February 25, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack Scores Big Post-Oscar Bump

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The ceremony was shrill and silly, and A.R. Rahman was forced to share his big musical moment with John Legend (who was himself replacing Peter Gabriel), but things worked out: the soundtrack to best picture winner Slumdog Millionaire, as well as best song “Jai Ho,” have both registered significant post-Oscar jumps in sales. The soundtrack, which includes both of Millionaire‘s nominated songs as well as M.I.A.’s already-pretty-popular “Paper Planes,” is now the number one selling album on iTunes, outselling both The Jonas Brothers and heavy metal monsters Lamb of God. Nice. Perhaps more intriguingly, the ecstatic, driving “Jai Ho” is now a Top 5 sales hit, climbing to #5 on the iTunes singles chart today. The official Billboard charts have not yet caught up with this week’s sales, but it will be intriguing to see how those look next week. Also, for some reason the music industry powers that be decided it would be a good idea if the Pussycat Dolls did a “remix” of “Jai Ho,” which one hopes might engender interest in the original amongst otherwise clueless demographics, but one worries might, er, hasten the end of the world.

After the jump, the song in its original form (accompanying the dance scene from the film) and the new, Pussycatted version.A.R. Rahman – “Jai Ho” (from Slumdog Millionaire)

Nicole Scherzinger & A.R. Rahman – “Jai Ho”

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