Why it's time to scrap the Best Original Song Oscar
The award should be replaced with a gong for Best Stunts, says film writer Helen O'Hara
Netflix
- Helen O'Hara
The Best Song Academy Award is broken: this year, more than most, shows that the Academy Award for Best Original Song is in dire need of reform.
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In 2022, there was an outcry when the outrageously catchy We Don’t Talk about Bruno, from Disney’s Encanto, was overlooked for a nomination. Fans made such a fuss, in fact, that the Oscars’ producers appeased them by having the song performed at the ceremony ahead of that year’s nominees.
This year, the producers have declined to perform any of the nominated songs, presumably because most are massive downers, and instead will have “reflections” from the nominated songwriter and a performance by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande of music from Wicked: none of its original songs written for the film. Both decisions demonstrate something that’s been obvious to Oscar watchers for years: the Best Original Song category is broken, maybe beyond repair.
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in Wicked. Universal Pictures
Here’s one example: not a single Bond song won the category until Adele’s triumph with Skyfall – but no Bond song since has lost, which means that Writing’s on the Wall, the Sam Smith song that Bond fans generally loathe, was a bigger Oscar success than any of Dame Shirley Bassey’s efforts.
Yes, over the last few decades they gave the prize to Eminem for Lose Yourself in 8 Mile (rightly), but they snubbed Fight the Power from Do the Right Thing, ignored everything in Wonka, and overlooked Glasgow from Wild Rose. They bowed to the inevitable and recognised Let It Go from Frozen, but didn’t award the arguably superior Into the Unknown from Frozen II.
2025 Best Original Song Nominees
- Never Too Late – Elton John: Never Too Late
- El Mal – Emilia Pérez
- Mi Camino – Emilia Pérez
- Like a Bird – Sing Sing
- The Journey – The Six Triple Eight
This year, two downbeat songs from Emilia Pérez are nominated; neither of them the most talked-about from the film about a drug kingpin who has gender confirmation surgery and turns her life around. Two usual suspects are in the mix again, with new songs by Elton John (a five-time nominee and twice winner) and Diane Warren (a 16-time nominee and honorary winner). Finally, there’s the end credit song from Sing Sing, a beautiful film about a prison drama group with a song you almost certainly don’t remember.
Are these really the best of the year? Other options rejected by the Academy include a fun new Disney song in Moana 2, a plot-relevant comic ditty from Netflix documentary Will & Harper, a rowdy but again relevant rap from Irish-language comedy Kneecap and Compress/Repress from Challengers, probably the coolest film song in the last decade.
Kneecap.
One problem is that the category relies on film companies choosing what to nominate. Studios try to avoid splitting their vote by nominating a single song, but if they guess wrong, as Disney did with Encanto, they risk losing out completely. Films that won from multiple nominations – two-time nominees include Barbie, La La Land and Slumdog Millionaire – show that some movies just have more great tunes than the rest of the year’s releases, but studios are afraid to trust that.
Worse, Oscar voters, mostly older men who have built distinguished careers in film, are also unreliable. They often choose the boring option, ideally by a big name they already know: little else could explain Bob Dylan’s win for Things Have Changed, from Wonder Boys, in 2000.
Finally, the category is hamstrung by the demands of a song being an “original” written for the movie. That’s why adaptations of musicals cram in new, unnecessary songs – look at 2023’s The Little Mermaid or 2019’s Cats – or add something over the credits to qualify for the award, because existing hits like Under the Sea or Memories, or Defying Gravity in this year’s Wicked, are not eligible, however well performed.
Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in Wicked. Universal
This approach doesn’t recognise the best film music, the songs that thrill us onscreen or that linger in the mind long afterwards. And these studio attempts to game the system also lock out smaller but more deserving efforts: think of 2016’s musically themed Sing Street and the intense energy of Drive It like You Stole It, or the euphoric chaos of Camp Isn’t Home from 2023’s Theater Camp.
A better category would be Best Use of a Song, original or not, which would rule out all those insipid end-credit ballads and recognise cases where a song’s use onscreen gives it new and vivid life. It would also force voters to consider a song’s impact, and not just whether it was written by someone they’ve heard of.
Failing that, replace the award with something that people have been clamouring for: an Oscar for Best Stunts. The Academy used to worry that such a prize would incentivise stunt performers to take too-great risks, but that could be overcome by making the provision of impressive safety precautions part of the criteria for the prize. This award would serve an under-recognised group doing spectacular work, and remind everyone how magical the movies can be.
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Some people claim that the Oscars don’t matter because the winners are rarely box-office champions, or say that they’re out of step with public opinion. But the prospect of winning an Oscar incentivises studios to tell daring, adult stories and take risks on new film-makers. They’re not supposed to simply rubber-stamp the big hits we already know. That “Oscar winner” boast on a DVD cover or streaming menu then gives audiences reason to take a chance on a new film. That means that every undeserving winner weakens the whole Oscar brand and lessens the halo effect that an Oscar should give. If we’re going to have an Oscar for Best Original Song, the Academy should make sure it’s really going to the best – or let it go.
Authors
Helen O'Hara
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