Peter Gabriel To Skip Oscars

You won't be seeing Peter Gabriel perform at this year's Oscar awards. According to EOnline.com, the singer has decided to back out of his performance for the ceremony on Feb. 22.

Gabriel was scheduled to perform his piece that was nominated for Best Song. He changed his mind after producers informed him that he would only be allowed 65 seconds to perform on stage. The limit is part of an effort to increase ratings for this year's ceremony.

Gabriel's song, "Down to Earth", which appeared in Disney's "Wall-E," runs nearly six minutes long.

"I'm an old fart and it's not going to do me any harm to make a little protest," said Gabriel in a video on his website. "But the ceremony should be fun and I'm looking forward to it."

Gabriel also mentioned that he hopes the Soweto Gospel Choir would take his place at the show, performing his song in a highly condensed form. The performance is expected to be part of medley along with "Jai Ho" and "O Saya," both Best Song nominees from the film "Slumdog Millionaire."

As for his thoughts on the producers' decision to condense the songs into one piece, Gabriel said, "I do think it's a bit unfortunate. The songwriters, even though they're a small part of the filmmaking process, we still work bloody hard and I think deserve a place in the ceremony as well."

Even though he won't be performing, Gabriel won't miss the ceremony and is planning on being in the audience that evening.