Skyfall, Jai Ho, and My Heart Will Go On are some of the memorable Academy Award-winning tunes. Now, there’s a chance that the Wuhan Flu song from Borat Subsequent Moviefilm will join the list.
This morning, The Academy revealed the shortlist for nine Awards categories, including the forecasted nominations for Best Song. In the company of Mary J. Blige, John Legend, Diane Warren, and Janelle Monae are Sascha and Erran Baron Cohen for the outrageous Borat 2 sing-a-long style song Wuhan Flu.
Following last week’s news that Borat Subsequent Moviefilm received three Golden Globe nominations, the possibility of Wuhan Flu winning an Oscar doesn’t seem so far-fetched.
The song, written by the Baron Cohen brothers, features a call and response between Sascha Baron Cohen (as Borat, as Country Dave) and a pro-Trump audience at a right-wing militia rally. Clocking in at a whopping nine minutes long, the song has a simple rhyme scheme and is accompanied by a soundtrack of banjos and violins.
The vibe is akin to a blue-grass country song or church hymn. Some of the poetic lyrics include:
“USA is the best / We don’t need no COVID test / WHO, what we gonna do? / Chop ’em up like the Saudi’s do!”
At one point, Baron Cohen/Borat/Country Dave gives the audience some agency by asking, “Mask wearers, what we gonna do? Actually should we lock them up like we used to do, or do you wanna inject them with the Wuhan flu?” To which the audience exuberantly reply, “Wuhan Flu!” Talk about an authentic creative collaboration.
I’ve been pretty bored by this year’s awards season, but @Matt_Hoeck just pointed out to me that Glenn Close might continue her incredible losing streak at the Oscars because of Borat 2 and now that’s the only thing I’m rooting for.
— Eric Essagof (@Eric_Essagof) February 4, 2021
If the song does get nominated, in Oscar tradition, there is potential for a live performance of “Wuhan Flu” during the ceremony.
I so want to hear “Wuhan Flu”-the uncut version, please!-performed at this year’s #Oscars. If it happens, it would be Oscar’s finest musical moment since “Blame Canada” in 2000! https://t.co/Wf7aRL4ou2
— A.J. Goldmann (@ajgoldmann) February 10, 2021
Neither Baron Cohen brothers (nor Borat) have made a statement yet about their potential Oscar nomination, but they are surely high-fiving somewhere. We wish Kazakhstan’s most trusted journalist luck come awards season. He will need it… not!
Find the shortlists for the nine categories here. Listen to the masterwork that is Wuhan Flu here.
