Ranking every Best Original Song contender for the 2024 Oscars
The Academy has narrowed its list to 15 tunes, so let's see which original songs are most likely to land a coveted nomination this year
Film Features Song
When the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences recently released its shortlist of the 15 songs in consideration for Best Original Song nomination, there was almost as much talk about what wasn’t included as what was. There were no tunes from Wish, for instance, marking the first time in two decades that a Disney animated musical was shut out of a category that the studio has long dominated. New songs added to the live-action version of Disney’s The Little Mermaid by Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda also didn’t make the cut, depriving Menken of his 20th nomination and denying Miranda a chance to complete his EGOT.
Wonka didn’t get any love from the Academy, either. And as silly as it sounds (or not so silly, considering its nomination at the Golden Globes) we thought there might be a chance for “Peaches” from The Super Mario Bros. to sneak in. Alas, we’ll be denied the joy of watching Jack Black perform the song live onstage at the ceremony. So, just which songs that did make the Academy’s shortlist, and what are their odds to make the final list of nominees? We’re glad you asked. Here, ranked in order of their chances for an actual nomination, is every Best Original Song contender for the 2024 Academy Awards.
15 Comments
I can’t remember the last time an Oscar-eligible song was something I listened to outside of its film or an Oscar ceremony. Why do they always sound like syrupy drivel, earnest drivel, or awkwardly-forced cleverness (looking at you, Ken)?
I mean, it may not be to your taste, but “What Was I Made For?” got to 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, so certainly lots of people listened to it outside of the movie.
I’m still salty that “How Far I’ll Go” lost to La-La-Land.
Other people are definitely lapping up the Barbie songs. The album charted stronger than the other soundtracks in the mix and that includes I’m Just Ken managing to chart on the Hot 100.What I do appreciate about I’m Just Ken is that it at least is part of the movie. I’m much less inspired by the song that plays over the credits just to get a nomination.
Why even bother debating this when the award is basically an automatic win for “Rebels on the Moon (Reprise)”?
I know I’m in the minority, but I think the Barbie movie is overrated and don’t get the hype with “I’m Just Ken.” Greta Gerwig is a wildly talented writer, but the Barbie script was uneven; the Will Farrell stuff was unnecessary and the content for America Ferrera’s character felt bumpy. It’s a cute movie that had the most brilliant marketing campaign I’ve seen in years, but I just can’t get on the bandwagon.
Greta Gerwig did a good job building the Barbie world but I agree with all of what you wrote, especially the Will Ferrell stuff being unnecessary and the Ken song being meh. Best things that came out of the Barbie movie were Margo Robbie’s performance and Billie Eilishs song.
You know when I first saw the “im just ken” scene i was like “enough already, this movie is 20 minutes too long”.But now thats my favorite sequence in the whole film. The movie is a LOT, it’s not perfect, but in many ways it’s otherworldly. To me it’s a lot like Rocky Horror. I think it’ll last years and have a huge dedicated following, warts and all. Also kind of Lebowski ish. A lot of people didnt get Lebowski either. But thats probably a shitty comparison, since Lebowski bombed and isn’t a commerical for a toy.
Agree. It’s very enjoyable and would happily watch it again but it does feel almost like a movie from the peak Ferrell era. Think it lacked the focus of a main story, instead giving three different stories (Barbie, Ken and America Ferrera).
I loved the Barbie movie but I find Billie Eilish incredibly boring. I’d rather Ryan Gosling win. At least he sang with conviction, instead of mumbling and doing a forced warble. I didn’t know John Carney had another movie out, Sing Street was excellent. Thanks for the heads up!
Live That Way Forever from The Iron Claw wasn’t nominated? That really sucks.
Where’s Wonka? Had some great original songs, was a big hit? Was it too late or something?
One of the Wonka songs was submitted/long-listed as eligible. It did not make the shortlist.
How does that Billie Elish rambling thing constitute being a “song”? How her and her brother ever became famous, I’ll never understand…
It’s almost cute how this article thinks there’s even a possibility that Diane Warren won’t get nominated again. She’s been nominated the last six years running and eight of the last nine. Last year an entire feature was manufactured out of seven shorts just to orchestrate a campaign around the song she was commissioned to write (seriously, look at the website for “Tell it Like a Woman,” and you’ll see multiple links to the song and only a passing mention of the film’s actual content).There has been some level of obvious chicanery from the Music Branch for years now as it relates to Warren, dedicated to giving her an award that the rest of the Academy membership repeatedly and rightfully rejects outright. This happens despite the fact that she continues to write the same maudlin ballad time after time only with slightly different lyrics to play during the credits with almost no connective tissue to the actual movie it’s supposed to represent. I’d bet just about anything that if I gave a random person a list of her nominated songs, they wouldn’t be able to name more than five of the associated flicks. Every one of her nominations this century flies in the face of the actual rules that the Academy sets out for the category, and yet she controls enough of a voting bloc in the branch to ensure she’s in the final five every time.It’s to the point that you can just look up which shitty movie she writes a tune for on an annual basis and know it’ll get at least shortlisted, if not nominated. This year it was a tossup between the terrible song she wrote for “80 for Brady” and the terrible song she wrote for “Cheetos: The Made Up Story.” The latter won out, and through either bribery or blackmail (because it is all but mathematically impossible to have 70-100 eligible submissions per year and have a plurality of the branch’s membership independently determine that a repeat of the exact same song is among the top 15 and top 5 each time), she will get nom number 15. It would be a miracle to not be forced to acknowledge her existence come Oscar Night yet again.