With three of the five nominees for best original song, the smash hit musical Dreamgirls seemed the odds-on favorite to take home the Academy Award last night.

But Oscar voters were swayed by "I Need to Wake Up," Melissa Etheridge's call to action theme song for the global warming warning An Inconvenient Truth, which also took home the prize for best documentary.

Etheridge, who performed the song with her band last night, gave a passionate thank you to former Vice President Al Gore, whose climate crisis presentations over the years inspired the film.

"Mostly I have to thank Al Gore for inspiring us, inspiring me, and showing that caring about the Earth is not Republican or Democrat," Etheridge said. "It's not red or blue. We are all green. This is our job now, we can become the greatest generation, the generation that changed, the generation that woke up and did something and changed."

Etheridge also thanked her partner Tammy Lynn Michaels and their four children. Later in the evening, while holding her Oscar statue, she quipped of her well-publicized relationship, "This is the only naked man who will ever be in my bedroom."

But Dreamgirls wasn't entirely shut out, as co-star Jennifer Hudson, who had no prior acting experience, won the award for best supporting actress. Hudson was previously best-known as a seventh-place finisher on the 2004 American Idol, during which she was met with the following line from sniping judge Simon Cowell, "You're out of your depth in this competition."

Hudson, who had never acted before, thanked her grandmother for inspiring her career. "She was a singer. She had the passion for it, but she never had the chance," she said, fighting back tears.

Dreamgirls also won for achievement in sound mixing. Argentine composer Gustavo Santaolalla took home his second Oscar in as many years for his score for Babel, a tale of the globalization of pain and suffering. Santaolalla won the Oscar last year for his haunting score for Brokeback Mountain.

West Bank Story, a musical satire about dueling Arab and Israeli falafel stands on the West Bank, also took home an Oscar Sunday for best live-action short film.