Oscar Best Song Nominee “Alone Yet Not Alone” Disqualified, Category Will Remain With 4 Contenders

The list of nominees who had their Oscar chances revoked is a small field, with the best known case perhaps being Nino Rota getting disqualified in 1972 for Best Original Score for “The Godfather” when it was discovered that part of his composition was previously used in the 1958 film “Fortunella.” (Though while he technically was never officially nominated, the music branch held a revote for the Oscar nominations and he missed out). And, despite the sad turn of events, out-of-nowhere nominee “Alone Yet Not Alone” will be a part of history.

Yesterday, the Academy revoked the nomination the Best Song nomination for the faith-based film, that had surprised pretty much everyone when it was revealed to be among the five Oscar contenders in the category. But it seems that the song’s writer, Bruce Broughton, broke some rules when campaigning for the song (which shares the same name as the title of the movie) with the Academy revealing in a statement (via THR) that he “had emailed [some of the other 239] members of the branch to make them aware of his submission during the nominations voting period,” which is a big no no.

For his part, Broughton is understandably “devastated” but the news, while other nominees who were left out of the top five are upset the Academy won’t be slotting in a replacement. So, adjust your ballots and call your bookies because the category now looks like this: 

• “Happy” from Despicable Me 2
Music and Lyric by Pharrell Williams

• “Let It Go” from Frozen
Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez

• “The Moon Song” from Her
Music by Karen O; Lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze

• “Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Music by U2 (credited as Paul Hewson a.k.a. Bono, Dave Evans a.k.a. The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen; Lyric by Paul Hewson)

But, in case you want to know what it sounded like, you can check out a video for “Alone Yet Not Alone” below.