sitting on trains…” while a light blue locomotive chugs and hurls its way through India, young boys perched up top in the sepia sunlight scoping out for a scrap of food.

Other songs on the soundtrack include “Gangsta Blues,” featuring hip-hop artist BlaaZe, which flutters with the rhythms of a film projector, capturing a bit of the madness of crowds as they disperse in a thousand directions to escape the claustrophobia of back alleys. And nothing quite prepares you for the triumphant climax, the overarching ode to joy that is “Jai Ho,” closing out the film in a rousing sing-a-long that’s had film audiences burst into spontaneous applause. As Rahman told Variety, “The energy of the film takes you through a roller coaster, and that’s one of the main inspirations for the whole music.”

“The propulsive score, by Bollywood soundtrack auteur A. R. Rahman, is hip-hop fusion of a very up-to-date kind” – Kurt Loder, MTV.COM

“The film is a visual wonder, propelled by A.R. Rahman’s hip-hopping score and Chris Dickens’ kinetic editing.” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

“Danny Boyle has upped the ante by hiring the great A.R. Rahman, the king of Bollywood music, to contribute one of his unmistakable propulsive scores.” – Kenny Turan, Los Angeles Times

The full track listing for Slumdog Millionaire Music From The Motion Picture:

1. "O... Saya" Performed by A R Rahman & M.I.A.

2. "Riots" by A R Rahman

3. "Mausam & Escape" by A R Rahman

4. "Paper Planes" Performed by M.I.A.

5. "Paper Planes" DFA REMIX Performed by M.I.A.

6. ""Ringa Ringa" by A R Rahman featuring Alka Yagnik & Ila Arun

7. "Liquid Dance" by A R Rahman featuring Palakkad Sriram & Madhumitha

8. "Latika's Theme" by A R Rahman featuring Suzanne

9. "Aaj Ki Raat" Performed by Sonu Nigam, Mahalaxmi Lyer & Alisha Chinoi

10. "Millionaire" by A R Rahman featuring Madhumitha

11. "Gangsta Blues" by A R Rahman featuring BlaaZe & Tanvi Shah

12. "Dreams on Fire" by A R Rahman featuring Suzzanne

13. "Jai Ho" by A R Rahman featuring Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah & Mahalaxmi Iyer