With so many categories in the mix, a lot of history is always made on Grammys nomination morning, and Friday, Nov. 10th saw one unprecedented moment: four of the five nominations for Best Song Written for Visual Media all came from Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. Barbie, of course, is maybe the movie of 2023, on a number of levels. Yet it’s still a shocking fact, that of the film and TV shows that came out over the last 12 months, one title could dominate so thoroughly.
To be clear about this: This humble writer is a full-fledged Barbie maniac, to the point where I previously wrote a full breakdown of all 15 Oscar nominations I feel the film deserves. However, those 15 nominations were across 12 categories! Only two of them were for Best Song! Four seems… excessive.
Part of this is a disagreement between me and the Recording Academy about Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” — all due respect, but I personally think it’s one of the weaker songs on the soundtrack, while Friday morning it was awarded five nominations, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year. (It’ll probably be an Oscar nom too. I just hope it doesn’t shut out “Dance the Night” or “I’m Just Ken.”)
Yet overall, the more that this category’s nominations sink in, the more disappointing it becomes. Looking at the history of the category, the power of Barbie really stands out, because since 1988, the nominees for Best Song Written for Visual Media have done a reasonably impressive job of recognizing a wide range of film and TV projects. Occasionally, films like The Hunger Games or Enchanted have received double nominations, but this is the first time four out of five slots all went to one movie.
Prior to this year, the category’s track record is also surprisingly good when it comes to recognizing quality options. From the inaugural winner being “Somewhere Out There” from An American Tail (if you say this song does not make you tear up, then you are a liar), to recent winners like Bo Burnham: Inside‘s “All Eyes on Me” and “Shallow” from A Star Is Born, it’s been a strong celebration of this specific overlap between music and filmed entertainment.
The eligibility period for the 2023 Grammys was for recordings released Oct. 1st, 2022 to Sept. 15th, 2023, which does exclude a number of 2023 awards players. However, the one non-Barbie nomination this year was “Lift Me Up” from 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which means that in the eyes of the Academy, the only 2023 movie or TV show deserving of attention was Barbie. Here is a short and incomplete list of songs that were also eligible, though:
— “Peaches,” from The Super Mario Brothers Movie, performed by Jack Black
— “Am I Dreaming,” from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, performed by ASAP Rocky and Roisee
— “Dear Alien (Who Art in Heaven)” from Asteroid City, performed by Jarvis Cocker, Jean-Yves Lozac’h, Perè Mallén, Preston Mota, Rupert Friend, and Seu Jorge
— “Now You Know” from Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, performed by Weird Al Yankovic
— Any of the musical numbers from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4
— Any of the songs from Daisy Jones & the Six
The full album from Daisy Jones, at least, was nominated in the Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media category, as was Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Which is just proof that those songs were considered… and yet, Barbie domination was the preference.
Nominations are of course not curated lists, but determined by voters, so there’s no one person to blame for this situation. And none of these songs are bad, of course. But if there’s any value to be found in awards in general, it would be their ability to not just recognize the most popular nominees, but the objectively best — especially potential nominees that might otherwise fly under the radar, but deserve greater attention.
There are greater tragedies in the world, of course, but it’s still disappointing to clock a missed opportunity like this. Hopefully next year, Grammy voters get out to the movies a little more.
