Chapter 434: Golden Song

The opening performance concluded with a guitar fingerstyle piece recorded by Luo Quan.

Usually, after a singer finishes a song, they close their eyes and sway gently to the ending accompaniment, appearing intoxicated.

However, the Oscar ceremony was not her concert, so she skipped the intoxicated process; after the song ended and the audience applauded, she thanked them and returned to her seat.

"Your singing technique seems to have improved again," Gao Liang said, tilting his head toward Luo Quan.

"Your ears are that sharp?" Luo Quan was startled. Her singing technique had indeed improved slightly after the New Year, but there hadn't been a breakthrough in terms of levels.

She had released so many new songs over the past few days and no one had noticed anything, so she hadn't expected Gao Liang to hear it.

"I guess this is just talent," Gao Liang said with a proud smile. "Although I don't sing as well as you, my hearing has always been excellent. Sometimes, if a singer sings the same song twice, I can hear the changes in her pitch and intonation."

This talent sounded quite impressive at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it didn't seem to have much use.

If he were a live music critic, it would certainly be very useful.

Unfortunately, it didn't provide much of a bonus for Gao Liang.

If he were in ancient China, practicing some Wu Gong, he would be a hero of the Ke Zhen'e variety.

While she was lost in thought, the award ceremony on stage had already begun.

First was the host's speech.

This time, the Oscars had invited Ed Robu, a two-time Oscar Best Actor winner—a tall, handsome actor who exuded an air of melancholy.

Although he was only thirty, he had actually been in the industry for twenty years. The stars of similar age sitting in the front row had to call him "Senior" when they saw him.

This senior didn't seem to be in a very good mood today; his eyes were half-closed as usual, looking at everyone as if they owed him money they hadn't repaid.

However, this was his characteristic facial expression, which was quite recognizable on the big screen, and many of his fans loved him to death precisely because of it.

"Before the awards officially begin, I want to say one thing to all the guests who are about to come on stage to receive their awards." Ed's voice sounded low and magnetic:

"First, this is the Oscar ceremony, not the United Nations General Assembly. We don't need you to come up here and share your profound insights on the future of humanity, social suffering, or any other disadvantaged groups.

All the guests need to do is come on stage to receive the award, thank everyone you should thank, and then go back down. Thank you all for your cooperation."

It was clearly a very blunt statement, but because of his polite tone and extremely gentlemanly appearance, it was impossible for anyone to feel offended.

Come to think of it, the guests in the audience didn't feel offended by this statement either.

In fact, before the Oscar ceremony, many award-winning guests at the three major film festivals would, after receiving their awards, not talk about their work, but instead call on everyone to pay attention to where there was famine, where a terrorist attack had occurred, or where a special group was being discriminated against.

Is it useful to talk about these high-level topics in such a place?

It is certainly useful, because this is the top palace of film entertainment, and every time it is held, it attracts the eyes of the whole world.

But can it attract the attention of governments? Obviously not.

To put it bluntly, these stars are merely using this opportunity to say a few compassionate words, and then establish a persona as a righteous pioneer.

It's actually just a way of hyping themselves up.

However, the Oscar organizers didn't indulge them, so they simply had the host give a heads-up before the awards.

Saying a few words is always the easiest thing to do, but few have been seen actually taking action for it.

Don't you see, when Luo Quan showed the invoice proof of the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of food and supplies she had donated to poor children in Africa during the New York trial, even the black community that had the most prejudice against her now viewed her as an angel and stopped attacking her.

Who has a kind heart and is doing practical things, and who is just bragging for the sake of traffic—the bright eyes of the masses have always been able to distinguish clearly.

After the heads-up, the award-giving segment of the ceremony officially began.

The first award was for Costume Design. Luo Quan's eyes lit up; *The Lord of the Rings* had no rivals for this award this year!

A masterpiece that took three years of preparation just for the pre-production work, the area where the most effort was spent was the costumes.

*The Lord of the Rings* was very rigorous in restoring the costumes from the original work, referring to many medieval-style clothes, especially chainmail and armor, which were basically restored one-to-one.

It can be said that even if a background extra appeared in only one shot in *The Lord of the Rings*, the armor they wore could be sold as an exquisite handicraft at a high price.

For such a costume design, it would be truly unreasonable not to win an award.

Sure enough, after the four nominated films flashed across the big screen one by one, the presenter took the card out of the envelope and read: "The winner of this year's Best Costume Design is *The Lord of the Rings*!"

The audience erupted in thunderous applause, offering congratulations to Director Ford, who had taken the lead today.

Director Ford wasn't particularly excited; he just smiled as he accepted the award, thanked the crew members responsible for the relevant work, and also thanked the Oscar judges.

Luo Quan's ability to read people had always been very high. She saw that although Director Ford had a smile on his face, his eyes looked a bit lonely.

For the usually optimistic Director Ford to become like this, it could only mean that he had already received some news about *The Lord of the Rings*' award prospects before the ceremony.

Thinking of what Gao Liang said, that commercial films were never liked by these academic Oscar judges, *The Lord of the Rings* was probably facing a Waterloo this time.

Don't look at the fact that they won an award right away; if it wasn't one of those heavyweight awards, these scraps weren't really worth being happy about.

After all, Director Ford was also a great director who had won Best Director and the Golden Statue Award, and had long since separated himself from the average director.

To be mentioned in the same breath as those great directors on Mount Rushmore, one had to win more Best Director and Best Picture awards.

However, it currently seemed that the situation for the first *Lord of the Rings* film was not very optimistic.

The award ceremony continued, and soon it reached the award Luo Quan was most concerned about: Best Original Song, also known as the Oscar Golden Song.

For a musician, the two most important awards are the Grammy and the Oscar Golden Song.

Originally, Luo Quan felt that winning a Grammy was something she could easily achieve, but because the release of the *Love* album just happened to miss that year's Grammy Awards, the Oscar Golden Song came first.

"The last nominee is the theme song for *The Lord of the Rings*, *May It Be*, sung by Luo Quan." During the nomination stage, the host quickly read Luo Quan's name: "Luo Quan uses her ethereal voice, which is like the sound of nature, to give the audience in the film a sense of immersion, as if they were in the magical and magnificent Middle-earth world..."

The audience in the audience laughed out loud when they heard this. If this wasn't an award-winning review, what was?

However, it didn't exceed everyone's expectations. The stars present had all been to the cinema to watch *The Lord of the Rings*, and this interlude sung by Luo Quan was truly more beautiful than they had imagined.

Ethereal, distant, and holy were the first keywords that popped into the listeners' minds. Among so many songs, only this one could be called a voice that purifies the soul after listening to it.

"The winner is—*May It Be*." The presenter on stage didn't keep them in suspense and happily announced this year's Oscar Golden Song.

"Nice!" Luo Quan took a deep breath, and the heart that had been hanging finally dropped.

High-fiving Gao Liang next to her, Luo Quan lifted her skirt and ran up with a face full of smiles.

Seeing such a beautiful and moving girl, even stones would bloom with flowers.

Ed, who had been a cold-faced gentleman for half an hour, now also showed a sincere smile and handed the trophy to Luo Quan.

"Thank you, thank you everyone." Luo Quan's hand holding the trophy trembled slightly. Although she was very excited inside, she wasn't about to cry.

"Thank you, Director Ford, for your trust in letting me write this theme song for *The Lord of the Rings*, and also thank you to the judges for their recognition of me."

Luo Quan paused, calmed her mood, and continued: "Actually, many people said before this that I was going to win, but before the results came out, I was quite anxious, and even prepared myself mentally to be a runner-up.

But the process had fewer twists and turns than I imagined. I thought it would be like those cheesy award shows I've seen on TV, where they read half the list and then the host suddenly says they're going to a commercial break. My heart might not have been able to handle such ups and downs."

As soon as these words were spoken, the whole audience burst into knowing laughter.

In fact, not just in China, these televised award ceremonies all over the world basically follow the same routine. Things that could be said in one sentence are dragged out like an old woman's foot-binding cloth.

"In short, thank you to everyone who supports me. I hope I can come up here again at next year's Oscars." Finally, Luo Quan expressed her small ambition and walked off the stage with the trophy.

Previously, Director Carnason had very much hoped that Luo Quan could play the role of Rose in *Titanic*, but after learning about her relationship with Gao Liang, this concept had to be abandoned.

The supporting role originally set for her in the film was also forced to be cancelled because Luo Quan was too busy at the time and had no schedule.

However, after Director Carnason saw Luo Quan sing a song for *The Lord of the Rings* and found the effect surprisingly good, he also sent her an invitation to write a song.

His original words were that he wanted to create an eternal classic that would be remembered by the world, and to sing the praises of a great, never-abandoning love.

One might ask, does this still need to be written?

Luo Quan spent thirty seconds sending the song *My Heart Will Go On* to him, and attached a note: "This is the most suitable song I can think of. There is no song better than this one."

Director Carnason, who was half-believing, clicked play, and five minutes later sent her a string of exclamation marks.

What this represented no longer needed to be said.

In fact, Luo Quan's words were still a bit too absolute; this song had definitely not reached its best state yet.

When she sang it last year, her singing technique was not as mature as it is now, and the biggest problem was the lack of emotion.

And for this kind of love song to be deeply moving, the most critical thing is emotion.

And after redeeming the star card of Teacher Gong and singing *Little River Flowing*, she had a breakthrough in terms of integrating emotion into her voice. Since then, emotion was no longer her weakness in songs. From then on, her singing technique was completely perfect, with no more blind spots.

However, she didn't record a new version of *My Heart Will Go On*. On one hand, there was no demand for it at the moment.

On the other hand, when this song came out, many busybodies spread rumors that she had experienced a vigorous life-and-death love, which was why she could create such a poignant classic.

This rumor was spread quite convincingly at the time, and even Wen Xia believed it, crying and running to her room saying she wanted to comfort her.

If she were to suddenly record a new version of this song now, these rumors that no one was mentioning anymore might be dragged out again.

At that time, the argument of the gossipers would probably be even more solid: "You said you haven't been in love, so why are you singing it again?"

In view of this, Luo Quan had never sung a better *My Heart Will Go On* again.

Even when singing for fans in the live broadcast room, she deliberately avoided this song.

She mainly wanted to give everyone a surprise when the film was released.

Compared to the theme song of *The Lord of the Rings*, Luo Quan felt that this song would definitely bring greater emotion to the audience.

After all, love has always been one of the most popular and moving eternal topics for humanity.

Perhaps the audience in the audience didn't know what she was boasting about at this time, as they didn't know what other films she had done theme songs for.

The only film she participated in that was released this year was *Resident Evil*. How could such a B-grade horror film get on the Oscar stage?

However, the year is so long, and it's not impossible for Luo Quan to write theme songs for other films.

With her talent, the probability of her coming up to receive an award again next year is really not small!

"The one you're talking about is *Titanic*, right?" Gao Liang was the smartest and quickly thought of this point, whispering to his sister.

"See through but don't say it, leave some suspense for those who don't know." Luo Quan was in a very good mood, and the corners of her mouth were always raised.

Compared to this side, Director Ford's mood was not very beautiful.

Although *The Lord of the Rings* went on to win Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Cinematography.

But in the most important major awards, it ultimately failed.

There was a nomination for Best Actor, but anyone with a discerning eye knew that this kind of performance with a green screen was simply not liked by the Oscars.

Best Actress was even more ridiculous. Luo Quan's "world's number one" referred to her appearance, not her acting skills.

If a vase character with less than half an hour of screen time could win Best Actress, then the judges would be blind. She wasn't so beautiful that it made people lose their minds.

And for Best Director and Best Picture, they only got one nomination each, but the winners were other films.

Although *The Lord of the Rings* became the film with the most awards at this year's Oscars, with a full five awards, it looked more like compensation from the jury.

In the end, Director Ford ended his Oscar journey with a sigh.