Idina Menzel’s Let it Go from Frozen tipped for Oscar’s song prize

NOT since 1984 have so many hits been up for the Best Original Song prize at the Academy Awards. Which song is tipped to be the winner?

THE Oscars have rediscovered their music mojo in the past decade.

Over the eight decades of awarding the golden statues to the composers of original songs for films, the honour roll has been dominated by the Hollywood musicals and the resurgence of animation.

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But as directors sought out more direct collaboration with today’s stars, more of the world’s pop and rock heavyweights — besides Elton John — want to be in the movies.

Adele was the wildly popular winner of Best Original Song last year for her inspired Bond theme, Skyfall, which she performed for the first time during the awards telecast.

It was the first Bond theme to win the Academy Award as the spy franchise celebrated its 50th anniversary.

A first ... Adele with her Best Song Oscar for Skyfall last year. Picture: Gigi Iorio / Splash News

The song was one of the most successful movie themes in recent years peaking, at No. 5 in Australia and selling more than five million downloads worldwide.

Its success appeared to set up this year’s nominations list of heavyhitters with U2, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’s frontwoman Karen O and Pharrell Williams alongside actress and songwriter Kristen Anderson-Lopez and her husband, three-time Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist Robert Lopez.

It is one of the most competitive and commercially successful fields to contest the best original song gong in its 80-year history.

As Billboard reported, there hasn’t been this much pop music at the Oscars since 1984 when Stevie Wonder’s I Just Called to Say I Love You beat out Footloose, Against All Odds, Let’s Hear It For The Boy and Ghostbusters.

They were briefly joined in the final five by Alone Yet Not Alone, from the film of the same name.

But that nomination was revoked when Oscars bosses found its composer Bruce Broughton, a former Academy governor and current music branch executive committee member, had violated promotional regulations by lobbying voters.

And Lana Del Ray would have a valid case for pulling a Kanye West on whoever wins for missing out on the cut with her Young and Beautiful for The Great Gatsby.

U2 scored their nomination for Ordinary Love which was commissioned by powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein for the Nelson Mandela biopic Long Walk to Freedom.

The favourite ... Idina Menzel for her song Let It Go from the Disney animated film Frozen. Picture: Invision/AP)

Nominated ... Pharrell Williams’ song Happy from Despicable Me 2. Picture: Getty Images

The band picked up the Golden Globe award for the song and will perform it, along with the other nominees, during tomorrow’s ceremony.

“We did our first job for Nelson Mandela — I was 18, Edge was 17 — for the Anti-Apartheid Group in Dublin in our teens, in the ’70s,” Bono said.

“We’ve been working for Nelson Mandela for most of our life. He’s had us all fighting for these AIDS drugs. That was under his orders and his partner, Desmond Tutu, The Arch.

“So, we’ve had these great African men tell us what to do for quite a while and receiving orders from them is quite a privilege.”

New album coming too ... Bono, Larry Mullen, Jr., The Edge and Adam Clayton, of the band U2 will be playing at the Oscars. Picture: Invision/AP)

Williams and his biggest hit Happy from the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack has joined My Heart Will Go On from Titanic, Lose Yourself from 8 Mile and Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire as one of the most commercially successful Oscar nominees in the past 20 years.

“I knew I liked it. I knew it meant something to me. The fact that it means anything else to anyone else is humbling. Not only did it seem to resonate with people, it seemed to take on a life of its own. As a writer and a musician, that’s what you always dream for — for songs to be much bigger than you could ever be,” Williams said.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs’s frontwoman Karen O teamed with director Spike Jonzeto write The Moon Song for his film Her.

But the forerunner appears to be Let It Go from the film Frozen and sung by Broadway belter and Glee star Idina Menzel.

Let It Go may not be the coolest tune in the category but the Frozen soundtrack has been doing exceptional chart business and Oscar loves an animated movie theme, with nine tunes winning the award in the past 14 years.

Bette Midler and Pink have also been tapped to perform during the ceremony tomorrow.

Worst Best Oscar songs

The Morning After, Maureen McGovern, The Poseidon Adventure (1974)

Sooner Or Later (I Always Get My Man), Madonna, Dick Tracy (1990)

My Heart Will Go On, Celine Dion, Titanic (1997)

You’ll Be In My Heart, Phil Collins, Tarzan (1999)

Jai Ho, The Pussycat Dolls, Slumdog Millionaire (2008)