Taylor Swift, SZA and Phoebe Bridgers: The 2027 Best Original Song Race, Explained

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Taylor Swift has a Toy Story song in the Oscar race, and next Saturday she plays the room where that race gets social. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures said Thursday (Oct. 8) that Swift will close its sixth annual gala in Los Angeles on Oct. 17, a fundraiser that The Hollywood Reporter notes always draws stars who are campaigning for awards. She isn’t the only pop star with a song in contention. Gold Derby, which tracks the race, sees a trend of more and more popular acts reaching the shortlist, and this year’s field backs that up. Here’s how it looks.

Why is Swift playing the Academy Museum Gala?

The gala is the museum’s main fundraiser, and this year it honors Charlize Theron, Colman Domingo and the filmmaker John Carpenter, with Steven Spielberg and Tom Ford among the co-chairs, per Deadline. Swift performs to close the night. “Taylor is an extraordinary talent whose work resonates around the world,” said Amy Homma, the museum’s director and president.

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Her contender is “I Knew It, I Knew You,” which she wrote with Jack Antonoff for Toy Story 5 and released in June. It’s a return to her country roots, built around the cowgirl Jessie, and she has said she wrote it as soon as she got home from a screening. “Writing this song felt like a musical departure and coming home at the same time,” she wrote on Instagram, via Deadline.

Taylor Swift – I Knew It, I Knew You (from Toy Story 5)Taylor Swift · Watch on YouTube ↗

She has never been nominated in the category, and the forecasters aren’t sold yet. Gold Derby calls her the obvious entry, but argues that few would rank the song as top-tier Swift, and that it isn’t the kind of zeitgeist-owning hit that “What Was I Made For?” and “Golden” were.

Who else is in the race?

Phoebe Bridgers wrote “On Video” for Primetime, Lance Oppenheim’s A24 drama about To Catch a Predator, in which she also makes her feature acting debut. It plays over the end credits, and Gold Derby notes the film already has best actor and best picture buzz that could pull the song along. (More on her Primetime run here.)

SZA has “Save the Day” in Pixar’s Hoppers, and unlike Swift she has been nominated before, for “All the Stars” from Black Panther. Lady Gaga, a past winner, wrote three songs for The Devil Wears Prada 2, though Gold Derby says only two qualify because of where they play in the film.

Noah Kahan is the newest pop name in the mix. His “Draw You Out,” co-written and co-produced with Aaron Dessner, came out Oct. 2 as the first song from the Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping album. Gold Derby rates him the likelier contender of the two latest additions, ahead of Hilary Duff’s “CATastrophe” from The Cat in the Hat, but points out that The Hunger Games has never landed a nomination in this category. The closest it has come is Olivia Rodrigo’s song for The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which made the shortlist.

The rest of the field leans toward veterans: Brittany Howard and Robert Glasper’s “Makings of Tomorrow” from Ava DuVernay’s documentary 14th, Diane Warren’s “By Any Means” with the Isley Brothers and David Kushner, and David Byrne’s “Let Me Sell You a Dream” from Alex Gibney’s Musk, for which Byrne says he used only Musk’s own quotes as lyrics. A nomination for Warren would make it 10 years in a row.

What does ‘Golden’ have to do with it?

It set the bar. On Saturday (Oct. 10), “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters won best original song at the World Soundtrack Awards in Ghent, Belgium, after a Golden Globe, a Grammy and an Oscar last winter and eight weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100, Billboard reports. It beat Charli xcx and John Cale’s “House” from Wuthering Heights, Cynthia Erivo’s “No Place Like Home” from Wicked: For Good and Nick Cave’s “Train Dreams.”

That’s what this year’s pop songs are measured against: a song that HUNTR/X, voiced in song by EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI, turned into a global chart hit before the awards ever arrived.

“Golden” Official Lyric Video | KPop Demon HuntersSony Pictures Animation · Watch on YouTube ↗

What happens next?

Swift’s gala set is Oct. 17. The Academy announces its shortlists on Dec. 15 and nominations on Jan. 21, and the 99th Academy Awards air March 14, 2027, according to the dates the Academy set in April, via TheWrap. Kahan’s soundtrack arrives Nov. 13, a week before Sunrise on the Reaping opens.