Song in Spanish Initially Ruled Out for Oscar Vote

Because of a misinterpretation of the rules, a song from the movie “Desperado” was nearly eliminated from Academy Award consideration for the simple fact that it’s in Spanish.

“Cancion del Mariachi,” a song written and performed by Los Lobos and sung by actor Antonio Banderas in the opening scenes of “Desperado,” was initially rejected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences music branch executive committee.

A letter sent last month to “Desperado” writer-director Robert Rodriguez from committee chairman Arthur Hamilton declared the song “ineligible in the original song category because the lyric of the song was not intelligible.”

An incredulous Rodriguez protested the decision. But after he provided a translation for the lyrics, he received an apologetic letter explaining that upon reexamination of the rules, “we find no specific requirements, despite a long-standing unspoken tradition, that the lyrics of eligible songs must be in English.”

If “Cancion del Mariachi” is nominated after voting is completed Feb. 1, it will be only the second non-English song ever eligible for an Oscar. The only foreign-language nominee in the 67-year history of Academy Awards was “Ave Satani” from the 1976 movie “The Omen”--an ode to the devil sung by a chorus in Latin.

Academy executive director Bruce Davis said the “Cancion” confusion was the result of an embarrassing office error.

“Somebody in the office [was mistaken],” he said. “Thinking that foreign-language songs were not eligible, they looked for the rule to explain it and used the one excluding things where you can’t hear the lyrics. But this song is quite intelligible, presented more clearly and up-front than most songs in movies these days.”

But Davis said that reevaluation of the process will be needed to clarify the situation for future rules interpretations.

“In evaluating songs we’re asking the membership to evaluate the lyrics as well as the music,” he said. “A song in French or Spanish, enough of them could probably figure it out. But if we get an entry in Urdu, that may not be so easy. Even if there were subtitles or a rendering of the song in English, a translation isn’t the same thing in terms of content or rhyming structure. This apparently raises a question that has not come up before.”