While it took the folks in the room at Sunday night’s Oscars a moment to register the fact that Eminem was actually there, performing his 2002 hit “Lose Yourself” — particularly Idina Menzel — his performance ended with an uproarious standing ovation.
The reaction among music fans was similar: Sales for “Lose Yourself” soared more than 2,100 percent on Sunday and Monday, with the 2003 Best Original Song winner seeing in excess of 10,000 digital downloads in the 24 hours after the show. It was the Number One song by digital downloads both days, according to Alpha Data, the analytics company that powers the Rolling Stone Charts.
The extra attention comes at an opportune moment: Eminem’s currently promoting his 11th studio album, Music to Be Murdered By, which sits at Number Three on the Rolling Stone Top 200 Albums chart.
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“Lose Yourself” wasn’t the only song that saw a notable Oscar boost, with every Best Original Song nominee seeing a surge in sales on Sunday after each was performed during the three-hour ceremony. But whether the song actually won didn’t make much of a difference on its performance.
Among all the Best Original Song nominees, Cynthia Erivo’s Harriet cut, “Stand Up,” was the biggest song by sales Sunday night. The ballad saw a 1,170 percent lift from the day before and was the third-biggest song in the U.S. by sales that day. Chrissy Metz’s “Into the Unknown,” from the soundtrack to the Christian drama Breakthrough, jumped more than 2,600 percent, to 1,089 sales, on Sunday.
While Elton John and Bernie Taupin went home with the Oscar for Rocketman ditty “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again,” it was only the fifth most popular nominee of the night by digital sales. While it did see a boost of more than 1,300 percent, its 457 digital sales on Sunday were about one-fifth the number that “Stand Up” pulled in.
Randy Newman’s “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” saw a 775 percent spike in sales, while Idina Menzel’s Frozen II cut, “Into the Unknown,” which features Norwegian singer-songwriter Aurora, saw a 26 percent increase.
