Song captures pain of ‘127 Hours’

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

The sheet music for “If I Rise” from the Oscar-nominated film “127 Hours” contains many words, but not many traditional lyrics.

Dido does sing actual phrases. But she coos soothing sounds in a good portion of the song, her voice providing an eerie sense of calm during perhaps the most pivotal scene in the movie, based on the true story of adventurer Aron Ralston, who cut off his right arm after it became pinned under a boulder in an isolated canyon in Utah.

“I sort of felt like I was in his head; I didn’t want to put too many definite words in there. What I did was just sort of close my eyes and [I] thought about the story and thought about what I might feel, and then just sung what came into my head,” Dido said in a recent interview.

“It’s meant to have this sort of lullaby, calming quality,” she said.

“127 Hours,” directed by Danny Boyle and starring James Franco, is nominated for six Oscars, including best original song for “If I Rise,” which Dido wrote with brother Rollo Armstrong and Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman. Rahman is also nominated for best original score.

Dido, perhaps best known for “Thank You,” which was sampled by Eminem for “Stan,” said she was stunned by the nomination.

“There’s something about it as a musician, there’s something really special about it because it’s not your normal industry,” she said.

“If I Rise” will be performed by Rahman and Florence Welch of the Grammy-nominated Florence and the Machine at the Oscars ceremony tonight.