FINAL 2024 Oscar Predictions: ORIGINAL SONG
It’s Barbie vs Ken.
“I’m Just Ken” and “What Was I Made For” have been battling it out all season, on the Billboard charts, with guilds and critics groups and even the Grammys earlier this month. While Ryan Gosling’s 80s style “Ken” crooning gathered the most wins from critics groups that gave out song awards, as well as Critics Choice itself, it’s Billie Eilish’s thematic centerpiece that’s earned wins from the Golden Globes, key guilds (Hollywood Music in Media and the Society of Composers and Lyricists) plus the Grammy Award for Song Written for Visual Media (where it competed directly against “Ken”) and even bigger, Song of the Year. While Billboard chart success isn’t a clincher here, it also beat out “Ken” by a considerable margin, peaking at #14 vs #87.
At 22 years old, if Eiilish wins she’ll become the youngest two-time Oscar winner of all time. It will also be her second time beating 15-time nominee and Honorary Oscar winner Diane Warren. Eilish previously bested Warren’s 2021 effort “Somehow You Do” from Four Good Days with her titular Bond song from No Time to Die.
I think there is definitely room for an ironic “I’m Just Ken” surprise, and maybe it wouldn’t be a surprise at all coming from an Academy that bypassed Barbie herself over Ken as well as the director behind it all.
Here are my ranked final 2024 Oscar winner predictions for Original Song.
| 1. “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie (CCA, GG, HMMA, SCL) Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell |
| 2. “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie (CCA, GG, HMMA, SCL) Music and Lyric by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt |
| 3. “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon Music and Lyric by Scott George |
| 4. “The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot (HMMA, SCL) Music and Lyric by Diane Warren |
| 5. “It Never Went Away” from American Symphony Music and Lyric by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson |
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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