Can Doja Cat's 'Vegas' Be Nominated For An Oscar? Here's What's Confusing About It

One of the most talked about musical films this year was Baz Luhrmann's biopic of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, as portrayed by Nickelodeon alum Ross Butler on "Elvis."

Aside from the big hype surrounding the film because of Butler's preparations, the movie also managed to penetrate the younger audiences when the team recruited Doja Cat, who sang the original song "Vegas."

With the successful rollout of the film, talks of "Elvis" and "Vegas" being nominated for an Academy Award have grown bigger. While "Elvis" seemed to be a more apparent shoo-in, "Vegas" might be facing some pretty huge hurdles before it could actually be considered.

According to Variety, "Vegas" is on the fence about qualifying for an Oscar Award for Best Original Song.

The song, which Doja Cat penned for the film, was used only for a relatively short period of time in the first few hours of "Elvis."

"Vegas" sampled Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog," but not a huge part of it. They only used the "you ain't nothin' but a" phrase in the large parts of the new song, sung by the late Shonka Dukureh, who played Big Mama Thornton in the actual film.

Songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller of the original song "Hound Dog" was credited on "Vegas". But it would seem like their involvement in the song was not enough to qualify them for the gold statue.

In the newly-updated rules for the 95th Academy Awards, it states that for a song to qualify for the Best Original Song, it must have been a result of a creative interaction" between filmmakers and songwriters "who have been engaged to work directly on the motion picture."

Sadly, Jerry Leiber passed away in 2011 while Mike Stoller was not directly involved in the creation of the song or the film.

However, a source close to the Academy told Variety that these issues do not always necessarily mean immediate disqualification from the category. But they underscored another ruling that could make the chances of nomination a tad muddier.

It was noted that the song must have a clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition present in the actual film. "Vegas" was only played only less than a minute in the 159-minute film.

But, the official cue sheet of the film listed the song, which means that the actual song was present in the film.

According to Billboard, submissions for the Oscar Award for Best Original Song are until Nov. 1, 2022, as the academy will be finalizing the list in the same month. Variety says that Warner Bros. is putting up the song for nomination, hoping for a positive result.

Tags

Elvis Presley, Oscars