BAM Award Winners: Best (Original) Song

Firstly, the parentheses in the headline are meant to indicate that the winner has not always been a song written specifically for the film. Therefore in some years the word “original” has dropped out of the category heading. However, the qualification is still virtually the same: the song must appear in a film and under a new orchestration. I define orchestration rather loosely meaning someone doing a cover can qualify.

Secondly, I saw a lot of chatter on Twitter during the Oscars indicating that this category should be dropped. Whether or not the Oscars will I don’t know. I doubt it. The Academy has too much tradition and potential production value invested in this category. As for me I’m only really interested in aesthetics and don’t have a show to put on I see no reason to scratch it. I’ve heard no valid argument against its inclusion, many say “Not every film has one” but not every film uses visual effects heavily or is animated or foreign but the categories remain. The ubiquity of an element is helpful but unnecessary. All the songs below are memorable, catchy and capture the essence of the film in which they are contained. And, yes, there is an art to either selecting, placing, orchestrating and/or writing that song so the category will remain.

It’s more prevalent here than elsewhere so I will state it now: TV movies are not excluded from inclusion in the BAMs as a rule so you will find one in here amidst the eclectic mix.

2020 “Mother” Courtney Love & The Turning The Turning