Oscars 2024: Ranking every ‘Best Song’ nomination
While the majority of Academy Award categories are contested by industry professionals working at the top of their game, few trophies – if any – have thrown up an eclectic list of nominees and winners quite like ‘Best Original Song’.
After all, this a prize that’s been won by The Muppets, Eminem, and Three 6 Mafia, and it also saw South Park land a nomination for ‘Blame Canada’, while the litany of cinema and music legends to have either won or been shortlisted includes John Williams, Elton John, Lionel Richie, Bob Dylan, and Andrew Lloyd Webber among many others.
Whittling the best individual tracks cinema has to offer over a 12-month span into five nominees is a tough task that regularly throws surprise snubs and left-field candidates, but there’s really only one of this year’s quintet considered the front-runner to leave with an Oscar under its arm.
History has shown that the best track is far from guaranteed to be the one with its name read out onstage in front of the world, but that doesn’t mean it’s a regular occurrence. With that in mind, will 2024 go as planned and reward the finest song, or will there be an upset on the cards?
Ranking every ‘Best Original Song’ nomination:
5. ‘The Fire Inside’ (Flamin’ Hot, Diane Warren)
The race to win an Oscar for ‘Best Original Song’ feels incomplete without Diane Warren, with ‘The Fire Inside’ marking her seventh consecutive nomination and 15th in total dating back to 1987. However, she’s never won a competitive Academy Award, and that’s not going to change.
For better or worse, the biopic about a flavour of crisps is an Oscar-nominated film thanks entirely to Warren, and as energetic as the track is, it’s nowhere near being among her most memorable work. A decent enough and suitably catchy pop song, sure, but it doesn’t stand out as having the credentials to win the gold.
The lyrical content is fairly formulaic, and ‘The Fire Inside’ doesn’t offer anything that can’t be found on the radio at any minute of any day. Points for being about fire when the movie covers Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, then, but it’s by far the most forgettable of the nominees.
4. ‘I’m Just Ken’ (Barbie, Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt)
If the Oscar was handed out purely on cultural impact and popularity, then Ryan Gosling would have this one in the bag after ‘I’m Just Ken’ became one of the biggest hits of 2023 across any medium of music, which is an impressive return for what’s ostensibly an elaborate gang rendered in song-and-dance form.
Deftly utilising Gosling’s theatre kid background and comic timing to maximum effect, the soft rock power ballad thrives on the actor’s ability to inject such hilariously mundane lyrics with as much gusto as he can possibly muster.
Segueing through several genres and taking on a life of its own, it’s a perfect tonal match for Barbie‘s sensibilities, but it doesn’t quite have the juice to convince as a potential Academy Award winner. Joke songs very rarely tend to win, and as insanely popular as ‘I’m Just Ken’ may be, being catchy and belted out in karaoke bars across the world doesn’t make it a deserving victor.
3. ‘It Never Went Away’ (American Symphony, Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson)
Matthew Heineman’s documentary didn’t secure a nomination in its chosen category, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t deserving of a ‘Best Original Song’ nod, with ‘It Never Went Away’ perfectly encapsulating the spirit of American Symphony‘s subject.
Following Jon Batiste during one of the most fruitful and challenging periods of his personal and professional lives, the track displays the best of the Grammy-winning artist’s wide array of musical talents and intense dedication to pushing the boundaries of his chosen profession.
That being said, ‘It Never Went Away’ stands out as being relatively safe and tame compared to Batiste’s most important, exuberant and memorable work. As a love letter to his wife, it tugs at the heartstrings, but the musician won’t be adding to the Oscars trophy cabinet that’s already seen him take home a ‘Best Original Score’ gong for his work on Pixar’s Soul.
2. ‘Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)’ (Killers of the Flower Moon, Scott George)
Martin Scorsese’s searing indictment of power, greed, and violence during a formative period in American history boasts a score so effective that it’s often gone unnoticed just how important it is in aiding the overall tone of Killers of the Flower Moon.
Played over the final dance sequence, Scott George and the Osage Tribal Singers offer a beautiful, haunting performance with lyrical content that stands head and shoulders above the rest of the nominees in terms of its resonance.
Celebrating the Osage, George explained that the lyrics are a way of painting just how powerful and resilient they have been and always will be when it comes to the past, present, and future of their culture. For six and a half minutes, that’s a sentiment echoed by every listener as Scorsese rounds out his latest cinematic triumph with a truly captivating track.
1. ‘What Was I Made For? (Barbie, Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell)
Billie Eilish will become the youngest two-time Academy Award winner in history should ‘What Was I Made For?’ give her a second victory in the ‘Best Original Song’ category, and it almost definitely will.
Comfortably the front-runner, the Barbie tune has already scooped a Grammy Award for ‘Song of the Year’, and it’s nigh-on impossible to believe that further accolades aren’t lying in its immediate future. That’s not to say it would be an undeserving winner because the best movie songs always elevate the material, something that’s undeniably true of ‘What Was I Made For?’.
It plays over a pivotal moment in Barbie and enhances the emotionality of the scene, adding additional heft to an already gut-punching scene relaying the journey Margot Robbie’s title hero has been on. It might be a ballad from a film about a doll, but unless there’s a major upset, it’s about to be an Oscar-winning ballad from a film about a doll.
