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Last year's winner for Best Original Song was "Man or Muppet" from "The Muppets," written by Bret McKenzie.
Songs from children's films have often done well in this category. The previous year, "Toy Story 3" won for Randy Newman's theme "We Belong Together." Songs from the animated films "Monsters Inc." ("If I Didn't Have You"), "Tarzan" ("You'll Be in My Heart"), and "The Prince of Egypt" ("When You Believe") have also won.
But a variety of styles and genres have also prevailed in recent years, from hip-hop ("Lose Yourself" from "8 Mile," "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from "Hustle & Flow"), to country ("The Weary Kind" from "Crazy Heart"), to Indian ("Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire"), to folk ("Falling Slowly" from "Once").
The category has been in flux in recent years, with recent procedures dictating that a song receive a minimum score from voters in order to be nominated. (Last year, only two tunes made the cut.) That has been amended this year, and the Academy will once again nominate the top five vote-getters.
Among the contenders are "Suddenly," written by the composers of "Les Miserables" for its theatrical release; Adele's title song from the James Bond film "Skyfall"; and "Still Alive" from the documentary "Paul Williams: Still Alive."
Two tracks from "Brave" could make the cut ("Learn Me Right" and "Touch the Sky") as well as a trio from Dolly Parton in the gospel musical "Joyful Noise" ("From Here to the Moon and Back," "He's Everything," and "I'm Yours").
Other famous names among the contenders include:
"For You" from "Act of Valor" (Keith Urban and Monty Powell)
"Ancora Qui" from "Django Unchained" (Ennio Morricone)
"Abraham's Daughter" from "The Hunger Games" (Win Butler, Regine Chassagne, and T-Bone Burnett)
"Wide Awake" from "Katy Perry: Part of Me" (Katy Perry)
"Cosmonaut" from "Lawless" (Nick Cave and Warren Ellis)
"Ladies of Tampa" from "Magic Mike" (Matthew McConaughey, Martin Blasick, and Frankie Pine)
"This Gift" from "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova)
"Breath of Life" from "Snow White and the Hunstman" (Florence Welch and Isabella Summers)
"One Wing" from "Sparkle" (R. Kelly)
"Not Running Anymore" from "Stand Up Guys" (Jon Bon Jovi)
"Everybody Needs a Best Friend" from "Ted" (Seth MacFarlane and Walter Murphy)
"Dull Tool" from "This is 40" (Fiona Apple)
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