Barbie, Spider-Man, Black Panther – visions of dolls and comic book characters will inevitably dance in the minds of Grammy voters as they sit down to nominate film scores for this year’s golden gramophones.
“Barbie: The Album would seem to be a shoo-in for best compilation soundtrack, the film category dominated by songs. But the Metro Boomin-curated album for the animated film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse also topped Billboard’s soundtrack chart this year and is likely to be a contender.
Similarly, the third instalment of the Guardians of the Galaxy film inspired another Awesome Mix, which has been hugely popular and looks set to join its two predecessors as a Grammy nominee. The Fast X album and Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid, with new songs by Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda, could also make it onto the ballot.
The Grammy eligibility year always complicates matters for Recording Academy voters in the visual media categories, as it never parallels the Oscars. This year, voters will consider soundtracks for films released between October 2022 and September 2023.
This means, for example, that Rihanna’s song “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”, an Oscar nominee for best song in 2022, will also be eligible for the song Grammy because the film wasn’t released until 11 November; but the Oscar winner, the Telugu-language “Naatu Naatu”, is not eligible for the Grammy because its film, “RRR”, was released in March 2022 and therefore qualified last year.
Five original songs from “Barbie” – by Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Pink, Dua Lipa and Nicki Minaj – have been declared eligible in the Grammys’ original song category, and at least two are likely to make the final five.
In the original score category, composer Ludwig Göransson, a likely nominee for this year’s hit “Oppenheimer”, may be competing against himself, as his “Wakanda Forever” is also eligible. He could be up against Oscar winner Volker Bertelmann’s All Quiet on the Western Front and two other Oscar contenders from late 2022 releases: Justin Hurwitz’s “Babylon” and John Williams’ “The Fabelmans”.
Williams could be a double nominee in the score category, as his vibrant score for this summer’s blockbuster “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” has been submitted for Grammy consideration. The legendary composer has already won 25 Grammys for his astonishing body of work on classics from Jaws to Star Wars to E.T.
Among the television projects likely to be considered by Grammy voters are two by Nicholas Britell – the “Star Wars” spin-off “Andor” and the final season of “Succession” – as well as the songs from “Daisy Jones & The Six”, Siddhartha Khosla’s score for “Only Murders in the Building” and the songs from the wacky “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” musical “Subspace Rhapsody”.
And in only its second year, the “Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media” category is sure to be filled with fan favourites. Bear McCreary’s “God of War: Ragnarok” has already won a BAFTA for game music and is a likely nominee.
“Star Wars: Jedi Survivor by Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab has been widely tipped, as has the first-ever interactive video game musical, Stray Gods by Austin Wintory, Jess Serro and Tripod.
Among other game scores up for possible Grammy nomination: Inon Zur’s “Starfield”, Borislav Slavov’s “Baldur’s Gate 3” and the Harry Potter-inspired “Hogwarts Legacy” by Peter Murray, J. Scott Rakozy and Chuck E. Myers.
