Original Song
Located in 1 route
A song written specifically for a motion picture — the Academy's competitive "Best Original Song" category — as opposed to a licensed or pre-existing track. These songs are commissioned to serve a film's theme and typically play over a key scene or the end credits, ranging across pop, folk, R&B and singer-songwriter idioms. The craft is bespoke: lyrics engineered to echo the story, a melody keyed to the film's emotional core, and production pitched between cinematic scale and radio accessibility. Signature markers include the tailored end-credits placement, the thematic lyric callback, and the awards-campaign single.
History
The Best Original Song Oscar was first awarded for 1934, cementing the commissioned film song as a prestige form, and it has crowned everything from studio-era standards to modern singer-songwriter fare. Independent films broadened the field — Once's "Falling Slowly" and the Motorcycle Diaries' Spanish-language winner showed the category's global, intimate range — while Bond themes, Pixar ballads and Best Picture musicals kept it starry. Songwriters from Phil Collins to Common and John Legend to Billie Eilish have won, and the category remains a barometer of how popular songcraft and cinema intersect each year.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Falling Slowly(2007) — Glen Hansard & Markéta IrglováSpotifyYouTube
- Writing's on the Wall(2015) — Sam SmithSpotifyYouTube
- Shallow(2018) — Lady Gaga & Bradley CooperSpotifyYouTube
- Glory(2014) — Common & John LegendSpotifyYouTube
- Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)(1990) — MadonnaSpotifyYouTube
- You'll Be in My Heart(1999) — Phil CollinsSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Best Original Song records
- Jeff Smith, The Sounds of Commerce (1998)
- Mervyn Cooke, A History of Film Music (2008)