If “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters wins the Oscar for best original song at the awards ceremony on March 15, it will set several records. It will become the first Kpop smash to win an Oscar; the first winner in this category with more than four credited writers; and the first where each of the winners won’t receive an Oscar statuette. (The Motion Picture Academy has a strict rule that it will award no more than four statuettes in this category. If a song has five or more co-writers, as is the case with “Golden,” the writers must sign an agreement that, should they win, they will share one statuette.)
If Diane Warren wins for “Dear Me” from Diane Warren: Relentless, she’ll set a record as the songwriter or composer who had the most nominations before finally winning. She has lost 16 times in this category without winning. Randy Newman had lost 15 times (in song and score categories combined) before he finally won best original song in 2022 for “If I Didn’t Have You” from Monsters, Inc.
We’re going to look at 25 best song winners that have set records, but first, a quick reminder of this year’s nominees:
- “Dear Me” from Diane Warren: Relentless; Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
- “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters; Music and Lyric by EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seo and Teddy Park
- “I Lied to You” from Sinners; Music and Lyric by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Goransson
- “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from Viva Verdi!; Music and Lyric by Nicholas Pike
- “Train Dreams” from Train Dreams; Music by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner; Lyric by Nick Cave
Without further ado, here are 25 songs that have set records in the best original song category since it was introduced in 1935. The years shown are the year of the Oscar ceremony.