Tegan and Sara, Lonely Island Bring ‘Awesome’ Lego Insanity to Oscars
Questlove, Will Arnett and Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh turn room full of adults into kids with “Everything Is Awesome”
Tegan and Sara, with help from the Lonely Island, Questlove, Will Arnett and Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh, turned a room full of adults in tuxedos and evening gowns into children with their ebullient performance of “Everything Is Awesome” at Sunday night’s Academy Awards.
The Lego Movie song fittingly opened in animated form, with a Lego chorus kicking off the bubblegum pop track. When the pop sister duo appeared, the purposely primitive stage was made to look like a 10-year-old designed it, complete with two crudely drawn Oscars.
As comedy rap trio the Lonely Island entered with ruffled blue tuxedos, an assortment of real-life Lego favorites, including construction workers and cowboys, joined them (as well as “awesome possums” from the song’s lyrics).
The action went past the stage into the crowd, as celebrities like Steve Carell and Oprah Winfrey received Lego-fied Academy Awards. Back onstage, Arnett reprised his Batman vocal role in the film dressed as the guitar-wielding superhero alongside the Roots drummer and Tonight Show bandleader Questlove.
Tegan and Sara said they took on the track to bring joy to the film’s viewers more than their own success. “I love the idea of like, an 8-year-old going to the movie and some of those kids ending up liking Tegan and Sara,” Tegan told Rolling Stone. “But in the end, we didn’t do it to become a bigger band; we did it because we thought the movie was really cool and we just loved the idea of contributing to something that would bring people happiness.”