While the Original Song Oscar shortlist is typically good about spreading the wealth around, three movies dominated close to half the spaces. Barbie nabbed noms for three songs, while The Color Purple and Apple Original Films’ Flora and Son got two each. Of the 15 spots, Warner Bros owns five of ’em between Barbie and Color Purple.
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Warner Bros has been pushing the Barbie soundtrack, produced by A Star Is Born “Shallow” Oscar winner and 7x Grammy winner Mark Ronson, in a major way this season with meet-and-greets and screenings for the latter, as well as performers Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish and even Ryan Gosling. All three shortlisted songs from Barbie –“Dance the Night,” “What Was I Made For?” and “I’m Just Ken”– already are nominated over at the Golden Globes. When has there been a juggernaut from one movie between the Globes and Oscar shortlist?
While the Original Song category went through a phase in the early millennium that largely overlooked Billboard hits and ditties from performing artists, AMPAS has loosened up to pop. Not that ratings are at the front of voters’ minds, but if Lipa, Eilish and Gosling all appear on next year’s awards telecast, that certainly would go a long way for ratings and Oscar social media.
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Should “Dance the Night” score a nom in the category, it will rep a first for Lipa, who co-penned the song with Ronson, Andrew Wyatt and Caroline Ailin. The disco-themed track was requested by Barbie director Greta Gerwig, who needed it for a big dance number at the start of the film. “Dance the Night” peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Lipa’s fifth Top 10 single stateside. The song also is up for Song of the Year and Best Song for a Visual Media at the 66th Grammys
Eilish co-wrote “What Was I Made For?” with brother and collaborator Finneas O’Connell, and they already are 2021 Oscar winners for the ditty “No Time to Die” from the 007 movie of the same name. They were overlooked on last year’s shortlist for their three songs from Disney/Pixar’s Turning Red. “What Was I Made For?” peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and counts five noms at the Grammys including Record and Song of the Year.
If “I’m Just Ken” gets nominated, and Gosling performs the ’80s power ballad on Oscars telecast, look for the internet to break. The song is a hit at 70M streams on Spotify and another 3M on YouTube.
With all the fierce competition among actress nominees in Warner Bros.’ The Color Purple, if Halle Bailey is overlooked, she might expect a nomination in the Original Song category for the co-penned “Keep It Movin’.” In fact, both original songs from the feature adaptation of the Broadway musical that were submitted have landed on the shortlist. Bailey, who plays Nettie in the movie, sings the song with young Celie, portrayed by Phylicia Pearl Mpasi. Bailey wrote the song with Denisia Andrews, Brittany Coney and Morten Ristorp.
“Superpower” is the rousing, spiritual end-credits song from The Color Purple and was written by The-Dream and performed by American Idol alum Fantasia Barrino, who plays the older Celie in the movie.
And it wouldn’t be an Oscar season without songwriter Diane Warren, who makes the cut for the shortlist again toward a possible 15th Original Song Oscar nomination with her Becky G-performed anthem “The Fire Inside,” the end-credits song for Hulu/Searchlight’s Flamin’ Hot, directed by Eva Longoria. Warren was honored with a Governors Award Oscar recently but has yet to win at the Oscars despite her great noms streak. BTW, “The Fire Inside” is the only song nominated from Disney; the studio’s swatch of Wish songs greatly ignored.
While the song “Falling Slowly” from John Carney’s romance movie Once won a 2008 original song Oscar, Carney himself never has been nominated for a songwriting Oscar. There’s the potential for that as not one but two of his co-penned songs, “Meet in the Middle” and “High Life,” make the cut shortlist from his Apple movie Flora and Son. “Meet in the Middle” is performed by the pic’s actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Eve Hewson and also was co-written by them along with Carney, Gary Clark and Robert John Ardiff. “High Life” was co-written and co-performed by Hewson. Orén Kinlan also sings on the song. Other songwriters include Clark and Carney.
Former The Band co-founder Robbie Robertson, who passed on Aug. 9, never has been nominated at the Oscars but could find a posthumous nom for his score from Apple Original Films’ Killers of the Flower Moon. It’s the 10th time that Robertson has worked with his friend, director Martin Scorsese. A track from the movie, “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People),” was written by Scott George and performed by the Osage Tribal Singers.
Lenny Kravitz also could be looking at a first-time Oscar nomination with his music and lyrics for “Road to Freedom,” the end-credits song from Netflix’s Rustin, which he sang and plays over archival photographs from the March on Washington. The song is also nominated at the Globes.
Also making a notch today is 3x Grammy winner and High School Musical series actress Olivia Rodrigo with “Can’t Catch Me Now,” her end-credits song from the Lionsgate fall hit The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. If nominated for Best Song next month, it would rep Rodrigo’s first Oscar nom.
Off today’s shortlist, 2023’s second-highest-grossing superhero movie of the year, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ($690.5M WW), could be looking at three Oscar noms in VFX, Daniel Pemberton’s original score and the end-credits song “Am I Dreaming.” Hip-hop artist Metro Boomin sang it and co-wrote with Roisee, A$AP Rocky (as Rakim Mayers), Mike Dean, Peter Lee Johnson and Landon Wayne (as Landon ‘Script’ Wayne). Metro Boomin preformed with Roisee and A$AP Rocky.
Who was snubbed this year? There wasn’t a single song nominated from Warner Bros.’ holiday hit Wonka, which is easily on its way to $100M+ stateside through the Christmas holiday, and there were many. The Jack Black-performed and co-penned ditty “Peaches” from Illumination/Universal’s The Super Mario Bros Movie also was ignored. Also missing is OK Go’s end-credits song “This” from Apple Original Films’ comedy The Beanie Bubble, which was co-directed by the band’s frontman Damian Kulash. Other overlooks by AMPAS this year include the Golden Globe-nominated Bruce Springsteen song “Addicted to Romance” from She Came to Me,” and the NSYNC reunion single “Better Place” from Trolls Band Together.
The 2023 Oscar winner for Best Original Song was “Naatu Naatu” from RRR, with music by M.M. Keeravaani and lyrics by Chandrabose.
The 15 songs cleared to be potentially nominated at the 96th Oscars include:
“It Never Went Away” from American Symphony
“Dear Alien (Who Art in Heaven)” from Asteroid City
“Dance the Night” from Barbie
“I’m Just Ken” from Barbie
“What Was I Made For?” from Barbie
“Keep It Movin’” from The Color Purple
“Superpower (I)” from The Color Purple
“The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot
“High Life” from Flora and Son
“Meet in the Middle” from Flora and Son
“Can’t Catch Me Now” from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
“Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon
“Quiet Eyes” from Past Lives
“Road to Freedom” from Rustin
“Am I Dreaming” from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse