Who was the first winner of ‘Best Original Song’ at the Oscars?
The Oscar for ‘Best Original Song’ is one of the Academy Awards most-sought after prizes. For songwriters, composers and recording artists, simply being nominated can be transformative, introducing them to millions of new listeners.
This was certainly the case for Sufjan Stevens, whose song ‘Mystery of Love’ was nominated back in 2017 following its appearance in Call Me By Your Name. It can also mark an already-established artist’s rebirth. Either way, ‘Best Song’ has become an institution in itself over the years. But what was the first song to win the prize?
Awarded annually as part of the Oscars, the ‘Best Original Song’ prize is granted to recording artists who have composed a song specifically written for one of the year’s nominated films. The award seeks to celebrate music’s role in altering and enhancing the audience’s experience of a movie. On occasion, of course, songs have won the prize for being so essential to the plot that to remove them would be to destroy the film.
‘Best Original Song’ honours the songwriters and not the performers of the nominated track. Performers are only credited if they also contributed music or lyrics. The song also has to appear in the film – this includes opening and closing credits – to be eligible. Songs using sampled, remixed, or reworked material are ineligible, as are recorded songs that have been released prior to their use in the film.
What was the first song to win an Oscar?
The ‘Best Original Song’ category was introduced in 1934 for the seventh annual Academy Awards, the same year in which Clarke Gable won Best Actor for his performance in Frank Capra and Harry Cohn’s It Happened One Night. Capra’s production won a slew of other awards that night, including the prize for ‘Best Adaptation’, with Claudette Colbert taking home the award for ‘Best Actress’.
That year’s ‘Best Song’ nominees, meanwhile, included ‘Love in Bloom’ from She Loves Me Not, with music by Ralph Rainger and Lyrics by Leo Robin; ‘Carioca’ from Flying Down to Rio, with music by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Edward Eliscu and Gus Kahn; and ‘The Continental’ from The Gay Divorcee, with music by Con Conrad and lyrics by Herb Magidson.
In the end, the award went to Conrad and Magidson for ‘The Continental’, a big band jazz composition featuring vocals (and footsteps) by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The film tells the story of Mimi Glossop, who travels to England following her divorce. She soon meets a young performer called Guy Holden, with whom she sings, dances and slowly falls in love.
