2024 Oscars: Best Original Song Predictions

Nominations voting is from January 11-16, 2024, with official Oscar nominations announced January 23, 2024. Final voting is February 22-27, 2024. And finally, the 96th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 10 and air live on ABC at 8:00 p.m. ET/ 5:00 p.m. PT. We update predictions through awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2024 Oscar picks.

The State of the Race

True to her word in “Can’t Catch Me Now,” young hitmaker Olivia Rodrigo has been “comin’ like a storm” into the Best Original Song race with her contribution to the soundtrack for “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” The film already has one feather in its cap, having won a Hollywood Music in Media Award (as did *NSYNC’s “Better Place” for “Trolls Band Together,” Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie,” and “High Life” from John Carney’s “Flora and Son.”)

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As the majority of 2023 releases have now screened, major artists like Halle Bailey are making a splash for their original music written for big films like “The Color Purple,” while artists like Māori musician Stan Walker, who co-wrote and performed the song “I Am” for Ava DuVernay’s “Origin,” are having a breakout moment pegged to their film work.

As families begin to gather in theaters or on the couch for holiday fare, Disney has rolled out its latest “I want” song titled “This Wish,” from the film “Wish.” Performed by Oscar winner Ariana DeBose, the track is a highlight from a movie that has been mostly considered serviceable. However, it’s very notable that the work esteemed songwriter Julia Michaels and producer Benjamin Rice did for the film, including the title track, has gotten a lot better reviews than the new songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alan Menken featured in “The Little Mermaid.”

Jon Batiste’s “It Never Went Away,” featured in the documentary “American Symphony,” which follows the Grammy winner as he deals with career highs and personal lows related to his wife Suleika Jaouad’s cancer battle coming simultaneously, is another big song to look out for. But the conversation around the 2024 Best Original Song Oscar is still driven around the three “Barbie” tracks most likely to make the shortlist (Eilish’s song being deemed the most likely to win), and which Diane Warren song between “Gonna Be You” and “The Fire Inside” will net her a 15th nomination in the category.

Contenders for the shortlist are listed in alphabetical order. No film will be deemed a frontrunner until we have seen it.

Frontrunners:
“Dance the Night”— Caroline Ailin, Dua Lipa, Mark Ronson, and Andrew Wyatt (“Barbie”)
“I Am”— Te Kanapu Anasta, Michael Fatkin, Vince Harder, and Stan Walker (“Origin”)
“Dear Alien (Who Art in Heaven)”— Wes Anderson, Richard Hawley, and Jarvis Cocker (“Asteroid City”)
“Keep It Movin’”— Denisia Andrews, Halle Bailey, Brittany Coney, and Morten Ristorp (“The Color Purple”)
“Am I Dreaming”— A$AP Rocky, Mike Dean, Peter Lee Johnson, Metro Boomin, Roisee, Scriptplugg (“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse)
“It Never Went Away”— Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson (“American Symphony”)
“Peaches”— Jack Black, Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Eric Osmond, and John Spiker (“The Super Mario Bros. Movie”)
“High Life”— John Carney and Gary Clark (“Flora and Son”)
“What Was I Made For?”— Billie Eilish and Finneas (“Barbie”)
“This Wish”— Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice (“Wish”)
“Can’t Catch Me Now”—Dan Nigro and Olivia Rodrigo (“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”)
“Road to Freedom”— Lenny Kravitz (“Rustin”)
“I’m Just Ken”— Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt (“Barbie”)
“Gonna Be You”— Diane Warren (“80 for Brady”)
“The Fire Inside”— Diane Warren (“Flamin’ Hot”)

Contenders:
“Better Place”— Amy Allen, Shellback, and Justin Timberlake (“Trolls Band Together”)
“Out-Alpha the Alpha”— Blue Cheeze, Josh Sharp, and Megan Thee Stallion (“Dicks: The Musical”)
“Quiet Eyes”— Zach Dawes and Sharon Von Etten (“Past Lives”)
“A World of Your Own”— Simon Farnaby, Neil Hannon, Paul King (“Wonka”)
“You’ve Never Had Chocolate Like This”— Simon Farnaby, Neil Hannon, Paul King (“Wonka”)
“Camp Isn’t Home”— Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, Ben Platt, and Mark Sonnenblick (“Theater Camp”)
“All Love is Love”— Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp (“Dicks: The Musical”)
“Always Be My Man”— Joe Killington, Billy Porter, and Conor Reeves (“Our Son”)
“This”— Damian Kulash Jr. and Timothy Nordwind (“The Beanie Bubble”)
“Steal the Show”— Lauv, Michael Matosic, and Thomas Newman (“Elemental”)
“For the First Time”— Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda (“The Little Mermaid”)
“Wild Uncharted Waters”— Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda (“The Little Mermaid”)
“I Hate Myself”— Florence Pugh (“A Good Person”)
“Addicted to Romance”— Bruce Springsteen (“She Came to Me”)
“Everything is Gonna Be Alright”— Bobi Wine (“Bobi Wine: The People’s President”)

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