[THREAD] Oscar's Best Original Song Category is Broken: The Case for "Husavik"

Hey, what's your all-time favorite end credits song? 2020 gave us "Stand Up" (ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI...), "I'll Fight" (JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH), and "Stand Up for Something" (THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7). But I think my pick would have to be "Rosebud's Theme" from CITIZEN KANE.

Just kidding. Actually, movies didn't even have end credits back then. Hard to imagine. These days, it seems like every new release absolutely must have an original song playing over the credits. Sometimes they even pay big bucks for a name artist to perform it. Why?

By my count, 11 of the 15 songs that made the Oscar shortlist are credits songs. And many of them are seemingly interchangeable with songs nominated in recent years. (Did you notice I switched out the 2020 song titles above for the Oscar nominees from HARRIET, RBG, and MARSHALL?)

Maybe I'm cynical, but it seems like too many movies are tacking on these end songs as an afterthought, with the primary goal of snagging an extra Oscar nod in the Best Original Song category. So maybe their ads can say "6 Academy Award nominations!" instead of 5.

But what are the Oscars honoring in this category? The songs with the most inspiring message? Simply the best overall songs, taken in isolation from their films? The songs in Best Picture movies? Or the songs written by those who we feel "deserve" an Oscar? (Sorry, Diane Warren.)

I think the Oscar nominees should be the songs that did the most to elevate the movies in which they are used. For example, I loved TRIAL, but not at all because of its end song--that really could have been almost anything, and I can't imagine it changing my opinion of the movie.

End credits songs (which this year take up 4 of Oscar's 5 original song slots) are kind of like the music you hear when you're on hold with customer service--good or bad, at the end of the experience all you really care about is whether or not the call was successful.

Which brings us to Husavik. I could go into too much detail about how this song resolves multiple storylines and provides a real emotional peak (all while spoofing the over-the-top ballads you'd hear at Eurovision) but you should just watch the movie. It's better than you think.

So we've established that Husavik should win. But what else should've been nominated? Here are my choices:
"Make it Work" (JINGLE JANGLE), a showstopping number driven by the clever double-meaning refrain. Who knew Forest Whitaker could sing like that?

"Wuhan Flu" (BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM). It's short, and not the most musically dynamic. But it might be the single most impressive and illustrative example of exposing people for bad beliefs that the franchise has pulled off, and that's saying something.

"Ultraluminary" (OVER THE MOON). Starts out like ethereal music that would traditionally introduce a goddess character, before turning in an unexpected way that makes perfect sense upon reflection. I mean, of course the moon goddess knows she's the shit.

"Ja Ja Ding Dong" (EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: THE STORY OF FIRE SAGA). Though Husavik is the bigger achievement, I couldn't omit the funniest and most memorable song from the movie (whose full title you know I had to fit in this thread somewhere). [END]