Usually it’s the Grammy Awards that send viewers to their favorite streaming service to hear the songs that won, the songs that were performed or both. But this year the musical performances on Sunday night’s Oscars inspired viewers to take a trip down the musical yellow brick road on Spotify.
Wicked stars and Oscar nominees Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo opened the telecast with performances of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” from the movie The Wizard of Oz; “Home,” from The Wiz, a movie musical based on The Wizard of Oz that starred Diana Ross as Dorothy; and their own film’s big number, “Defying Gravity.”
And later in the show, Queen Latifah performed yet another song from The Wiz: “Ease on Down the Road,” performed in the movie by Diana and Michael Jackson.
As a result of all that Oz-related music, Diana’s version of “Home” saw an increase of 1,330% on Spotify. Streams of Ari and Cynthia’s version of “Defying Gravity” were up 95%, Judy Garland‘s original recording of “Over the Rainbow” got an 85% bump and streams of “Ease on Down the Road” increased by 545%.
Also in the Oscars telecast, LISA, RAYE and Doja Cat‘s musical tribute to James Bond made an impact: “Diamonds Are Forever,” the theme to the 1971 Bond film of the same name, was sung by Doja Cat, and that led to a 1,030% increase in streams of the original by Shirley Bassey.
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