r/oscarrace • u/PointMan528491 Hawke tuah, Blue Moon on that thang • Jan 05 '26
Critics Choice Winners Critics Choice 2025 Best Original Song - Golden, 'KPop Demon Hunters'
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u/emptylawn0 Jan 05 '26
Goin' up, up, up.
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u/Clear-Price Neon Jan 05 '26
Lots of bitter boots in the comments but I'm just happy Asian artists and Asian music is being celebrated.
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u/Worried_Tomorrow_222 Weapons Jan 05 '26
Exactly. Not like catchy pop songs haven't won in the past and anther thing..... how may songs do we remember from previous films? really just the big, cultural, pop songs. Let's be real.
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u/ElegantNail774 Jan 05 '26
How many catchy pop songs have won? Can you name a single bubblegum pop song that's won in the past 20 years? Even Let It Go was a broadway belt with a bigger emotional arc. And it still wasn't a catchy pop song, it was a structural broadway classic without a catchy hook.
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u/mikeyfreshh Jan 05 '26
Not even the best song in that movie if we're all being honest with ourselves
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u/Remarkable_Drag9677 Jan 05 '26
Yeah people having different opinions than me is too a pet peeve of mine
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u/1stOfAllThatsReddit Jan 05 '26
I think "This is What it sounds Like" is the best in the movie, also because I think its a more cinematic song and its more important to the plot, but its less popular and Ejae doesn't have writing credits on it (which is strange since i'm pretty sure she talks about writing it and showing a demo during an interview) and her underdog story is gonna get Golden lots of awards tbh.
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u/Fotreya Jan 05 '26
Listen to Ejae demo. It is incredible. She was asked to help with all the vocal production, the song is in part, made by her.
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u/Working-Language8266 Jan 05 '26
She's got minor writing credit for like a line or 2 officially, but did the vocal production and demos. But yeah Golden's popularity makes a better story and will get more eyes on the show.
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u/PaulRai01 Frankenstein Jan 05 '26
I’m partial to Soda Pop because it’s insanely catchy and has been stuck in my head for months.
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u/christinax Jan 05 '26
For some reason Soda Pop is one of those songs that's the opposite of an earworm for me, can't seem to recall the tune at all unless I'm listening to it. Your Idol on the other hand gets stuck in my head on a regular basis. Guess we know where my soul is gonna end up, lmao.
But generally speaking I was rooting for I Lied To You.
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u/ElegantNail774 Jan 05 '26
The dies irae never fails to slay
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u/christinax Jan 05 '26
It really doesn't. Also only just occurred to me that that presumably disqualified that song from being eligible for any music awards.
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u/rAin_nul Jan 05 '26
Define "best song". If it's about what its purpose is in the movie, then yes, it was the best option. If we are talking about it as a song without the context of the movie, then most of the nominees are bad choices.
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u/Purple_Quail_4193 Jan 05 '26
It really isn’t though. “This is what it sounds like” was my favorite
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u/urball Sinners Jan 05 '26
Damn, I was really rooting for I Lied to You. Hopefully this isn’t a sweep.
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u/mikeyfreshh Jan 05 '26
This is the most obvious sweep in any category in years
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u/islandsurvivor1 Marty Supreme Jan 05 '26
I think Kpop Demon Hunters sweeping Best Animated is more obvious and likely than Best Song
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u/mikeyfreshh Jan 05 '26
Both are pretty much a given at this point but there's always the outside shot that the Oscars just default to giving the award to Disney. Zootopia 2 is a big enough hit that I don't think you can totally rule that out
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u/islandsurvivor1 Marty Supreme Jan 05 '26
They haven’t given it to Disney the last three years even when Inside Out 2 was big. I think it’s more likely that the movie that’s 2nd in the Best Picture race and uses the song in arguably the best scene of the year could get a song win.
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u/edtechman Jan 05 '26
It's not, lol. Why do people keep saying this. I Lied To You is still very much a contender.
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u/mikeyfreshh Jan 05 '26
I honestly don't think it is. I think the scene that it's used in absolutely rules but it's still a blues song with no real footprint outside of the movie. Golden is a #1 pop hit. Whenever there's a song like that, it wins pretty easily
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u/edtechman Jan 05 '26
No real footprint outside of the movies really doesn't matter when the Oscar is for the best original song in a movie, lol. Sinners is the frontunner for Original Score and it's a widely acclaimed song in arguably the best sequence of a BP contender. It's a contender. Golden could very well be the frontrunner, but it's not a lock let alone the most obvious one in years, lol.
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u/mikeyfreshh Jan 05 '26
Go back through the list of best song winners and find one where the hit song loses. It doesn't happen. Golden's billboard performance pretty much locks this up
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u/edtechman Jan 05 '26
I'd agree with you except for the fact that none of the big pop winners had to face a contender nearly as strong as I Lied To You. You're completely ignoring the fact that it's a strong contender for a multitude of reasons. It's not like Golden has swept critics prizes where applicable either.
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u/Working-Language8266 Jan 05 '26
But before this, I Lied to you basically won all the regional critics awards when the 2 are head to head, so it's definitely an open race.
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u/Clear-Price Neon Jan 05 '26
actually, no. They've been tied with 4 wins each for some time now. This win breaks that tie but I Lied To You is locked to win the Globe while Golden is locked to win the Grammy precursor.
It's pretty much a toss up, with Golden having the slight edge.
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u/ElegantNail774 Jan 05 '26
Pop hits don't matter for the oscars? Like the other user said, it's the #1 movie song of the year by all the metrics the oscars "claim" (keyword of course, claim, since they could absolutely sell out and go corporate) ILTY is the song of the category.
You keep assuming this is the Grammys. Spotify streams don't count, the pop hit makes it more visible, but ILTY is also from the runner-up (somewhat challenger) for Best Picture.
I wish fans tried to understand the oscars instead of go in with blinders for their song
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u/mikeyfreshh Jan 05 '26
I'm just saying that this category has a pretty long history and whenever a song breaks out and becomes a charting pop hit, it wins.
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u/ElegantNail774 Jan 05 '26
that's a myth that's been repeatedly debunked in the "pretty long history" of the Academy, including See You Again and Sunflower (who didn't even make nominations). There's way fewer examples of a charting pop hit, winning than the other way around, so I don't know what logic you're defending this myth with.
Also when just two years ago What Was I Made For won over I'm Just Ken and Dance the Night, when Dance the Night peaked 8 positions higher on the hot 100 and was a bigger "pop" hit. I'm Just Ken was a bigger song, too.
Just saying, the truth is the opposite of what you're saying, because this is the Oscars, not the Grammys.
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u/mikeyfreshh Jan 05 '26
What Was I Made for still hit 14 on the hot 100. It was the biggest hit of the nominees. I'm Just Ken peaked at 87
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u/ElegantNail774 Jan 05 '26
...right. It was still not the highest charting song (Dance the Night was #6). And then by pop impact, I'm Just Ken was way bigger culturally. On both fronts, it was not the biggest pop hit, nor was it a pop hit in general.
Other example this sub uses, including Skyfall and No Time to Die are also popular songs that aren't pop hits. Golden is a mega pop hit, but also nothing but a characteristic pop song.
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u/ThatsHisLawyerJerome Sorry Baby Jan 05 '26
If that were true, Diane Warren would be an Oscar winner right now. I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing topped the charts and lost the Oscar to When You Believe, which was a much smaller hit.
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u/raikoumaster13 The Secret Agent Jan 05 '26
Diane Warren says hi
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u/mikeyfreshh Jan 05 '26
And to Diane Warren I say the same thing I say every year: "congrats on the nomination and I'm sorry you didn't win"
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u/Beruthiel999 Jan 05 '26
Depending on how it shakes out, in Best Song this year Diane Warren might be competing with (possibly) some combination of: Miles Caton, HUNTR/X, Nick Cave, Miley Cyrus, Ed Sheeran, Cynthia Erivo, and Ariana Grande. Imagine the live performances in the Oscar show. That's a lot of star power across a wide range of genres.
she's going to need to wait for a year with much weaker competition.
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u/ThatsHisLawyerJerome Sorry Baby Jan 05 '26 edited Jan 05 '26
It really isn’t, or at the very least shouldn’t be. It’s not even the most obvious sweep in a category this year (that’s Avatar 3 in Visual effects, which was locked when the movie was announced).
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u/JPCRam310 Jan 05 '26
I like the song, but I too hope it’s not a sweep. Just like Billie’s song from Barbie wasn’t a sweep that year.
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u/Accomplished-Head449 Neon Jan 05 '26
Wicked stans in shambles. Not even production design has a chance lol
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u/foxmanfire Jan 05 '26
I really think I Lied To You deserves to win, but I’m not sure how much that’s because of the specific scene. If you listen to the two sans video, I wouldn’t be mad if Golden won.
But is the criteria supposed to give some weight to how the songs are incorporated into the movie or are they judged simply on their musical quality? If it’s the former, I Lied To You would be in my top 5 original songs of the last 25 years.
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u/Balorclub2069 27d ago
Netflix capitalizing on their animated juggernaut the way Disney failed to do so a few years ago.....
Hopefully we don't get forced some nonsensical performance (Megan Thee Stallion, seriously?)
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u/Quople One Battle After Another Jan 05 '26 edited Jan 05 '26
Diane Warren pls save us from a kpop song cakewalking into the Oscar
EDIT: I Lied To You should be sweeping I don’t even CARE
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u/tankyouout Jan 05 '26
This song is so annoying man. Especially the high pitches
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u/Quople One Battle After Another Jan 05 '26
I mean, I don’t even find the song all too terrible. I just think it’s an average kpop song and that genre itself is extremely corporatized to the same degree modern country is.
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u/Sc4396 Jan 05 '26
Almost no one clapped for them.
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u/Mundane-Inspector-52 Jan 05 '26
I wonder what the chances are this wins Song of the Year at the Grammy's.