Miguel, Natalia LaFourcade, and Gael Garcia Bernal brought Mexico's Dia de los Muertos to the 2018 Academy Awards on Sunday, March 3.
Disney and Pixar's Coco was nominated and won in two categories including Best Original Song for the movie's signature track "Remember Me." The song, which was written and composed by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (the same songwriters behind Frozen), was presented to the star-studded audience by the movie's lead, Bernal, and Miguel and LaFourcade who contributed to the soundtrack.
Bernal, who played the role of Hector, opened the performance accompanied by a single guitarist. Then, Miguel and LaFourcade turned the stage into a fiesta with Latin dancers and neon-colored sets.
"When I heard that the song was nominated, I was like, 'Oh, my god!' I was happy, but I was a bit in shock because I thought, 'Ok, they're going to make me sing the song,'" Bernal said in an interview with Ryan Seacrest for E! News at the red carpet. "Now I'm here, going there to sing the song and I hope for the best."
Viva Mexico
Coco centers on a 12-year-old boy who calls the help of his late great-great-grandfather to rescue him from the land of the dead. The movie was also nominated and won the Oscars for Best Animated Feature.
The movie was a critical and commercial success, earning a 97 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a $740 million gross at the global box office. The Disney-Pixar big screen offering also collected awards at this year's Golden Globes and BAFTAs.
Camilo Lara, one of the music consultants behind the award-winning animated movie, revealed in a press conference the great lengths that the team had to go through in order to create a sound that is original but authentic.
"I think the main goal was to create this universe and to make it as if it was music in the street in Mexico in a town like Santa Cecilia," she explained. "So it was a big challenge because of the landscaping in a place, in a town, in a plaza, everywhere in Mexico you keep hearing non-stop music and all kinds of music [...] The whole idea was to make music to have a sonic landscape that smells like Mexico."
Internet Reacts To 'Coco' Performance At The Oscars
While the movie did well on Sunday's show, Bernal did not. The actor was criticized for his rather shaky rendition of "Remember Me" at the Oscars.
Here is an adorable GIF of the actor giving Star Wars: The Last Jedi star Oscar Isaac a hug to make up for all the awful singing:
Watch his performance of "Remember Me" from the movie Coco below.
@lafourcade @GaelGarciaB @Miguel IT WAS BEAUTIFUL JUST SO HERMOSO #Oscar2018 #rememberme pic.twitter.com/g2tYNNJ4fG — (@latristebruja) March 5, 2018