In one of many tightest races for finest unique tune on the 2024 Oscars, Billie Eilish, Jon Batiste, Diane Warren, “I’m Simply Ken” and shock contender “Wahzhazhe” from Killers of the Flower Moon have emerged because the nominees for the distinguished songwriting prize.
Meaning quite a few top-notch acts who made the shortlist, together with Lenny Kravitz, Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo, Halle Bailey and extra, didn’t make the minimize.
Eilish, who wrote “What Was I Made For?” along with her brother-producer Finneas, is the main nominee with the Barbie observe. The duo received finest unique tune on the 2022 Academy Awards for “No Time to Die” from the James Bond movie of the identical title. The Greta Gerwig-directed field workplace hit seems once more with Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Simply Ken,” written by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, the hitmakers who received finest unique tune for “Shallow” from A Star is Born alongside Woman Gaga and Anthony Rossomando.
Ronson acquired the information whereas within the air Tuesday morning.
“I used to be truly on a aircraft and … I abruptly acquired this barrage of texts from folks and on the similar time, and I had a sense it was one thing to do with the nomination,” he says in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “My one-year-old daughter was sleeping proper subsequent to me on the aircraft, so I used to be similar to clearly holding all of it inside, nevertheless it was, after all, tremendous thrilling.”
Movie Academy guidelines solely permit two songs from a film to compete for finest unique tune, thus pushing out Dua Lipa’s disco bop “Dance the Evening,” which was considered one of final yr’s largest hits. All three Barbie songs, although, are nominated for a number of Grammys on the Feb. 4 present. The 2024 Oscars will air dwell on March 10.
Batiste — who is also an Oscar winner since he co-scored Disney’s Soul — is nominated for “It By no means Went Away” from American Symphony, the Obamas-produced documentary concerning the singer’s rising profession and his spouse’s wrestle with leukemia. Batiste wrote the tune with Dan Wilson, whose writing credit embrace Adele’s “Somebody Like You” and the Chicks’ “Not Able to Make Good.”
Although the music class is stacked with earlier winners, Warren has earned her record-breaking fifteenth nomination for finest unique tune. This time it’s for “The Fireplace Inside” from Flamin’ Scorching, which is carried out by Becky G. It comes a yr after the acclaimed songwriter acquired an honorary Academy Award.
Rounding out the 5 nominees is “Wahzhazhe (A Music for My Individuals)” from Killers of the Flower Moon. The Native American chant, carried out by Osage Tribal Singers, was written by Osage Nation music advisor and composer Scott George.
Nominees for finest unique rating embrace Laura Karpman for American Fiction, John Williams for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Future, Ludwig Göransson for Oppenheimer and Jerskin Fendrix for Poor Issues. Robbie Robertson, who died final yr, earned a posthumous nomination for Killers of the Flower Moon.
Music additionally confirmed up in the perfect documentary function movie class: Bobi Wine: The Individuals’s President, which appears to be like at Ugandan musician and politician Bobi Wine as he faces off with the nation’s entrenched ruling class, scored a nomination.
Lesley Corral contributed to this report.
