A second opinion

Tuesday nominations for the 80th Academy Awards were revealed. This year's races boast no clear winners, and will prove to be some of the most wildly contested in Oscar history.

The worst snub was the exclusion of international superstar Shakira from the Best Original Song category. This was surprising after her Andean folk song "Despedida" - which was featured in the film adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's classic, Love in the Time of Cholera - recently received a Golden Globe nomination in the same race.

Before the dawn of the new century, the Best Original Song category at the Oscars was both bland and predictable. In 2002, however, Barbra Streisand memorably crowned recording artist Eminem as the first rapper to win in the category, beating out music greats John Kander and Fred Ebb, among others. This would pave the way for Three 6 Mafia's win for "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," as well Jorge Drexler's triumph over Andrew Lloyd Webber and the Counting Crows, making him not only the first artist to win for a Spanish music recording but also the first Latino winner. And last year, lesbian Melissa Etheridge won for a song about global warming. After these bold decisions, which showed a sense of cultural acceptance from a voting committee largely comprised of older, white men, the Oscars have suffered a setback once again.

Looking at this year's nominees, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz are living legends, yes, but this is not reason to give them three nominations for their contributions to Enchanted, as their "Happy Working Song" is fluff, and "Raise It Up" from the little-seen film August Rush is relatively boring.

Both "Despedida" and a second song that Shakira scored for Cholera, a bolero entitled "Hay Amores," perfectly embody the 19th-century period and the rhythmic history of her native country and language. While Shakira is known stateside for her mainstream fare such as "Hips Don't Lie," her songwriting is lauded by critics for its great depth. This is why living genius Marquez personally asked her to compose for the film, a great testament to her brilliance as a songwriter.

The Oscars will suffer without her nomination performance and win.