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Academy Award for Best Original Song; Country: United States: Presented by: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) First awarded: 1934: Most recent winner: Billie Eilish, Finneas O'Connell "What Was I Made For?" Website: oscars.org
- United States
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)
- “White Christmas” from “Holiday Inn” (1942), by Irving Berlin. It always feels strange watching the “Holiday Inn” scene where Bing Crosby, playing a songwriter, teaches this song to Marjorie Reynolds as something that had recently come off the top of his head, because implicit in the scene is the idea that “White Christmas” was written by a human, not God.
- “Over the Rainbow” from “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. When you think about it, both of these two top-tier Oscar songs are ditties about the weather.
- “When You Wish Upon a Star” from “Pinocchio” (1940), by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington. The great triumvirate of movie “wish” songs is completed by Jiminy Cricket’s opening and closing anthem about wishing to be real… something we could all aspire to.
- “Theme From ‘Shaft’” from “Shaft” (1971), by Isaac Hayes. And now, a different kind of wish fulfillment: that you could be a “private dick that’s a sex machine to all the chicks.”
- Randy Newman – If I Didn’T Have You
- Alan Menken and Howard Ashman – Under The Sea
- Alan Menken and Tim Rice – A Whole New World
- Common and John Legend – Glory
- Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington – The Ballad of High Noon
- Stephen Sondheim – Sooner Or Later
- Three 6 Mafia – It’S Hard Out Here For A Pimp
- Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock – Take My Breath Away
- Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford – Fame
- 31 Harry Warren and Al Dubin – Lullaby of Broadway
Better Randy Newman songs were nominated for Oscarswithout winning – the decision to overlook Toy Story 2’s astonishing When She Loved Me is particularly baffling – but If I Didn’t Have You is still incredibly charming: a paean to friendship sung by Billy Crystal and John Goodman.
The Little Mermaid was the film that began the Disney renaissance, which would go on to dominate the Academy’s best-song category in the 1990s. Under the Sea is an early demonstration of how: beneath its perky, kid-friendly calypso lurks a set of lyrics that do more than your average children’s song, dabbling in social comment.
The only Disney song to reach No 1 in the US – a fairly incredible state of affairs in itself – knocked Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You off the top of the charts and similarly prevented The Bodyguard’s frenzied epic I Have Nothing from scooping the Oscar for best song.
Common and John Legend’s theme from the civil-rights epic Selma is one of the less celebrated recent Oscar-winners. It became only a minor hit, which seems surprising: it serves up tension and euphoria in equal measure, and Legend’s closing burst of extemporised vocals is spine-tingling.
Frankie Laine’s version of The Ballad of High Noon – sung in the movie by Tex Ritter – was on the first ever British chart. It was a rare hint of brooding darkness amid a set of songs big on cosy sentimentality. But Ritter’s version is darker and more brooding still, set to a stark arrangement of drums and guitar, full of foreboding: quite unlike a...
The Dick Tracy soundtrack album I’m Breathless is a largely overlooked moment in Madonna’s back catalogue, but Sooner or Later is genuinely great. It is a Stephen Sondheim-penned 30s jazz pastiche, far outside of the singer’s musical and vocal comfort zone, but she pulls it off with considerable style.
Certainly the most strikingly titled Oscar-winning song of all time, Three 6 Mafia’s unflinching gangsta rap track also appears to pay gentle homage to a previous best original song triumph: there is a distinct hint of the blaxploitation soundtrack style minted by Isaac Hayes’ Theme From Shaft about the music.
After Flashdance’s 1983 victory, ballads – especially power ballads – reigned supreme at the Oscars for the rest of the decade: devotees of Up Where We Belong or, indeed, I’ve Had the Time of My Life might disagree, but the pick is Berlin’s Moroder-produced, synth-heavy Top Gun smash: a song as evocative of its era as the smell of Studio Line hair ...
Bizarrely, Fame only became a UK hit two years after winning an Oscar: it was the spin-off TV series, not the movie, that turned it into a No 1. It has never since quite escaped the tag of being the sound of a million early 80s school discos, masking what a smartly constructed disco-rock hybrid it was.
The second winner of the best original song Oscar was used in three separate films in 1935. Seventy-five years later, you can still see why: the melody is hard to resist and its depiction of New York nightlife makes staggering home at dawn sound like the most fun it is possible to have.
- 2019: "Shallow" 'A Star is Born' (2018) After A Star is Born's release in 2018, its hit song "Shallow" took the world by storm and was the clear winner of Best Original Song.
- 2014: "Let It Go" 'Frozen' (2013) There were only four nominees in 2013, but it is no surprise that "Let It Go" would come out on top. Written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez and sung by Broadway legend Idina Menzel, "Let It Go" became a cultural phenomenon that has continued to dominate a decade later.
- 2023: "Naatu Naatu" 'RRR' (2022) Beating out heavy hitters like Lady Gaga and Rihanna, the international hit song from RRR, "Naatu Naatu" took home the Oscar during the 95th Academy Awards.
- 2015: "Glory" 'Selma' (2014) In 2014, Selma's theme song "Glory" easily won the top spot. It also won a Golden Globe, a Critics’ Choice Award, and a Grammy while charting in the top 50 on the Billboard Hot 100.
- “Over the Rainbow," Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg from The Wizard of Oz. As timeless as they come. The legendary Judy Garland singing the splendid “Over the Rainbow” in The Wizard of Oz is pretty much the gold standard of movie magic.
- “Lose Yourself," Eminem, Jeff Bass and Luis Resto from 8 Mile. Eminem’s amped-up anthem made Oscar history back in 2002, becoming the first-ever hip-hop track to win an Academy Award for best original song.
- “Falling Slowly," Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová from Once. Basically every song from Once is Oscar-worthy (yep, even “Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy”), but “Falling Slowly” is the one that made everyone fall madly in love with the duo and their little movie (and eventually, Broadway show) that could.
- “Take My Breath Away," Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock from Top Gun. This soaring, synth-y ballad not only took Berlin all the way to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, but to the dizzying heights of having performed a song that won an Academy Award (for songwriters Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock).
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Oct 28, 2019 · We've ranked EVERY Best Original Song Oscar winner, including Frozen, 8 Mile, Butch Cassidy, Titanic, Mary Poppins and more!
Mar 8, 2023 · Sure, some songs can best be understood within the context of a film—and, at times, a song gains stature from its presence within a movie—but the greatest Best Original Songs exist in...
