Billie Eilish’s ‘What Was I Made For?’ and Ryan Gosling’s ‘I’m Just Ken’ are among the tracks nominated for Best Original Song at this year’s Oscars.
The two compositions for the film Barbie are among the five nominees in the category, which were announced earlier today (January 23).
The other songs to get a nod were ‘Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)’ from Killers of the Flower Moon, with music and lyrics by Scott George, ‘It Never Went Away’ by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson, from American Symphony, and ‘The Fire Inside’ by Diane Warren, from Flamin’ Hot.
It is the second Oscar nomination for Eilish, who previously won in this category in 2022 for writing and performing the title track of the James Bond film No Time to Die. She wrote ‘What Was I Made For?’ with her brother Finneas O’Connell, and it has also been nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the Grammys.
Were she to win, Eilish would join an elite group of composers to have won multiple Academy Awards for Best Original Song, a list that includes Elton John, Randy Newman, Burt Bacharach, Tim Rice and Giorgio Moroder.
‘I’m Just Ken’ was written by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, the latter of whom is the frontman of Swedish electro-pop band Miike Snow. Ronson has also already won in this category, as a writer on the song ‘Shallow’ from 2018’s A Star is Born, and could join the aforementioned group with victory here too.
Legendary songwriter Diane Warren receives her 15h nomination with ‘The Fire Inside’, although she has yet to win. Her previous nominations include Aerosmith’s ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’ from Armageddon and LeAnn Rimes’ ‘How Do I Live’ from Con Air.
Oppenheimer leads the way overall at this year’s Oscars with 13 nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Cillian Murphy. Poor Things came in second place with 11 nods, ahead of Killers of the Flower Moon on 10.
The ceremony is taking place on March 10 from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, with talk show host Jimmy Kimmel returning to present the awards for the fourth time.