All eyes at the Academy Awards wait nervously for the announcement of the ceremony’s biggest annual award, Best Picture, but the annual event also recognizes the excellent other works that go into filmmaking, including the best original songs. Big-name pop stars have long been called in to enhance the potential of a film’s soundtrack, and the 2023 Oscars voters certainly had a lot to choose from.
In the end, while some of the best of the nominated movies were also in with a shot at landing the coveted Best Music (Original Song) award, it went to a deserving history-maker from the other side of the world to LA. As CBSNews reports, Everything Everywhere All at Once swept up, but its main track was just one of the top picks.
Finding the best movies with the best songs
Not every Oscar-nominated film had a great, award-worthy original song attached. However, by using this ExpressVPN flowchart to decide which movie to stream next, you’ll certainly find some good choices. From here, going down the pulls of friendship and incredibly dangerous moments would lead you to Top Gun: Maverick. Going down the family route instead and picking bagels over pizza will find you watching Everything Everywhere All At Once. Both of these boast original songs nominated for the prize.
With nearly 160 million views on YouTube, it’s clear that Lady Gaga’s Hold My Hand for Top Gun: Maverick has won over the Little Monsters. That said, it’s very impressive that This is a Life from Son Lux, Mitski, and David Byrne accrued 813,000 views for the eventual top-prize-winning flick.
Between Top Gun: Maverick and Everything Everywhere All at Once, you have two very different, very high-quality movies to choose from. Both feature plenty of action to keep you on the edge of your seat, with one being more sci-fi comedy to the other’s drama focus, so perhaps you should make your choice based on the leading tracks.
Other contenders for Best Music (Original Song) to consider
The other three songs on the shortlist at the 95th Academy Awards were Lift Me Up from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Applause from Tell it like a Woman, and Naatu Naatu from RRR. With the triumph, RRR became the first Indian feature film to land an Oscar, per this CNN story, adding to a strong night for Asian nominees at the Oscars.
Of the bunch, Naatu Naatu, naturally, stands out as it’s more of a musical track that furthers the story in RRR rather than a background track playing in the movie. The other two, performed by Rihanna and Sofia Carson, are what you’d expect to hear from Hollywood soundtracks for non-musicals.
As you’d certainly expect, the Rihanna-performed Lift Me Up for the MCU flick commands many more views on YouTube than Applause, but importantly, far fewer than the Gaga tune with 96 million views. This count is also less than the number of views on the official Naatu Naatu video, which stands at 130 million views.
It’s certainly an odd way to go about it, but perhaps you could find your favorite award-nominated movie of the last year by picking the one with the lead track that you like the most.