All five of this year’s Oscar nominees for best original song are represented on Songwriters Hall of Fame’s annual virtual event “A Conversation With 2026 Oscar-Nominated Songwriters for Best Original Song,” which is streaming on-demand through March 16 exclusively on songhall.org. It is free to watch.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the annual program, in which the Songwriters Hall of Fame spotlights the songwriters nominated in that marquee category. Diane Warren, who is nominated for a record-setting ninth consecutive year, discusses her solo-written power ballad “Dear Me” from Diane Warren: Relentless. The panel also includes this year’s only other songwriter who wrote a nominated song alone – Nicolas Pike, nominated for the first time for writing the aria “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from Viva Verdi!
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EJAE is on hand to talk about “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters, the global K-pop smash that she co-wrote with Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seo and Teddy Park.
Raphael Saadiq talks about the blues number “I Lied to You” from Sinners, which he co-wrote with Ludwig Goransson.
Bryce Dessner talks about the acoustic ballad title song from Train Dreams, which he co-wrote with Nick Cave.
The event is moderated by legendary songwriters (and SHOF inductees) Nile Rodgers, who is SHOF chairman, and Paul Williams, a SHOF Johnny Mercer Award recipient and a three-time Oscar nominee for best original song. He was nominated for co-writing “Nice to Be Around” from Cinderella Liberty and the much-loved “The Rainbow Connection” from The Muppet Movie. He won for co-writing “Evergreen (Love Theme From A Star Is Born)” from A Star Is Born, which was a Billboard Hot 100-topping smash for Barbra Streisand.