70 Original Songs Eligible for Oscar
Monday, December 18, 2017 at 9:00PM Chris here. Though the conversation around Oscar's Original Song category sways negative these days, there is the potential this year to have one of the strongest lineups in some time. And we now have the massive list of 70 tracks eligible this year to support that claim.
While there are the annual "huh?!" titles among the contenders, the lineup has some strong outsider fare like Patti Cake$, Step, and The Meyerowitz Stories. Among the things you won't see in the longlist are "I Get Overwhelmed" from A Ghost Story or "Cut to the Feeling" from Leap, as both of those weren't explicitly written for their films. Also two musicals, Coco and The Greatest Showman, are only eligible for their biggest tracks - however both remain likely players here, though curveballs should be expected in this category at all times.
Let's take a look at the eligible songs/films:
“U.N.I (You And I)” - And the Winner Isn’t
“Love And Lies” - Band Aid
“If I Dare” - Battle of the Sexes
“Evermore” - Beauty and the Beast BFCA NOMINEE
“How Does A Moment Last Forever” - Beauty and the Beast
“Now Or Never” - Bloodline: Now or Never
“She” - Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
“Your Hand I Will Never Let It Go” - The Book of Henry
“Buddy’s Business” - Brawl in Cell Block 99
“The Crown Sleeps” - The Breadwinner
“World Gone Mad” - Bright
“Mystery Of Love” - Call Me by Your Name BFCA NOMINEE
“Visions Of Gideon” - Call Me by Your Name
“Captain Underpants Theme Song” - Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie
“Ride” - Cars 3
“Run That Race” - Cars 3
“Tell Me How Long” - Chasing Coral
“Broken Wings” - City of Ghosts
“Remember Me” - Coco GLOBE & BFCA NOMINEE
“Prayers For This World” - Cries from Syria
“There’s Something Special” - Despicable Me 3
“It Ain’t Fair” - Detroit
“A Little Change In The Weather” - Downsizing
“Stars In My Eyes (Theme From Drawing Home)” - Drawing Home
“All In My Head” - Elizabeth Blue
“Dying For Ya” - Elizabeth Blue
“Green” - Elizabeth Blue
“Can’t Hold Out On Love” - Father Figures
“Home” - Ferdinand GLOBE NOMINEE
“I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” - Fifty Shades Darker
“You Shouldn’t Look At Me That Way” - Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
“This Is How You Walk On” - Gifted
“Summer Storm” - The Glass Castle
“The Pure And The Damned” - Good Time
“This Is Me” - The Greatest Showman GLOBE & BFCA NOMINEE
“The Hero” - The Hero
“How Shall A Sparrow Fly” - Hostiles
“Just Getting Started” - If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast
“Truth To Power” - An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
“Next Stop, The Stars” - Kepler’s Dream
“The Devil & The Huntsman” - King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
“Have You Ever Wondered” - Lake of Fire
“I’ll Be Gone” - Lake of Fire
“We’ll Party All Night” - Lake of Fire
“Friends Are Family” - The Lego Batman Movie
“Found My Place” - The Lego Ninjago Movie
“Stand Up For Something” - Marshall BFCA NOMINEE
“Rain” - Mary and the Witch’s Flower
“Myron/Byron” - The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
“Longing For Summer” - Moomins and the Winter Wonderland
“Mighty River” - Mudbound GLOBE NOMINEE
“Never Forget” - Murder on the Orient Express
“Hold The Light” - Only the Brave
“PBNJ” - Patti Cake$
“Tuff Love (Finale)” - Patti Cake$
“Lost Souls” - The Pirates of Somalia
“How A Heart Unbreaks” - Pitch Perfect 3
“The Promise” - The Promise
“Kaadanayum Kaalchilambe” - Pulimurugan
“Maanathe Maarikurumbe” - Pulimurugan
“Stubborn Angel” - Same Kind of Different as Me
“Dancing Through The Wreckage” - Served Like a Girl
“Keep Your Eyes On Me” - The Shack
“On The Music Goes” - Slipaway
“The Star” - The Star GLOBE NOMINEE
“Jump” - Step
“Tickling Giants” - Tickling Giants
“Fly Away” - Trafficked
“Speak To Me” - Voice from the Stone
“Walk On Faith” - Year by the Sea
Should Coco and Showman be our top contenders, that makes two recent winning songwriting teams back in the race: respectively Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez ("Let It Go") and Benj Pasek and Justin Paul ("City of Stars"). Call Me By Your Name's chances are decent, even if the stronger "Visions of Gideon" is less likely despite being featured in one of the film's showcase moments. Beyond that, it is a wide open race with some exciting possibilities. What songs do you think could make the final five?
Reader Comments (23)
If the Academy doesn't nominate Mystery of Love I will throw a fit
Wasn’t 50 Shades nominated last year too? How funny would that be if it repeats each year for the entire trilogy lol
I hope one of the Patti Cake$ songs makes it in, but to me that film's possibilities are representative of the problem I often have with this category - do you go with the best song? or do you go with the one that has the most impact in the film? I'm never clear on what the rule is supposed to be here.
I WANT MARIAH TO ACHIEVE WHAT MADONNA CANT AND THAT IS GET NOMMED FOR AN OSCAR HAHA.
Did Mariah write The Star?
"Also two musicals, Coco and The Greatest Showman, are only eligible for their biggest tracks"
So they are alone...yet not alone?
While I really like "This Is Me", I wish they had submitted a few more songs from The Greatest Showman. "A Million Dreams" is my favorite, and "Never Enough" (beautifully sung by Rebecca Ferguson) is a showstopper. I also like "Rewrite the Stars", but more for the moment than the actual song, which feels like a collection of pop song platitudes. I also wish "Un Poco Loco" from Coco had been eligible (yes, "Remember Me" is the heart and soul of that film, but I love the "Poco Loco" scene). Anyway, I see no reason why both films won't be in the mix. Oh, and count me in as a fan of "Tuff Love" from Patti Cake$ ...
I will be nominated.
Please let Patti Cake$ get nominated, and let Danielle MacDonald and that amazing cast get to perform. Hell, wheel out Cathy Moriarty too. They all deserve it.
That Chasing Coral guy always gets nominated, right? I think Coral, Showman, Coco, CMBYN, and Mudbound could be the final five very easily.
"Proud Corazón" is the best song from "Coco" and I wish it was better recognized!
Myron/Byron!!! - pretty sure Adam Sandler has a cowriting credit on this song, yes? It is brief but so great.
DAVID. MARIAH FUCKING CAREY WRITES EVERY FUCKING SONG SHE SINGS. MINUS THE COVERS AND THAT AWFUL DUET WITH WHITNEY.
TBH, of the songs I have heard, my favourite is Elvis Costello's “You Shouldn’t Look At Me That Way” from Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool. And they do love their rock legends....
This gives the Lopez clan plenty of time to come up with something that rhymes with Unkrich.
@rRichter Scale
Rebecca Ferguson didn’t sing that song. Her singing is dubbed by singer Loren Allred.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.popsugar.com/entertainment/Rebecca-Ferguson-Really-Singing-Greatest-Showman-44360561/amp
If I ran the Oscars, the nominees would be...
The PattiCake$ song (I just saw this film and the song absolutely deserves a nomination)
Myron/Byron
Mariah
Mystery of Love
Visions of Gideon
But we all know the circus musical and 50 Shades will rain on my parade.
I also prefer "Visions of Gideon," but Sufjan Stevens deserves a nod regardless.
AR -- comment made me lol. and i needed it. thank you.
AR - I called the Pultizer committee and you're an early finalist for their commenting prize
Suzanne - any ballot that has Meyerowitz on it, makes me so happy. Bummed "Genius Girl" isn't here too
For what it's worth, I preferred Never Enough and even Rewrite The Stars from The Greatest Showman. I don't know if they can all be nominated though. Have they changed the rules these days?
I read online that Rebecca Ferguson DID do her own singing, though I'm suspicious because if she really sings that well, she could be a big singing star in her own right, no?
That "awful duet" Mariah did with Whitney also won the Oscar ...
...Okay, I saw "The Star" just because I love Mariah Carey. (It's a cute animated movie about the Nativity story and it's funand not preachy and a lot of famous people are in the cast, ranging from Oprah to Aidy Bryant to Delilah from the radio!). I figured her song -- that, yes, she wrote with Marc Shaiman -- would be your typical closing credits number. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it plays during a very pivotal part of the movie that the song enhances perfectly and maybe I cried a little bit at the nervous yet faithful donkey and sheep following a star in the night sky on the way to Bethlehem. I might go to heaven after all.
I'm not expecting it to get nominated as it's a religiously based film that very few people saw, but the song is soooooo good that I will hope anyway.
I am also hoping Taylor Swift doesn't get a nom here just so the Academy will look cool. She's an excellent songwriter (she won Song of a Year at the Country Music Awards for a song she wrote for Little Big Town), and I would rather see her get nominated for a song that reflects that. I Don't Wanna Live Forever is decent ear candy.
I also prefer Visions of Gideon but Sufjan Stevens deserves a nod regardless