The Nominees for Best Original Song Academy Award in 2015

The 87th Academy Awards will be taking place on Sunday, and I'm hugely excited to be once again having an Oscar Party with my best friends – unlike last year, now I've actually seen some of the nominated films: Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Theory of Everything, The Imitation Game and the last Hobbit film.

However, none of those films are going to be the real subject of this post. Just like last year, I'm going to rank the nominees for Best Original Song and comment on them – again, without having seen the movies for which these songs were written. All in all, though, I have to say that the competition in this category is appallingly mediocre in my opinion. There is no Let It Go this year. Alright, let's take a look at the five nominees. Or a listen.

#5. 'I'm Not Gonna Miss You' from Glen Campbell... I'll Be Me

Music and lyrics by Glen Campbell and Julian Raymond

This melody and the instrumental background bore me so much that I could use this as a lullaby. Except that I've actually made a "go to sleep" playlist for myself and I tend to only include songs that I like in there. I don't like this song at all. I have no patience for the kind of break-up songs where they say "I don't need you in my life" but really they think the opposite and they're just desperate for attention.

#4. 'Everything Is Awesome' from The Lego Movie

Music and lyrics by Shawn Patterson

I still haven't figured out exactly what a song like this – with lyrics about as meaningful as an empty balloon and not even a decent dance beat to save it – is doing on a list of nominees for the Academy Awards. Seriously, try listening to this so that you actually concentrate on the lyrics. Did you? Yep, I know – that's a minute and a half that you'll never get back. 

#3. 'Glory' from Selma

Music and lyrics by John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn

I liked how this song started off. The background instruments set the atmosphere very well and the chorus works. Then the rap verses kick in, with lyrics so overwhelmingly preachy that they must have been written while ticking off the "Most Clichéd Phrases for Freedom-fighting Songs" list. If you want to handle a theme like this with beauty and earnestness, try a little subtlety, please. 

#2. 'Grateful' from Beyond the Lights

Music and lyrics by Diane Warren

Finally, moving up on the list to songs that do not annoy me in almost every possible way. "Grateful" is very listenable indeed. Too bad that practically every female pop singer does a variation of the "I endured hardships but I'm glad about it because it made me a stronger person" ballad and this song doesn't have anything terribly interesting or creative to say on the subject.

And the Oscar should go to... 'Lost Stars' from Begin Again

Music and lyrics by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois

I wouldn't say this is a great song, but it's the only one out of these nominees that doesn't feel pretentious, boring or meaningless to me. It has a nice, relaxed feel about it, but if you listen to the lyrics properly it is actually quite thoughtful. I will of course always appreciate a touch of the piano and the guitar on the background, and the chorus has a good beat about it.

Are you going to watch the award show this year? How much do you usually care about the Original Song category? I'm off to do some more Oscar blogging!