The full list of nominees for the 96th Academy Awards is finally out.
Making the official list for the Best Original Song category are Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” (Barbie), Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” (Barbie), Becky G’s “The Fire Inside” (Flamin’ Hot), Jon Batiste’s “It Never Went Away” (American Symphony), and the Osage Tribal Singers’ “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” (Killers of the Flower Moon). However, other aspiring hopefuls such as Dua Lipa’s “Dance The Night” (Barbie)” and Olivia Rodrigo’s “Can’t Catch Me Now” failed to go beyond the initial shortlist released by the Academy.
In an official statement, Eilish and her brother Finneas, expressed their gratitude by stating:
“We are so incredibly honored to receive a nomination for “What Was I Made For?” As lifelong fans of film, music in film and the Academy Awards, this means everything to us. We are so grateful to the Academy, its members, and to be recognized alongside so many songwriters that we respect and admire. Our deepest gratitude and thanks go out to the incomparable Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach for their genius vision and execution, the entire Barbie cast and crew, Lucky Chap Entertainment and the Warner Bros. Pictures team. Thank you to Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt for weaving our song into the fabric and heart of this film so well. And a special shout out to Margot Robbie for her incredible foresight as a producer and brilliant performance that resonated with us so profoundly when writing this song. We are truly honored. Thank you.”
Eilish and Finneas recently won Best Original Song at the 2024 Golden Globes, yet lost to Gosling, Mark Ronson, and Andrew Wyatt’s I’m Just Ken at the 2024 Critics Choice Awards. Other musical nods at this year’s Oscars include the category of Best Original Score, which features nominees like Ludwig Göransson’s Oppenheimer, Laura Karpman’s American Fiction, Jerskin Fendrix’s Poor Things, John Williams’ Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and the late Robbie Robertson’s Killers of the Flower Moon. Other shortlisted picks that didn’t make the cut include Joe Hisaishi’s The Boy and the Heron, Daniel Pemberton’s Across the Spider-Verse, and Ronson & Wyatt’s score for Barbie.
Last year, the winner for Best Original Song at the Oscars was “Naatu Naatu” from RRR, which marked the first non-English song to win in this category since “Jai Ho” from 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire. The score for Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front by Volker Bertelmann won Best Original Score against Son Lux’s Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, John Williams’ The Fabelmans, and Justin Hurwitz’s Babylon among others.
The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place this March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, with the winners to be announced on that same day.
Listen to Billie Eilish’s What Was I Made For? below: