The Best Song Podcast

The final episode of The Best Song Podcast sort of comes full circle to the first Original Song Oscar nominees of 1934, with a big song-and-dance number among the 2023 nominees and of course, a sentimental love song. Mixed in with that is yet another nomination from Diane Warren, and the first song to be nominated using lyrics from a Native American language. Find out more about these nominees on episode 91! A big thank you to everyone who tuned in to the show and learned something about movie music that will enhance your movie-watching experience.

The crop of Oscar-nominated songs from 2022 come from two sequels, one little-seen film about female empowerment, one big-budget musical from India, and the eventual Best Picture Oscar winner. All of them beat out a song from Taylor Swift for the Oscar nomination, and before the nominations, all five had an equal shot at winning. Which one eventually took home the prize? Find out on this episode!

The five Oscar-nominated songs of 2021 feature Beyonce earning her first nomination for writing the anthemic song giving tribute to the famous tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, as well as the chart-topping theme song to Danie Craig's final movie as James Bond. Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O'Connell wrote that song and released it in February 2020, giving "No Time to Die" 20 months to earn the public's praise as the Bond film suffered two COVID release delays. Did the extended runway for the song help it take off and earn an Oscar for the O'Connell siblings? Find out on this episode of The Best Song Podcast!

The COVID pandemic forced film studios to adjust release dates of their big movies, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences followed suit by adjusting the eligibility dates for their 2021 ceremony. The result meant some songs nominated for the Oscar came from films released in January and February 2021. Diane Warren was the only nominated songwriter who had previous Oscar experience, earning nomination 12 for a song that was translated into Italian for Sophia Loren's latest film. Would Warren win over three songs about political and social upheaval, or one about an Icelandic town performed in the finale of a comedy film?

For the third year in a row, a woman was Oscar nominated for acting and songwriting in the same year. In 2019, that was Cynthia Erivo, the Tony Award-winning actress from The Color Purple who played abolitionist Harriet Tubman in the movie Harriet and wrote the song "Stand Up" with Joshuah Brian Campell. Their Oscar competition included previous Oscar winners Randy Newman, Elton John, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. Did Erivo win her first Oscar, or did an Oscar veteran pick up another statuette? Find out on this episode of The Best Song Podcast!

The much-anticipated arrival of Bradley Cooper's directorial debut, the remake of A Star Is Born, gave us an Oscar-nominated song from Lady Gaga that kept the streak alive of all the remakes at least getting a nominated song. In this episode, you'll hear the nominated song from the 2018 version, "Shallow," and learn about the four songs that battled with it for the year's Academy Award. That includes Kendrick Lamar's entry into the movie song game, and one from Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman for the Mary Poppins sequel.

Diane Warren earned Oscar nomination number nine for her song "Stand Up for Something," a song that highlights the motto of future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and the subject of the 2017 film Marshall. On this episode of The Best Song Podcast, you'll hear her nominated song that she co-wrote with Oscar winner Common, and the four songs competing for the big prize. That includes a song of empowerment written by the reigning Oscar champs and a multi-use by the husband-and-wife team that brought us "Let It Go."

The live-action musical La La Land was primed to take over the 89th Academy Awards as the frontrunner for Best Picture, and its chances of winning multiple awards included Best Original Song, where two tunes from the movie were nominated. On this episode, learn more about the men who created those songs -- Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul -- and the writers of the other three nominated songs. Lin-Manuel Miranda earned his first Oscar nomination that year, as did Justin Timberlake for the most popular song of 2016.

Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang joins the show to talk about earning his first Oscar nomination, and the process behind writing the nominated song "Simple Song #3" for the movie Youth. Lang details the journey he and director Paolo Sorrentino took to deliver the song, and how a Google search helped him find the lyrics he needed to tell the song's story. You'll also hear the other nominated songs, written and performed by superstar pop singers Sam Smith, Lady Gaga, and The Weeknd, as well as a message song about dying marine wildlife by the first transgender person to receive an Original Song Oscar nomination.

Three of the five Oscar-nominated songs from 2014 come from movies about musicians, including a documentary about the final tour of country music legend Glen Campbell. And then there's a comedic song about using teamwork to make things awesome, and a message song about equal rights for "every man, woman, and child." Learn more about these songs, and the men and women who created them on episode 82 of The Best Song Podcast.

A major scandal hit the Original Song Oscar category for 2013, as a song was deemed ineligible for the award after the nominations announcement. Learn more about that song and what caused it to be disqualified on this episode, plus the two hit songs that made a big impression on the worldwide public and fought for the Oscar.

The 50th anniversary of the first James Bond movie brought the 23rd Bond film, introducing superstar pop singer Adele into the movie songwriting world. Her title song for Skyfall was a big hit, and helped the movie make a mint worldwide. Would Adele and the fanfare around Bond's 50th anniversary help end the drought for Bond songs, or would Seth McFarlane win the award for a song about a friendship between a boy and his teddy bear? Or would a new song for Les Miserables take the win? Host Jeff Commings brings you the stories of all five Oscar-nominated songs of 2012 on this episode.

For the first time in Academy Awards history, only two songs were picked by the music branch as worthy of Oscar consideration. A few other songs by big names in the music industry missed out on the coveted nominations this year, including one by Madonna. You'll hear the two nominated songs on this episode, and learn why Madonna was once again shunned by the Academy.

Only four songs were nominated for the Original Song Oscar for 2010, and three of them were written by previous Oscar winners. learn more about these four songs, and the ones that Diane Warren had hoped would get her back in the Oscar race, but were shut out.

The Academy increased its number of Best Picture nominees from five to 10 for the 2009 movie year, but the minimum of Best Original Song nominees dropped from three to two. Was this a signal that maybe the music branch was worried about getting at least three quality songs nominated? That wasn't a problem in 2009, when Randy Newman got two nominations for his songs from the musical The Princess and the Frog and a little-known movie from France got one of its songs named as an Oscar nominee, thanks to the Academy's nomination system for movie songs.

Only three songs were nominated for the Academy Award in 2008, the first time that had happened in 20 years. In this episode, we learn about the three songs, including two from prolific Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman that gave us some new sounds that had not been presented in Hollywood films. The other song gave Thomas Newman another chance to end his Oscar losing streak, thanks to his work on his second animated Pixar movie.

Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz monopolized the Original Song Oscar nominees for 2007, giving us three songs from their Disney musical Enchanted that paid homage to previous Disney classic songs and paid homage to them at the same time. Also nominated was a poignant song from a movie drawing from the Oliver Twist story, and a love song from a very low-budget Irish movie about two lost souls finding love through music. Learn more about these five songs and the people who created them on this episode!

Another film earned three Oscar nominations for original song, and this time it was the film adaptation of the Broadway smash musical Dreamgirls. Henry Krieger, the original composer of the stage show, enlisted new lyricists to work with him on the songs that impressed the Academy enough to get three into the list of five. Melissa Etheridge's history-making nomination as the first song to come from a documentary, and another nomination from Randy Newman made 2006 a very competitive year for the Original Song Oscar.

Only three songs were nominated by the Academy's music branch from 2005, perhaps signaling that the quality of songs was going downward sharply. But, maybe this marked just a blip in the movie music industry. Take a listen to the nominated songs and why the Academy only picked three in 2005.

Andrew Lloyd Webber finally got the movie version of The Phantom of the Opera into movie theaters, and got an Oscar nomination for putting an original song into the film. The other nominees for the 2004 Original Song Oscar included two songs not performed in English, the first time that had happened. But, more memorable about the year was who performed the majority of the songs at the Oscar ceremony. Learn all about it on this episode!