Listen to the Year's 'Best Song' Contenders

With a mere 35 days before the 90th annual Academy Award nominations are announced, the nominee pool is quickly coming into focus. Our ears are now beginning to survey the scene too. 

How do we identify a great song? Earlier this week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences did the hard work for us, announcing 70 songs eligible for the Best Original Song Academy Award. Representing 59 films, this year's crop features a number of titles with multiple tunes in the race, and with no outright musicals featured (last year's Best Original Song went to City of Stars from La La Land composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, back this year with The Greatest Showman), it feels like a wide-open year.

City of Ghosts, Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, and An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power are three docs vying for musical bragging rights.

A few under-the-radar indie titles such as Elizabeth Blue and Lake of Fire have three eligible songs in the running, while 2017 Sundance Film Festival hits Call Me by your Name and Patti Cake$ each have two. And proving that serious nonfiction can sport a rocking tune, City of Ghosts, Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, and An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power are three docs vying for musical bragging rights with one eligible song apiece. 

For your listening pleasure, sample a few eligible songs below, and after that, check out the complete 70-song list. Which is your favorite? If you've seen a few of these movies, is the song creatively featured in the narrative? Placed in the end credits? Let us know in the comments. 

Luca Guadagnino's Call Me by your Name (Song: Mystery of Love, performed by Sufjan Stevens)

Jeff Orlowski's Chasing Coral (Song: Tell Me How Long, performed by Kristen Bell)

Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit (Song: It Ain't Fair, performed by The Roots)

Josh and Benny Safdie's Good Time (Song: The Pure And The Damned, performed by Oneohtrix Point Never)

Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk's An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (Song: Truth to Power, performed by One Republic)

Dee Rees' Mudbound (Song: Mighty River, performed by Mary J. Blige)

Geremy Jasper's Patti Cake$ (Song:PBNJ, performed by Danielle Macdonald)

Amanda Lipitz's Step (Song: Jump, performed by Cynthia Erivo)

2017 'Best Original Song' Academy Award Eligible Songs

• “U.N.I (You And I)” from And the Winner Isn’t
• “Love And Lies” from Band Aid
• “If I Dare” from Battle of the Sexes
• “Evermore” from Beauty and the Beast
• “How Does A Moment Last Forever” from Beauty and the Beast
• “Now Or Never” from Bloodline: Now or Never
• “She” from Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
• “Your Hand I Will Never Let It Go” from The Book of Henry
• “Buddy’s Business” from Brawl in Cell Block 99
• “The Crown Sleeps” from The Breadwinner
• “World Gone Mad” from Bright
• “Mystery Of Love” from Call Me by Your Name
• “Visions Of Gideon” from Call Me by Your Name
• “Captain Underpants Theme Song” from Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie
• “Ride” from Cars 3
• “Run That Race” from Cars 3
• “Tell Me How Long” from Chasing Coral
• “Broken Wings” from City of Ghosts
• “Remember Me” from Coco
• “Prayers For This World” from Cries from Syria
• “There’s Something Special” from Despicable Me 3
• “It Ain’t Fair” from Detroit
• “A Little Change In The Weather” from Downsizing
• “Stars In My Eyes (Theme From Drawing Home)” from Drawing Home
• “All In My Head” from Elizabeth Blue
• “Dying For Ya” from Elizabeth Blue
• “Green” from Elizabeth Blue
• “Can’t Hold Out On Love” from Father Figures
• “Home” from Ferdinand
• “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” from Fifty Shades Darker
• “You Shouldn’t Look At Me That Way” from Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
• “This Is How You Walk On” from Gifted
• “Summer Storm” from The Glass Castle
• “The Pure And The Damned” from Good Time
• “This Is Me” from The Greatest Showman
• “The Hero” from The Hero
• “How Shall A Sparrow Fly” from Hostiles
• “Just Getting Started” from If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast
• “Truth To Power” from An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
• “Next Stop, The Stars” from Kepler’s Dream
• “The Devil & The Huntsman” from King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
• “Have You Ever Wondered” from Lake of Fire
• “I’ll Be Gone” from Lake of Fire
• “We’ll Party All Night” from Lake of Fire
• “Friends Are Family” from The Lego Batman Movie
• “Found My Place” from The Lego Ninjago Movie
• “Stand Up For Something” from Marshall
• “Rain” from Mary and the Witch’s Flower
• “Myron/Byron” from The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
• “Longing For Summer” from Moomins and the Winter Wonderland
• “Mighty River” from Mudbound
• “Never Forget” from Murder on the Orient Express
• “Hold The Light” from Only the Brave
• “PBNJ” from Patti Cake$
• “Tuff Love (Finale)” from Patti Cake$
• “Lost Souls” from The Pirates of Somalia
• “How A Heart Unbreaks” from Pitch Perfect 3
• “The Promise” from The Promise
• “Kaadanayum Kaalchilambe” from Pulimurugan
• “Maanathe Maarikurumbe” from Pulimurugan
• “Stubborn Angel” from Same Kind of Different as Me
• “Dancing Through The Wreckage” from Served Like a Girl
• “Keep Your Eyes On Me” from The Shack
• “On The Music Goes” from Slipaway
• “The Star” from The Star
• “Jump” from Step
• “Tickling Giants” from Tickling Giants
• “Fly Away” from Trafficked
• “Speak To Me” from Voice from the Stone
• “Walk On Faith” from Year by the Sea

The 2018 Academy Awards will be taking place Sunday, March 4th from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California.