As I promised three times, I'm examining the visual media GRAMMY nominees for a late Sunday entertainment feature. Here are the nominees!
Best Song Written For Visual MediaI'm thrilled to see speculative fiction so well represented — animation, horror, and science fiction! Add Wicked in categories below the jump, and fantasy appears in these awards as well. Superheroes? They should be so lucky; they're having a down year.
A Songwriter(s) award. For a song (melody & lyrics) written specifically for a motion picture, television, video games or other visual media, and released for the first time during the Eligibility Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.
As Alive As You Need Me To Be — From TRON: Ares
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, songwriters (Nine Inch Nails)
Golden — From KPop Demon Hunters
EJAE & Mark Sonnenblick, songwriters (HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna, REI AMI)
I Lied to You — From Sinners
Ludwig Göransson & Raphael Saadiq, songwriters (Miles Caton)
Never Too Late — From Elton John: Never Too Late
Brandi Carlile, Elton John, Bernie Taupin & Andrew Watt, songwriters (Elton John, Brandi Carlile)
Pale, Pale Moon — From Sinners
Ludwig Göransson & Brittany Howard, songwriters (Jayme Lawson)
Sinners — From Sinners
Leonard Denisenko, Rodarius Green, Travis Harrington, Tarkan Kozluklu, Kyris Mingo & Darius Poviliunas, songwriters (Rod Wave)
While Sinners has one more nomination than KPop Demon Hunters, none of the individual nominees has a second nomination. In contrast, "Golden" from KPop Demon Hunters has four, two of which the Recording Academy mentioned in Feats & Firsts From The 2026 GRAMMYS Nominations: 'KPop Demon Hunters,' Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar, ROSÉ And More.
K-pop joins the history-making fun thanks to ROSÉ and KPop Demon Hunters. ROSÉ's hit collaboration with Bruno Mars, "APT.," and HUNTR/X's chart-topping KPop Demon Hunters smash, "Golden," are the first songs by K-pop artists to be nominated for Song Of The Year, with "APT." also becoming the first song by a K-pop artist to be nominated for Record Of The Year. Both songs are also up for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, marking another milestone: the first time two songs by K-pop artists have been nominated in that Category in the same year."Golden" is also nominated for Best Remixed Recording and the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack is nominated for Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media. Because it beats all the other nominated songs in total nominations, I'm embedding “Golden” Official Lyric Video | KPop Demon Hunters | Sony Animation first.
We’re going up, up, up. Watch the official lyric video for “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters. KPop Demon Hunters is now on Netflix.Based on the number of nominations, especially for Song of the Year, "Golden" is my pick to win Best Song Written For Visual Media. It's also Gold Derby's, where every expert, 83.3% of editors, and 86.7% of users have picked it to win. "Golden" should also be a lock to be nominated for Best Original Song or its equivalent at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, and Oscars, although Gold Derby doesn't include that category in any of it movie nominations predictions, so I can't rely on them for backup. Speaking of awards, I no longer have Flow penciled in for Best Animated Film at the Saturn Awards, as I wrote in The 2025 Environmental Media Association (EMA) Awards nominees. My vote will be for KPop Demon Hunters, which leads Gold Derby's predictions at all three movie awards shows.
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About KPop Demon Hunters:
When they aren't selling out stadiums, KPop superstars Rumi, Mira and Zoey use their secret identities as badass demon hunters to protect their fans from an ever-present supernatural threat. Together, they must face their biggest enemy yet – an irresistible rival boy band of demons in disguise.
Directed by: Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans
Produced by: Michelle Wong
Co-Produced by: Scott Berri, Jacky Priddle
Cast: Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo-seop, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, Yunjin Kim, Joel Kim Booster, Liza Koshy, with Daniel Dae Kim, Ken Jeong and Byung Hun Lee.
The other songs with support are "Never Too Late" from Elton John: Never Too Late with 16.7% of editors and 5.4% of users picking it, "I Lied to You" from Sinners with 6.1% of users choosing it, and "As Alive As You Need Me To Be" from TRON: Ares with the remaining 0.8% of users supporting it. I'm embedding the videos of these nominees. Sorry, "Pale, Pale Moon" and "Sinners"; Gold Derby doesn't give either of you a chance, so I'm skipping you for now.
I begin the likely runners-up with Elton John, Brandi Carlile - Never Too Late (From The Film “Elton John: Never Too Late”).
‘Never Too Late’ with Brandi Carlile - a new original song taken from the Disney+ documentary, ‘Elton John: Never Too Late’. You can listen to it everywhere now here: https://eltonjohn.lnk.to/nevertoolateIDI didn't mention it in my Oscar prediction post, but "Never Too Late" earned an Oscar nomination last year, so it's not eligible this year. That's good news for the rest of the field when the Motion Picture Academy announces its nominees.
The official music video includes unseen footage from the documentary 'Elton John: Never Too Late', along with Elton and Brandi recording the track in the studio. After watching an early cut of the work-in-progress documentary, Brandi was inspired to write an original song, taking influence and guidance from Bernie Taupin’s style. Brandi brought the lyrics and concept to Elton to continue co-writing together, with Andrew Watt adding additional writing and production.
One of those might be Tron: Ares | Nine Inch Nails | “As Alive As You Need Me To Be”.
The Tron: Ares soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails is out now featuring the song "As Alive As You Need Me To Be".This song is also nominated for Best Rock Song, an award I think it has a better chance of winning. While this song might earn an Oscar nomination, the movie itself is more likely to earn at least two Razzies, Worst Remake/Ripoff/Sequel and Worst Actor for Jared Leto. On a more positive note, it might still garner some Saturn Award nominations. I doubt I'll vote for it. I predicted "a match between Lilo & Stitch and Jurassic World: Rebirth" in 'Dune: Part Two' at the Critics Choice Super Awards, which I would resolve in favor of the dinosaurs.
Now Sinners | I Lied To You Song | Movie Clip | Warner Bros. Entertainment.
Sinners song "I Lied To You,” performed live by Miles Caton as Sammie. The Sinners Movie Clip shows the raw, emotional blues track that channels the character’s longing, defiance, and dream of escape. Look for the horror adventure movie on digital.I had no idea the music in Sinners was so good until the nominations were announced. I just thought of it as a horror movie, one that, as I mentioned in 'Sinners' leads Best Horror Movie nominees at the Critics Choice Super Awards, is my current choice for Best Horror Movie at the Saturn Awards.
Written by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson, two award-winning multi-hyphenates, “I Lied To You” was filmed and recorded over several days on set, capturing the energy of a live juke joint crowd. It marks Sammie’s breakout as an artist and reflects on the film’s deep connection to the cultural roots and legacy of the blues.
From Ryan Coogler—director of “Black Panther” and “Creed”—and starring Michael B. Jordan comes a new vision of fear: “Sinners.” Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers (Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back. “You keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.”
Follow over the jump for the rest of the nominations for KPop Demon Hunters, Sinners, and Wicked.
Gold Derby's experts, editors, and users disagree wildly on their top six nominees for Song of the Year. Every expert so far and one-third of the editors have chosen "Golden" but only 9.3% of users. Another third of editors and 33.7% of users picked "Luther" by Kendrick Lamar and SZA. One-sixth of editors and 38.3% of users are acclaiming "Abracadabra" by Lady Gaga as the winner, which is enough for Gold Derby to put it first in their odds; the site heavily weights the opinions of its users over the professionals. The other sixth of editors plus 4.0% of users are behind "Wildflower" by Billie Eilish. Just 5.6% of users support Bad Bunny's "DTMF." "APT." by Rosé and Bruno Mars and "Anxiety" by Doechii are tied for last with 0.9% of users each. This is a mess that gives "Golden" hope, but I really think "Abracadabra" will win. Let's see if the odds look like this in January.
Gold Derby's odds for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance are more self-consistent yet contradict the odds for Song of the Year. "APT." by Rosé and Bruno Mars clearly leads with the votes so far of every expert, 83.3% of editors, and 50.9% of users. Professional and user opinion is split, with the remaining 16.7% of editors and 14.9% of users choosing "Golden," while 27.2% of users but no professionals picking "Defying Gravity" by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande from Wicked. "30 for 30" by Kendrick Lamar and SZA has the support of 4.4% of users with Gabriela by KATSEYE in last with 2.7% of users.
Since I'm featuring movie music, I'm embedding Defying Gravity (From Wicked The Soundtrack).
“Defying Gravity” Performed by Cynthia Erivo (featuring Ariana Grande) From Wicked - Music & Lyrics By Stephen SchwartzThis is a great song for a spectacular scene, which reminds me that I still have Wicked penciled in as my pick for Best Fantasy Film at the Saturn Awards.
Best Remixed RecordingI'd have to listen to all of the nominees to make an intelligent guess, but my gut says "Abracadabra - Gesaffelstein Remix" is the likely winner. Since this post is about movie music, I'm embedding KPop Demon Hunters | "Golden" - The David Guetta Remix | Netflix.
A Remixer's Award. (Artists names appear in parentheses for identification.) Singles or Tracks only.
Abracadabra - Gesaffelstein Remix
Gesaffelstein, remixer (Lady Gaga, Gesaffelstein)
Don't Forget About Us
KAYTRANADA, remixer (Mariah Carey & KAYTRANADA)
A Dreams A Dream - Ron Trent Remix
Ron Trent, remixer (Soul II Soul)
Galvanize
Chris Lake, remixer (The Chemical Brothers & Chris Lake)
Golden - David Guetta REM/X
David Guetta, remixer (HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna, REI AMI)
KPop’s fiercest anthem, “GOLDEN” from K-pop Demon Hunters, just got a high-voltage remix from none other than David Guetta.That's fun, but I'm not yet convinced it's an improvement over the original.
Gold Derby thinks Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media is Wicked's best category with half the editors and 70.5% of users selecting it. KPop Demon Hunters is its closest competition with ever expert so far, one-third of the editors, and 17.6% of users choosing it. Despite having more songs nominated than either Wicked or KPop Demon Hunters, Gold Derby has Sinners in third with the support of the remaining one-sixth of editors and 9.4% of users. The rest of the users are split between A Complete Unknown with 1.7% and F1: The Movie, which I expect to see nominated for Best Action Film at the Saturn Awards, with 0.8%. Wow, a Bob Dylan biopic down that low!
All the nominees for Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media (Includes Film And Television) are speculative fiction, How to Train Your Dragon, another likely Saturn Award nominee, and Wicked for fantasy, Severance for science fiction, Sinners for horror, and The Wild Robot for animation. Great representation of genres!
Gold Derby thinks Sinners has a better chance of winning here than for Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media with every editor and expert plus 76.5% of users supporting it. Wicked sits in second with 19.7% of users, followed by 2.0% picking The Wild Robot, 1.2% choosing Severance, and 0.7% hanging on to How to Train Your Dragon. For what it's worth, Sinners also leads the Gold Derby odds for Best Score at the Oscars and Golden Globes. Let's see if those stand once Wicked for Good and Avatar: Fire and Ash are released.
Best Instrumental CompositionThis category has the final two nominations for Sinners and Wicked and also serves as a sampler for Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media. I begin with Train to Emerald City.
A Composer’s Award for an original composition (not an adaptation) first released during the Eligibility Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only
First Snow
Remy Le Boeuf, composer (Nordkraft Big Band, Remy Le Boeuf & Danielle Wertz)
Live Life This Day: Movement I
Miho Hazama, composer (Miho Hazama, Danish Radio Big Band & Danish National Symphony Orchestra)
Lord, That's A Long Way
Sierra Hull, composer (Sierra Hull)
Opening
Zain Effendi, composer (Zain Effendi)
Train To Emerald City
John Powell & Stephen Schwartz, composers (John Powell & Stephen Schwartz)
Why You Here / Before The Sun Went Down
Ludwig Göransson, composer (Ludwig Göransson Featuring Miles Caton)
Train to Emerald City · John Powell · Stephen SchwartzNext, Why You Here / Before the Sun Went Down | Sinners (Original Motion Picture Score).
Wicked: The Original Motion Picture Score
“Why You Here / Before the Sun Went Down” from Sinners (Original Motion Picture Score) | Music by Ludwig GöranssonBetween the two, I'd choose the composition from Sinners, but I'd have to listen to all the nominees to make a judgment about which nominee will win. One of those is music for a theme park ride, "Opening" by Zain Effendi composed for Test Track in EPCOT. I'm looking forward to listening to it.
I'm including this category for completeness as the second nomination for “As Alive As You Need Me To Be” from Tron: Ares. I'd vote for it, but that means nothing. Hayley Williams, who has three other nominations, or Yungblud, who has two other nominations including Best Rock Album, could have better songs.
That's a wrap for today's look at music in movies and TV. I plan on covering Best Music Film, Best Music Video, Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media, Best Comedy Album, and Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording in future installments. Stay tuned.
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