Last night at the Academy Awards, Slumdog Millionaire swept the event, taking home eight awards, including Best Film and Best Song. Artist M.I.A. was nominated for the Slumdog song, “O Saya” which she co-wrote and performed on the movie soundtrack. Although the song “Jai Ho” took the Oscar, M.I.A., whose real name is Mathangi Arulpragasam, is celebrating her first career Academy nod. Hip Hop fans know her best for her popular ’08 release “Paper Planes,” and for her recent performance with T.I., Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and Kanye West at the Grammy‘s on the track “Swagger Like Us.”
Beyonce and John Legend also showed up last night, both performing separate medleys. For the “In Memoriam” portion of the program, former Best Supporting Actress nominee for Chicago, Queen Latifah [click to read], hit the stage to sing “I’ll Be Seeing You,” as a tribute to those who have recently departed in the film industry.
To round out the night, viewers saw a lot of Will Smith, who stayed onstage to give out four different awards including visual effects, sound editing, sound mixing, and film editing.
The event marked the 81st edition of the Academy Awards.
