Oscar-winning songs at the Grammys: How often do they overlap?

Jaime Rodriguez
·7 min read

The 95th Academy Awards are behind us now, and one of the most interesting categories was Best Original Song. Winning an Oscar for an original song is definitely a prestigious honor, but perhaps the second most coveted prize for original movie music is the Grammy. Being voted on by two different academies means there’s bound to be a lot of discrepancies between the awards, especially with different voting deadlines and eligibility rules. With that in mind, what Oscar winning songs have also managed to get at least one Grammy nomination?

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Two 2020s Oscar winners were also Grammy winners, albeit in different categories. Billie Eilish’s “No Time To Die” (from the film of the same name) won the Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media, the direct equivalent of Oscar’s Best Original Song. Meanwhile, H.E.R.’s “Fight For You” (from “Judas and the Black Messiah”) lost Song for Visual Media to Bo Burnham’s “All Eyes on Me,” but did win a Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance.

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From the 2010s, Oscar winners “Shallow” (from “A Star is Born”), “Remember Me” (from “Coco”), “City of Stars” (from “La La Land”), “Glory” (from “Selma”), “Let It Go” (from “Frozen”), “Skyfall” (from the film of the same name), and “Man or Muppet” (from “The Muppets”) were nominated for Grammys. Of those, “Shallow,” “Glory,” “Let It Go,” and “Skyfall” went on to win Grammys. “Shallow” even managed to win outside of the visual media field, taking home Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. This means seven out of the 10 decade winners managed to at least get a Grammy nom. The three that missed out were Elton John’s “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” (from “Rocketman”), Sam Smith’s “Writing’s on the Wall” (from “Spectre”), and  Randy Newman‘s “We Belong Together” (from “Toy Story 3”).

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If you go back to the 2000s, there’s even less disagreement between the two academies. Oscar winners “The Weary Kind” (from “Crazy Heart”), “Jai Ho” (from “Slumdog Millionaire”), “Falling Slowly” (from “Once”), “I Need to Wake Up” (from “An Inconvenient Truth”), “Into the West” (from “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”), “Lose Yourself” (from “8 Mile”), “If I Didn’t Have You” (from “Monsters Inc.”), and “Things Have Changed” (from “Wonder Boys”) all scored Grammy noms, leaving only two Oscar winners without a Grammy nomination: Jorge Drexler’s “Al Otro Lado del Río” (from “The Motorcycle Diaries”) and Three 6 Mafia’s “It’s Hard Out Here for A Pimp” (from “Hustle and Flow”). Out of the eight Grammy nominees, five took home trophies from the recording academy: “The Weary Kind,” “Jai Ho,” “Into the West,” and “If I Didn’t Have You” all won the Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media, while “Lose Yourself” won for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Solo Performance.

As for the 1990s Oscar winners, almost all got in at the Grammys. “You’ll Be In My Heart” (from “Tarzan”), “When You Believe” (from “The Prince of Egypt”), “My Heart Will Go On” (from “Titanic”), “Colors of the Wind” (from “Pocahontas”), “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” (from “The Lion King”), “Streets of Philadelphia” (from “Philadelphia”), “A Whole New World” (from “Aladdin”), “Beauty and The Beast” (from the film of the same name), and “Sooner or Later” (from “Dick Tracy”) all got Grammy nominations.

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Of those, “My Heart Will Go On,” “Colors of the Wind,” “Streets of Philadelphia,” “A Whole New World,” and “Beauty and the Beast” all won the Grammy for Best Song Written For Visual Media. “My Heart Will Go On” also took home Record and Song of the Year, while “A Whole New World” claimed Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals. Elton John‘s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” lost Best Song Written for Visual Media, but took a Grammy in the category Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. The only ’90s Oscar-winning song to not get a Grammy nomination was “You Must Love Me,” performed by Madonna for her movie “Evita” (which is quite ironic given the number of Madonna-performed songs nominated for Best Song Written for Visual Media).

Since the Grammys only created a category for visual media songs in the late ’80s, the Oscar-winning songs had more scattered outcomes at the Grammys before then. Oscar winners “Under the Sea” (from “The Little Mermaid”), “Let the River Run” (from “Working Girl”), and “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” (from “Dirty Dancing”) were nominated for Best Song Written for Visual Media, with the first two winning the award, while the third won the Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

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Prior to that Grammy category, though, there were still Grammy nominations for some Oscar winning songs. Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called To Say I Love You” (from “The Woman in Red”) got nominated for Song of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. “Flashdance… What A Feeling” (from “Flashdance”) by Irene Cara was nominated for Record of the Year and won for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. “Up Where We Belong” (from “An Officer and A Gentleman”), won the Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Irene Cara’s “Fame” (from the film of the same name) was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Donna Summer’s iconic “Last Dance” (from “Thank God It’s Friday”) won Grammys for Best R&B Song and Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female.

Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life” (from the film of the same name) and Barbra Streisand’s “Evergreen” (from her version of “A Star is Born”) won Oscars in separate years but actually competed at the same Grammys; they tied for Song of the Year and were both nominated for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female and Record of the Year. Streisand also sang “The Way We Were” (from the film of the same name), which won the Oscar as well as Grammys for Song of the Year and Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media. Isaac Hayes, who was the first Black person to win the Oscar for Best Original Song for the theme from “Shaft,” also was nominated for Record of the Year, Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group, Best Instrumental Composition, and Best Instrumental Arrangement, winning the last of those.

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“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”) was nominated for the Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. “Born Free” (from the film of the same name), was nominated for four Grammys, including Song of the Year. “The Shadow Of Your Smile” (from “The Sandpiper”) won the Grammy for Song of the Year at the eighth annual awards. Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer’s “Days of Wine and Roses” (from the film of the same name) and “Moon River” (from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”), which won back-to-back Oscars, both won Grammys for Record and Song of the Year, among other nominations. “High Hopes” (from “A Hole in the Head”), sung by Frank Sinatra, was nominated for Song of the Year. Finally, at the very first Grammys, Oscar-winning “Gigi” (from the film of the same name) was nominated for Song of the Year.

That adds up to around 70% of all the Oscar-winning songs released since the first Grammys being nominated at least once by the recording academy. Perhaps the two voting bodies aren’t so different after all.

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