Backlash against Lorde's Oscar snub

Lorde failed to earn an Oscar nomination for her work on The Hunger Games. Photo / AP

Lorde's failure to land an Academy Award nomination has drawn the ire of Oscar-watchers and US music critics.

The Kiwi singer-songwriter's track Yellow Flicker Beat from The Hunger Games: Mockinjay - Part 1, has been snubbed in the best original song category, despite getting a nod in the same category at the Golden Globes.

Vanity Fair listed Lorde's omission as one of the eight biggest snubs or surprises from the Oscar nominations.

The magazine said the Academy "played it safe" in the category, though it will get "some hipness points" for including John Legend and Common's Golden Globe-winning track Glory from the film Selma.

"All other potentially youth-skewing songs, like Lorde's hypnotic Yellow Flicker Beat or Lana Del Rey Big Eyes, were abandoned for less on-the-radar choices."

It also noted: "It would have been fun to see what Lorde would wear to the Oscars. Something black, we presume."

Yellow Flicker Beat should have been a "shoo-in", Billboard said.

"The critically-acclaimed performer, the growth and depth of the song, and its real-world commercial success. Lorde's first post-Pure Heroine song stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks, peaking at No. 34," the US music publication's Chris Payne said.

"In other words, it was a bona fide top 40 hit, something the rest of the nomination class is lacking."

MTV said Lorde's exclusion was a "goof".

"What happened there, guys? Did the fumes from all those gold statuettes addle your brains?" critic Brenna Ehrlich wrote.

"Did Jennifer Lawrence trip and scatter your ballots, thus accidentally shuffling Lorde from the mix? Answers - they are required."

BEST ORIGINAL SONG NOMINEES

* Everything is Awesome - The Lego Movie
* Glory - Selma
* Grateful - Beyond the Lights
* I'm Not Gonna Miss You - Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me
* Lost Stars - Begin Again.

-AAP