Lin-Manuel Miranda, Beyoncé, Hans Zimmer and Jonny Greenwood were among the 2022 Oscar nominees in the music categories announced on Tuesday morning (Feb. 8).
Three songwriters—Miranda, Diane Warren and Van Morrison—are nominated for best original song for songs they wrote without any collaborators. This is the first time in 20 years that three or more songwriters were nominated for songs they wrote by themselves. Randy Newman won the 2001 award for “If I Didn’t Have You” from Monsters, Inc. Other nominees that year included Paul McCartney for the title song to Vanilla Sky, Sting for “Until” from Kate & Leopold and perennial nominee Warren for “There You’ll Be” from Pearl Harbor. All of this suggests that collaboration is less pervasive in film music writing than it is in the pop music world, where Miranda’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is the first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 written by an individual songwriter since Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” rapped up a six-week run in the top spot in early 2018.
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The nod for “Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto is Miranda’s second Oscar nomination. He was nominated five years ago for “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana. Miranda only needs an Oscar to achieve EGOT status. “Dos Oruguitas” is sung in Spanish in Encanto. This is the second year in a row that a best original song nominee was performed in the film in a language other than English. “Io sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead, nominated last year, was sung in Italian.
The nod for “Somehow You Do” from Four Good Days is Warren’s 13th nomination for best original song. She is one of only nine songwriters to amass that many nominations in this category, and only the second woman (following the late Marilyn Bergman, who collected 15 nods with her husband Alan Bergman). Moreover, this is the fifth year in a row that Warren has been nominated in this category. That’s the longest streak of consecutive best original song nominations since the Bergmans were nominated six years running from 1968-73.
This is Warren’s ninth nomination for a song she wrote all by herself. Only Randy Newman has had more solo-written nominees (13). Irving Berlin is in third place with seven.
Fans who were hoping that Jay-Z and Beyoncé would square off for best original song had their hopes dashed. Beyoncé is nominated for “Be Alive” from King Richard, but Jay-Z fell short with “Guns Go Bang” from The Harder They Fall. They were vying to become the first married couple to be nominated in the same category in Oscar history.
Here’s a closer look at the nominations in the two music categories. Per Oscar custom, the nominees are listed alphabetically by film title. Following the list of nominations, and a brief discussion, is a list of some of the top contenders that missed the cut.
Best original song:
“Down to Joy” from Belfast, Van Morrison
“Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto, Lin-Manuel Miranda
“Somehow You Do” from Four Good Days, Diane Warren
“Be Alive” from King Richard, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Dixson
“No Time to Die” from No Time to Die, Billie Eilish, Finneas O’Connell
“No Time to Die” is the seventh song from a James Bond film to receive a nomination. It’s the fourth title song from a Bond film to make the cut, following “Live and Let Die,” “For Your Eyes Only” and “Skyfall.”
This is the first Oscar nomination for best original song for both Beyoncé and her collaborator, Dixson. Beyoncé was shortlisted last year with “Spirit” from The Lion King, but failed to receive a nod. Beyoncé other film songs that have failed to receive nominations include songs for Austin Powers in Goldmember, The Fighting Temptations and Dreamgirls.
Shortlisted songs that missed the cut are: “So May We Start?” from Annette (Ron Mael, Russell Mael), “Right Where I Belong” from Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road (Brian Wilson, Jim James), “Automatic Woman from Bruised (H.E.R, Van Hunt and Starrah), “Dream Girl” from Cinderella (Idina Menzel, Laura Veltz), “Beyond the Shore” from CODA (Nicholai Baxter, Matt Dahan, Sian Heder, Marius de Vries), ), “The Anonymous Ones” from Dear Evan Hansen (Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Amandla Stenberg), “Just Look Up” from Don’t Look Up (Nicholas Britell, Ariana Grande, Scott Tescudi, Taura Stinson), “Guns Go Bang” from The Harder They Fall (Jaymes Samuel, Scott Mescudi, Shawn Carter), “Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)” from Respect, Jamie Alexander Hamilton, Jennifer Hudson, Carole King, “Your Song Saved My Life” from Sing 2 (U2).
Best original score:
Don’t Look Up, Nicholas Britell (Netflix)
Dune, Hans Zimmer (Warner Bros.)
Encanto, Germaine Franco (Walt Disney Studios)
Parallel Mothers, Alberto Iglesias (Sony Pictures Classics)
The Power of the Dog, Jonny Greenwood (Netflix)
Hans Zimmer is nominated for Dune, though he missed out on a second nod in the category for his work on the James Bond film No Time to Die. With this nod, Zimmer has received Oscar nominations in each of the last five decades (1980s through the 2020s).
Jonny Greenwood is nominated for director Jane Campion’s Western drama The Power of the Dog, though he also missed out on a second nod, in his case for the Princess Diana historical fiction drama Spencer. This is the second year in a row that an alternative rock star has been nominated in this category; Greenwood co-founded Radiohead in 1985. Last year, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, of Nine Inch Nails, received a pair of nods for Soul (a collab with Jon Batiste, which won) and Mank. This is Greenwood’s second Oscar nod. He received his first four years ago for Phantom Thread.
Franco is the fourth woman to be nominated for best original score since the category as it is now configured was introduced in 1999. She follows Rachel Portman (The Cider House Rules, 1999; Chocolat, 2000), Mica Levi aka Micachu (Jackie, 2016); and Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker, 2019). Franco is the first Latina to be nominated in the category. She was the first Latina to join the music branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
This is Britell’s third nod in six years, following nominations for Moonlight (2016) and If Beale Street Could Talk (2018).
Shortlisted scores that missed the cut include: Being the Ricardos (Daniel Pemberton), Candyman (Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe), The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (Alexandre Desplat), The Green Knight (Daniel Hart), The Harder They Fall (Jeymes Samuel), King Richard (Kris Bowers), The Last Duel (Harry Gregson-Williams), No Time to Die (Hans Zimmer), Spencer (Jonny Greenwood) and The Tragedy of Macbeth (Carter Burwell).