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The Academy Award for Best Song is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are songwriters and composers. The winners are chosen by the Academy membership as a whole. In recent years, as the presentation ceremony has become a glitzy spectacle shown on television around the world, nominees are often invited to perform their songs live. The ceremony is valuable exposure for solo artistes and groups whose members write music for the cinema, and also a showcase for material which might be used in film soundtracks at a future date.
[edit] 1934 - 1940
[edit] 1941 - 1950
[edit] 1951 - 1960
[edit] 1961 - 1970
[edit] 1971 - 1980
[edit] 1981 - 1990
|
| Year |
Song |
Film |
Music |
Lyrics |
| 1981 |
"Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" |
Arthur |
Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, Christopher Cross, Peter Allen |
Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, Christopher Cross, Peter Allen |
| 1982 |
"Up Where We Belong" |
An Officer and a Gentleman |
Jack Nitzsche, Buffy Sainte-Marie |
Will Jennings |
| 1983 |
"Flashdance... What a Feeling" |
Flashdance |
Giorgio Moroder |
Keith Forsey, Irene Cara |
| 1984 |
"I Just Called to Say I Love You |
The Woman in Red |
Stevie Wonder |
Stevie Wonder |
| 1985 |
"Say You, Say Me" |
White Nights |
Lionel Richie |
Lionel Richie |
| 1986 |
"Take My Breath Away" |
Top Gun" |
Giorgio Moroder |
Tom Whitlock |
| 1987 |
"(I've Had) The Time of My Life" |
Dirty Dancing |
Franke Previte, John DeNicola, Donald Markowitz |
Franke Previte |
| 1988 |
"Let the River Run" |
Working Girl |
Carly Simon |
Carly Simon |
| 1989 |
"Under the Sea" |
The Little Mermaid |
Alan Menken |
Howard Ashman |
| 1990 |
"Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)" |
Dick Tracy |
Stephen Sondheim |
Stephen Sondheim |
[edit] 1991 - 2000
[edit] 2001 -
|
| Year |
Song |
Film |
Music |
Lyrics |
| 2001 |
"If I Didn't Have You" |
Monsters, Inc. |
Randy Newman |
Randy Newman |
| 2002 |
"Lose Yourself" |
8 Mile |
Eminem, Jeff Bass, Luis Resto |
Eminem |
| 2003 |
"Into the West" |
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King |
Fran Walsh, Howard Shore, Annie Lennox |
Fran Walsh, Howard Shore, Annie Lennox |
| 2004 |
"Al Otro Lado del Río" |
The Motorcycle Diaries |
Jorge Drexler |
Jorge Drexler |
| 2005 |
"It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" |
Hustle & Flow |
Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman, Paul Beauregard |
Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman, Paul Beauregard |
[edit] Most awards won
- Number of times nominated in parentheses
[edit] Trivia
- Randy Newman was nominated sixteen times before finally winning the award for his 2001 song If I Didn't Have You from Monsters, Inc..
- Eminem, Jeff Bass and Luis Resto were the first to win the Best Song Oscar for a rap song, in 2002 for Lose Yourself from 8 Mile. The song was not performed at the 75th Academy Awards because Eminem declined to attend the ceremony.
- Manos Hadjidakis was the first to receive the honour for a song originally written in a language other than English, in 1960 for Ta Paidia toy Peiraia from the Greek film Pote tin Kyriaki.
- Jorge Drexler was the second foreign language songwriter to win the award, for Al Otro Lado del Río from The Motorcycle Diaries in 2004. That year another foreign language writing pair were nominated, composer Bruno Coulais and lyricist Christophe Barratier for Vois Sur Ton Chemin (Look To Your Path) from the French movie Les Choristes.
- Dorothy Fields was the first female songwriter to win the Best Song Oscar. She wrote the lyrics for the 1936 winner The Way You Look Tonight (music by Jerome Kern) sung by Fred Astaire in the film Swing Time. It was thirty-two years until there was a second woman so honoured, Marilyn Bergman, who co-wrote with husband Alan the lyrics for Windmills of Your Mind (music Michel Legrand) from The Thomas Crown Affair in 1968. Female winners remain scarce, Barbra Streisand was the first female tunesmith (Evergreen from A Star Is Born in 1976), the other winners are Carole Bayer Sager (Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) from Arthur in 1981), Buffy Sainte-Marie (Up Where We Belong from An Officer and a Gentleman in 1982), Irene Cara (Flashdance... What a Feeling from Flashdance in 1983), Carly Simon, the only woman to win on her own, with Let the River Run from Working Girl in 1988, and Annie Lennox (Into the West from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003).
- As of 2006, songs from ten Walt Disney films have won this award, six of them having won over the eleven year period from 1989 to 1999.
