OVP: Best Original Song (2023)
The Nominees Were...
"The Fire Inside," Music & Lyric by Diane Warren (Flamin' Hot)
"I'm Just Ken," Music & Lyric by Mark Ronson & Andrew Wyatt (Barbie)
"It Never Went Away," Music & Lyric by Jon Batiste & Dan Wilson (American Symphony)
"Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)," Music & Lyric by Scott George (Killers of the Flower Moon)
"What Was I Made For?" Music & Lyric by Billie Eilish & Finneas O'Connell (Barbie)
My Thoughts: If you asked me to magically get rid of a current Academy rule, it would undoubtedly be to wipe out the "only two songs per film" eligibility for the Best Original Song category. This likely wouldn't change things too much. It's possible that Encanto submits "We Don't Talk About Bruno" if they could get more nominations (and then Lin-Manuel Miranda wins his inevitable Oscar), and it's probable that La La Land breaks the all-time nominations record with "A Lovely Night" sneaking in for a third citation. But we can be certain that Barbie gets a third nod given both the cultural impact of "Dance the Night" and the dearth of strong contenders competing with it, the category that practically could've been announced with a pink envelope it was so certain it would go to Mattel.
"What Was I Made For?", after all, not only won the Oscar and the Golden Globe, it also won Song of the Year at the Grammys, the first time since Titanic that a song from a movie won that prize. The song is moving, and it's not an end credits song, which is impressive even if it's also not a musical number that's danced to in Barbie. I love the way that it reads as a really serious piece of music in the film, trying to underscore Gerwig's message about feminism and the changing face of womanhood, with Eilish's wonderful vocals played for maximum effect. Is it a little bit cheesy, particularly given that this is a pretty basic feminist message in the confines of the film? Yes, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work.
"I'm Just Ken" opens up a different can of worms. I am not someone who generally approves of joke songs being nominated here. I think if you're going to get an Oscar nomination, you need to be a great piece of music AND work within your movie really well, and this only does the latter-this isn't even "Everything is Awesome" where it's so hilariously ingrained into the picture that you can't help but approve. But Ryan Gosling's performance at the Oscars does confirm the point that it's a very effective comic framework (honestly, it worked even better at the Oscars than the film...had that performance been an option to see before the ceremony this might've won in an upset), and it's quite memorably used in the picture, especially the juxtaposition of the Ken silliness against this 80's-style rock ballad.
The rest of the nominees will not have the same cultural cache, but that doesn't mean they aren't worthy music. "Wahzhazhe" is a really moving and encapsulating way to end Killers of the Flower Moon, showing that despite the atrocities of the film, they Osage people endured. The music is lovely (I'm always a sucker for a good drum background, being a former percussionist), and I think Scorsese smartly situated this as sort of the anthem of the film late in the picture, giving it to the audience as something to accompany their thoughts about the movie as they left the screening.
"It Never Went Away" is another "leave the theater" sort of movie (though, unlike Killers, this is a movie that most people, including yours truly, watched on streaming). The movie is an end credits tune (unless there's extenuating circumstances, I take away a point there), and it doesn't feel connected to the movie we've just seen. I really didn't like American Symphony (I thought it was a disjointed picture, one without any cohesion), and while this is a good song, it's also a song that doesn't feel entwined with the movie itself. I think ultimately what the filmmakers are trying to get at is a "triumph of the human spirit" sort of tale of love & music, but that's not what happened, and honestly I'm just glad this didn't also get into Best Documentary, because it totally would've won.
The last nomination...at this point what is there to say about the one-note songs of Diane Warren, a once-gifted pop lyricist who has now just become a punchline to Oscar fans trying to get through the truly terrible films that get her another filler nomination? The song is another case where she find ten-thousand ways to say the title, and while some Oscar observers have pointed out (correctly) that she's gotten nominated for a lot worse, that doesn't mean this is good. It's a dreadful, one-season sitcom-style musical number that deserved to be relegated to the forgotten annals of moviedom, not given its perch of immortality as an Oscar nominee.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Golden Globes went with "What Was I Made For?" as their victor, beating Barbie tunes "I'm Just Ken" and "Dance the Night" along with "Addicted to Romance" (She Came to Me, and yes for the Globes to nominate such an obscure movie you know the tune is by someone famous, in this case Bruce Springsteen), "Road to Freedom" (Rustin & Lenny Kravitz), and "Peaches" (The Super Mario Bros, written by many including Jack Black). The Grammys split their eligibility over two years, and because we're doing this so early we don't know what might show up in the back-half of the year next year, but from 2023 films that were cited in the first round of the Grammy eligibility, we have the victorious "What Was I Made For?" atop "Dance the Night," "I'm Just Ken," and "Barbie World," all from the Barbie soundtrack ("Barbie World" wasn't an original song, and wouldn't have been eligible for the Oscars). The sixth place (and honestly, it could've been as high as third place) nominee was "Dance the Night," which would've gotten a nomination from any other film, but in terms of movies that might've actually made it, you're probably looking at Kravitz's "Road to Freedom" which is the sort of mid-level ballad from a biopic that is catnip in this category.
Songs I Would Have Nominated: First, even with only two eligible slots, "Dance the Night" deserved a citation here. What really pisses me off, though, is that we didn't see anything from Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which was a deeply effective musical with a pantheon of great tunes, including "You Can't Catch Me Now" which was shortlisted and song by Olivia Rodrigo. I'm confident that the Oscar producers would've happily traded the reigning pop princess and kicked out Diane Warren if they could, if only for the commercial promotions.
Oscar’s Choice: Billie Eilish and her beautiful brother Finneas become the first composers to beat Diane Warren twice at the Oscars, which means if she ever dons a Kill Bill-style jump suit, they should flee the country immediately.
My Choice: Billie & Finneas deserved the win. Usually when a song is this dominant, there's a reason for it, and in this case it's because it's the best of the nominees. I debated on the second place, but ultimately Killers of the Flower Moon is more effective in its picture than Ken's lament, and so I'll give it the silver. American Symphony and then Flamin' Hot round out the category.
Those are my thoughts-how about yours? Is everyone kind of in agreement that, even with the fun of Ken's silliness, this belonged to Billie? Are we all completely sick of the Diane Warren nonsense, or does someone still at least appreciate it ironically? And do you think (as I do) that "'Dance the Night" was probably in not just sixth place, but likely third in this lineup? Share your thoughts below!
Also in 2023: Production Design, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Previously in 2023
Past Best Original Song Contests: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
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