The only songs to have won both a Grammy and an Oscar
Every year, when award show season rolls around, two events dominate the headlines: the Oscars and the Grammys. Honouring the greatest achievements in film and music, the awards are highly coveted by creatives in both fields. To win an Oscar or a Grammy often signifies the highlight of an artist’s career, marking them as one of the very best in their field. Very occasionally, though, artists have been successful enough to pick up both prizes for the same work.
Music has been a huge part of cinema for a long time. Of course, in the days before ‘talkies’, directors needed to choose a suitable score for their movies so that audiences were not bored by the absolute silence of the film. As the medium progressed, original scores became a genre in their own right, with composers like John Williams becoming household names for their iconic soundtracks.
Over the years, many tracks have been made for film soundtracks that were so successful they earned the respect of The Recording Academy and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Grammy Awards have a slightly shorter history than their cinematic counterpart, with the first ceremony being held in 1959. Since that time, a total of 21 songs have managed to collect an award both from the Grammys and the Oscars.
The number of tracks included on the list would likely be shorter if it was not for the introduction of the ‘Best Song Written Specifically For A Motion Picture Or Television’ category at the Grammys in 1987. However, the songs that merit these accolades cover over 50 years of music and film history, and, for the most part, it’s hard to disagree with their inclusion on the list.
The most recent song to join this elite club was, perhaps unsurprisingly, ‘Let It Go’ from Frozen which received the Oscar for ‘Best Original Song’ in addition to ‘Best Song Written for Visual Media’ at the Grammys in 2015. In fact, Walt Disney films feature on this list multiple times, with tracks from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and Monsters Inc. all making it on there.
It is not just feel-good Disney tracks that make up the list, though. If you want to write a film song that catches the attention of both award shows, ballads seem to be the way to go. The vast majority of tracks are ballads. Ranging from ‘Moon River’, from Breakfast At Tiffany’s to ‘The Weary Kind’ from Crazy Heart, the enduring power of the ballad shows no signs of going away anytime soon.
Check out the full list below. Although there are many that you would expect to see, there are a few curveballs to be found as well.
Songs that won both a Grammy and an Oscar:
- ‘Moon River’ – Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer
- ‘Days of Wine and Roses’ – Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer
- ‘The Shadow Of Your Smile’ – Johnny Mandel and Paul Francis Webster
- ‘The Way We Were’ – Alan and Marilyn Bergman and Marvin Hamlisch
- ‘Evergreen (Love Theme From A Star Is Born)’ – Barbra Streisand and Paul Williams
- ‘You Light Up My Life’ – Joe Brooks
- ‘Last Dance’ – Paul Jabara
- ‘Let The River Run’ – Carly Simon
- ‘Under The Sea’ – Howard Ashman and Alan Menken
- ‘Beauty And The Beast’ – Howard Ashman and Alan Menken
- ‘A Whole New World (Aladdin’s Theme)’ – Alan Menken and Tim Rice
- ‘Streets Of Philadelphia’ – Bruce Springsteen
- ‘Colors Of The Wind’ – Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz
- ‘My Heart Will Go On (Love Theme From Titanic)’ – James Horner and Will Jennings
- ‘If I Didn’t Have You’ – Randy Newman
- ‘Lose Yourself’ – Jeff Bass, Eminem and Luis Resto
- ‘Into The West’ – Annie Lennox, Howard Shore and Fran Walsh
- ‘Jai Ho’ – Gulzar, A.R. Rahman and Tanvi Shah
- ‘The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)’ – Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett
- ‘Skyfall’ – Adele and Paul Epworth
- ‘Let It Go’ – Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
