Noah Haynes writesThe Original Song Category at the 2025 Oscars Sucks…Right?

by Noah Haynes

As a fan of both music and movies, I appreciate when the two mediums can join together to elevate a piece of art. “Take My Breath Away” from Top Gun? Beautiful. “Moon River” in 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s? A classic.  Jason Segel’s performance of “Man or Muppet” from the 2011 Muppets reboot? ...Also a highpoint for cinema. 

Even last year we saw a boon of creativity with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. It was a year of pink, plastic, and super-fun songs that culminated in a well-deserved win for Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For.”

Unfortunately though, the Best Original Song category tends to follow a series of highs and lows, and this year’s not looking too good. Despite that, let’s try to find some positives among the negatives and give each nominee a fair shake.

The Six Triple Eight 

This drama is based on the real-life experiences of the first all-black, all-female battalion that served during World War II. The Six Triple Eight follows the women soldiers as they are tasked with untangling the massive buildup of mail from troops and families in desperate need of morale.

Although it highlights an important, often-erased part of history, the film is held back by its slightly cheap, Lifetime-movie aesthetic. The dialogue is pretty cliche, the cinematography is uninspired,  and much of the acting is rather rudimentary (barring Kerry Washington’s role as Major Charity Adams).

The movie’s song nominee, “The Journey,” is a mixed bag as well. It’s powerfully performed by H.E.R. and well-placed at the end of the movie (syncing up with real-life footage of the woman veterans). However, the lyrics lack any powerful imagery to match the emotion of the vocals, and the arrangement is pretty by-the-numbers. We’ve seen this before.

Emilia Pérez 

There’s nothing quite like Emilia Pérez at the Oscars this year. It presents itself as a dramatic, stylized musical about a Mexican cartel leader who undergoes a sex change—but seems to have only a simple understanding of Mexican culture, trans issues, and..well..good music.

Nevertheless, the film received a staggering 13 nominations at this year’s Academy Awards, including two for Best Original Song. The double entries are “El Mal,” performed by Zoe Saldana and Karla Sofía Gascón, and “Mi Camino,” performed by Selena Gomez.

Despite criticisms against the movie for inaccurate accents and poorly translated dialogue, even these songs aren’t terrible.

“El Mal” features an energetic, percussive vocal performance from Saldana, which contrasts nicely with Gascón’s almost-operatic singing on the track. And on “Mi Camino,” even though Gomez received some major criticisms for vocal work, the song itself is a pretty respectable club ballad. The production is lush and culminates in an emotive final chorus.

So, yeah, it’s kind of bad…but some people did their jobs right.

Elton John: Never Too Late

This documentary acts as a retrospective on the career of the famed British performer and musician. It pairs that dazzling life with footage from Elton in the months leading up to his final show.

Although the doc acts a good primer for Elton’s career, and shows some insightful behind-the-scenes moments of his personal life, it’s hard to tell exactly what message it wants to convey. Unfortunately, the title song “Never Too Late,” performed by Elton and Brandi Carlile, offers few clarifications.

The song champions the ability to start fresh and avoid getting caught up in the past, but this seems like a weird thing to say at the end of a documentary, right? Also, such a message might make more sense if it was paired with Elton revealing he would continue to perform as long as possible, but no. It ends with him retiring. So…are we all on the same page here?

Nice song, but a weird message to leave the audience with.

Sing Sing

This drama follows the members of a prison theater troupe, and is far and away the best movie in this category.

Even still, its nominated song “Like a Bird,” performed by Adrian Quesada and Abraham Alexander, is not free from criticism. Although the song itself is a well-performed, Neo-soul track (with a killer guitar solo), the filmmakers decided to play the song as the film wraps up.

By doing so, the audience doesn’t get to see the acting speak for itself. Instead, we receive a song that tells us exactly how the characters are feeling in their final moments on screen. Quite a fumble for a film characterized by such strong, subtle acting.

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So there you have it, all five of the Best Original Song nominees contextualized and criticized. 

Yes, they aren’t perfect. Yes, some are definitely worse than others. But if we’re being fair, they aren’t 100% awful either. And yes, there are much more worthy songs, in much more worthy movies, that aren’t here because they lack name recognition or a strong campaign or some other industry BS.

…But that’s Hollywood, right?