Billie Eilish and Beyoncé are among the nominees for best original song at the Golden Globe Awards, along with two songwriting legends whose careers date back to the 1960s, Carole King and Van Morrison, and a potential EGOT, Lin-Manuel Miranda. The nominations were announced on Monday (Dec. 13).
Four of the nominees for best original song are past Grammy winners for song of the year – King, nominated here for co-writing “Here I Am (Singing My Way Home) from Respect; Beyoncé, nominated for co-writing “Be Alive” from King Richard; and Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell, nominated for co-writing “No Time to Die” from the James Bond film of the same name.
“No Time to Die” won a Grammy on March 14 for best song written for visual media and an award for song – feature film from the Hollywood Music in Media Awards on Nov. 17.
Miranda is nominated for “Dos Orugitas” from Encanto. Should he win an Oscar for the song, he would become an EGOT.
Morrison is nominated for “Down to Joy” from Belfast. He didn’t write the song for the film, so it cannot be Oscar-nominated. The Golden Globes have looser rules in this regard. The 1967 Golden Globe winner for best original song was “If Ever I Would Leave You” from Camelot, which became an instant standard when it was introduced in the Broadway show of the same name in 1960.
Songs that failed to receive nominations include “Every Letter” from Cyrano, “Guns Go Bang” from The Harder They Fall, “Just Look Up” from Don’t Look Up and “My Father’s Daughter” from Flag Day.
In the best original score category, Alexandre Desplat and Hans Zimmer are both vying for their third win. Desplat, nominated for The French Dispatch, previously won for The Painted Veil (2006) and The Shape of Water (2017). Zimmer, nominated for Dune, previously won for The Lion King (1994) and Gladiator (2000).
Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead is nominated for The Power of the Dog. Last year’s award was won by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of another top-tier rock band, Nine Inch Nails, who, along with Jon Batiste, scored Soul.
Germaine Franco is nominated for scoring Encanto. She is vying to become the third female composer to win in the category, following Lisa Gerrard, who won along with Zimmer for Gladiator, and Hildur Guðnadóttir, who won two years ago for Joker. Franco was the first Latina to join the music branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Scores that failed to make the cut include Don’t Look Up (Nicholas Britell), King Richard (Kris Bowers), Nightmare Alley (Nathan Johnson), No Time to Die (Zimmer), Stillwater (Mychael Danna) and The Last Duel (Harry Gregson-Williams).
Snoop Dogg, of all people, read the bulk of the nominations. The rest were announced by Helen Hoehne, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
The organization plans to present awards on Jan. 9, though the show will not be televised. The organization has been rocked by controversy this year after a Los Angeles Times report revealed that it included not a single Black member. The organization posted “An Open Letter to Actors and Creators” on its site on Jan. 9 in which it addressed the controversy and the steps it has taken to improve, including hiring a chief diversity officer and entering into a five-year partnership with the NAACP.
Here’s a complete list of nominees in the two music categories.
Best original song, motion picture
“Be Alive” from King Richard (Warner Bros.) — Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Dixson
“Dos Orugitas” from Encanto (Walt Disney Pictures) — Lin-Manuel Miranda
“Down to Joy” from Belfast (Focus Features) — Van Morrison
“Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)” from Respect (MGM/United Artists Releasing) — Jamie Alexander Hartman, Jennifer Hudson, Carole King
“No Time to Die” from No Time to Die (MGM/United Artists Releasing) — Billie Eilish, Finneas O’Connell
Best original score, motion picture
The French Dispatch (Searchlight Pictures) — Alexandre Desplat
Encanto (Walt Disney Pictures) — Germaine Franco
The Power of the Dog (Netflix) — Jonny Greenwood
Parallel Mothers (Sony Pictures Classic) — Alberto Iglesias
Dune (Warner Bros.) — Hans Zimmer
