The 2026 Oscars bring music back to the center of global showbiz tonight
Tonight’s 98th Academy Awards, held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, once again strongly open up space for music as one of the most visible and commercially most dynamic parts of the film industry. Although the Oscars are above all an award for film, the experience of recent years shows that the musical segment of the broadcast often lives longer than the ceremony itself: performances immediately move to social media, songs receive a new wave of streaming, and the films they come from enter wider pop-cultural circulation. That is why this year’s ceremony is not only a story about golden statuettes, but also about how one television evening can redirect the attention of a global audience toward several carefully selected songs, performers, and film titles.
The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has confirmed that the 98th Oscars will take place on Sunday, March 15, 2026, with a live broadcast on ABC and streaming on Hulu, while hosting duties have once again been entrusted to Conan O’Brien. In the officially announced musical program, a special place is held by two nominated songs for Best Original Song:
“Golden” from the animated hit
KPop Demon Hunters and
“I Lied To You” from the film
Sinners. In this way, after last year’s ceremony, in which the nominated songs did not have classic space in the same format, music returns to the center of the television spectacle in a way that the Academy openly presents as a fusion of cinematic storytelling and a grand stage show.
Why the musical part of the Oscars matters more than it may seem at first glance
In the contemporary entertainment industry, a song from a film is no longer merely an accompanying element of the end credits or an emotional addition to a single scene. It is a standalone product, a marketing tool, and often the audience’s first contact with a film they may not yet have seen. That is precisely why Oscar performances carry weight far beyond the hall in Los Angeles. When a song gets a few minutes in prime time, in front of a multimillion audience and with enormous media impact, its life cycle practically starts all over again: the number of searches rises, jumps on streaming services become visible already in the first hours after the broadcast, and social media turn certain performances into an independent viral event.
Such an effect is not theoretical, but has already been confirmed in practice. After the 2024 Oscars, the Associated Press published data showing that the performance of the song
“I’m Just Ken” from the film
Barbie triggered a 422 percent increase in U.S. audio and video streams in the week after the ceremony. At the same time, the entire soundtrack of the film
Barbie recorded an additional surge, which clearly shows that a television performance does not amplify just one song, but can reactivate an entire musical and film ecosystem around a title. Even earlier, the song
“Naatu Naatu” after its Oscar win in 2023 experienced a strong jump on Spotify in the U.S., and that example became almost textbook proof of how the Oscar today can function as a global music accelerator, and not only as recognition from the profession.
From the perspective of film studios and the recording industry, that means that the Best Original Song category is much more than prestige. It opens up additional revenue, extends the commercial life of a film, and brings a title into the conversation of audiences who may not follow classic film awards at all. When a song breaks out of cinemas into a playlist, the film gets a new channel of attention distribution. At a time when content competes for seconds of concentration, this is one of the rare moments in which film, television, music, streaming, and social media merge into the same media impulse.
Two performances in the spotlight: “Golden” and “I Lied To You”
According to the Academy’s official announcement, tonight’s musical program is especially conceived around two powerful cultural phenomena from the film year. The first is
KPop Demon Hunters, an animated title that has outgrown the boundaries of film audiences and become a pop-cultural phenomenon, and the second is
Sinners, a film that enters the ceremony with as many as 16 nominations and thus carries the status of the most nominated work in this year’s race. Producers Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan said that the musical segment will not be merely a sequence of separate numbers, but a “cinematic tribute” to the relationship between music and storytelling, that is, to the way those films in particular reached audiences.
For the performance of the song
“Golden”, a combination of traditional Korean instrumentalists and dance has been announced, together with a performance by EJAE, AUDREY NUNA, and REI AMI, the singing voices behind the fictional group HUNTR/X. That decision is not an unimportant detail, because by doing so the Academy acknowledges that today’s popular culture is increasingly less divided into “film” and “music,” and increasingly more into content that simultaneously functions in multiple markets.
KPop Demon Hunters is an especially interesting example of a title that combines animation, global streaming logic, and K-pop aesthetics, and the song “Golden” in particular shows how a single can be pulled out of a film and live completely autonomously.
The second major point of the evening,
“I Lied To You” from the film
Sinners, has been set up as a stage homage to the film’s visual and musical identity. The Academy announced that the song will be performed by Miles Caton and Raphael Saadiq, with the participation of a number of musical and stage names, including Misty Copeland, Eric Gales, Buddy Guy, Brittany Howard, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Bobby Rush, Shaboozey, and Alice Smith. Such a lineup suggests that the aim is not merely “another” performance of a nominated song, but a segment that wants to leave the impression of an event within an event, almost like a mini-production that directly translates the atmosphere of the film onto the Oscar stage.
What this year’s list of nominated songs says
In the Best Original Song category this year, the nominees are
“Dear Me” from the film
Diane Warren: Relentless,
“Golden” from
KPop Demon Hunters,
“I Lied To You” from
Sinners,
“Sweet Dreams Of Joy” from the documentary
Viva Verdi!, and
“Train Dreams” from the film of the same name. That list alone already shows how broad the category is: from a documentary and auteur approach to a high-profile studio film and an animated global hit. Thus, the Oscars once again this year stand between two logics: the one in which they reward the tradition of film authorship and the one in which they acknowledge that musical impact today often arises at the crossroads of cinema, streaming, and digital fandom culture.
Particular attention is drawn to the name Diane Warren, who has once again been nominated, and the American media ahead of the ceremony remind that she is one of the most striking and at the same time longest uncrowned authors in the history of that category. Vox writes these days that this is already her 17th nomination without a competitive win in the Best Original Song category. That fact creates an additional narrative in every Oscar season: will the Academy finally reward authorial longevity and continuity, or will it again give preference to a song that has broader cultural momentum, a stronger commercial imprint, and a more powerful presence among younger audiences?
It is precisely for that reason that the race between the traditionally understood Oscar ballad and songs that already have a life on streaming platforms gains additional weight. It is no longer enough to ask which song is the “most cinematic.” It is equally important to ask which song succeeded in stepping out of the film and becoming part of everyday music consumption. In that regard, “Golden” enters the evening with very strong cultural backing, while “I Lied To You” benefits from the general momentum that
Sinners has in the entire Oscar race.
The return of performances after the different 2025 concept
One of the reasons why tonight’s musical part of the Oscars is so eagerly awaited also lies in the fact that last year’s ceremony did not follow the classic model of presenting all nominated songs through separate live numbers. Instead, the focus was redirected to the authors and a different concept of presenting the category. This year’s return of large stage performances therefore acts as a kind of correction, but also as an acknowledgement that audiences still expect from the Oscars musical moments that can outlive the ceremony itself.
That is an important television decision. In an era of fragmented attention and ever weaker loyalty to traditional broadcasts, award ceremonies need recognizable moments that can be extracted into short video clips, become the subject of discussion, and attract younger audiences who may not watch the broadcast linearly at all. Musical performances have an advantage there over many other parts of the ceremony because they are visually attractive, emotionally immediate, and easily transferable on social media. When Oscar producers emphasize “cultural phenomena” and “cinematic tribute” segments, they are in fact describing a new logic of television spectacle: less formality, more moments that can live independently.
The Oscars as a marketplace of attention, not just an award
Today’s Oscars function in a more complex media space than ten or twenty years ago. Once, it was enough to win or at least perform; today, what happens an hour later, the next day, and a week later is measured. How many times was the performance viewed? Did the song enter the trends? How much did streams increase? Did the film receive additional interest on platforms? Did the soundtrack come back to life? Such questions show that the ceremony is no longer only the final act of the awards season, but also an active machine for the redistribution of attention.
That is precisely why music at the Oscars has a specific market value. A film as a rule has a limited number of points at which it re-enters public focus: the cinema premiere, festival life, the start of the campaign, nominations, the ceremony, and later arrival on streaming. An original song can further extend that cycle. If after the performance audiences discover the song on Spotify, YouTube, or other services, the film gets a second wave of interest that is not necessarily tied only to criticism and awards. This is especially important for younger audiences, who often get to know a film through music, a clip, or a trend, and not through a classic film trailer.
This also explains why the Academy is paying more and more attention to the performance as an event, and not only to the category as a formal recognition. In tonight’s broadcast, not only films and songs compete, but also models of visibility. On one side is the film industry, which wants to preserve the weight of the award, and on the other the digital economy, in which relevance is often measurable by the number of views, listens, and shares of content. The musical part of the Oscars is currently perhaps the clearest point of encounter between those two logics.
Broader context: Hollywood is seeking a global audience
This year’s selection and the way the songs are presented additionally confirm that Hollywood is no longer speaking only to the American market.
KPop Demon Hunters enters the center of the Oscars with aesthetics and musical codes that count on a global audience, especially Asian markets and digital communities raised on streaming platforms.
Sinners, on the other hand, shows how powerfully a film can build identity through sound, style, and cultural references that cross the line between classic film dramaturgy and the concert experience. In both cases, these are titles that address audiences not only as viewers, but also as listeners, followers, fans, and participants in digital culture.
In its preview of this year’s ceremony, the Associated Press also points out that Oscar viewership has been on an upward trend in recent years, with greater reach among younger audiences, partly because of streaming on Hulu and the Academy’s broader digital strategy. That is an important signal because it shows that the television broadcast is no longer sufficient unto itself. For the Oscars to remain globally relevant, they must produce content that can be fragmented, shared, and rewatched. Music is an ideal tool for that: it crosses linguistic and cultural boundaries more easily, and a good performance can attract even audiences who may not have watched a single nominated film.
What audiences can expect after tonight’s ceremony
The most likely immediate effect of tonight’s ceremony will not be seen only in the list of winners, but in the digital life of songs already during the night and in the days that follow. According to the pattern seen in previous years, the songs that leave the strongest impression on stage could record an increase in listening, additional presence in playlists, and a new wave of media commentary. Particular attention will be paid to whether “Golden” will confirm its status as a global pop phenomenon and whether “I Lied To You” will further capitalize on the strength of the film
Sinners in the Oscar finale.
For viewers, that means that the musical part of the broadcast is no longer a secondary decoration between awards, but one of the key reasons why the ceremony still produces resonance beyond the film industry. For studios and publishers, it is a reminder that the battle for audiences today is not fought only through cinema halls and streaming catalogs, but also through a few minutes of performance at the right moment. And for the Academy itself, it is a test of whether it can still shape global showbiz in such a way that for at least one evening it unites film, music, television, and the internet into the same cultural event.
For those who, after tonight’s ceremony, wish to follow other major musical events as well, the ticket market has long functioned according to a similar logic of rapid growth in interest and comparison of offers. In that context, the public can also check the prices and availability of concerts and similar events through specialized services for offer comparison, among them cronetik.com, but tonight’s story shows that the first and strongest impulse is still content that succeeds in capturing mass attention. If that happens again on the Oscar stage, songs from films will not remain merely part of the ceremony, but will from tomorrow already become a separate part of the global musical conversation.
Sources:- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – official page of the 98th Academy Awards with the ceremony date and the list of nominees, including the Best Original Song category (link)- Academy Press Office – official announcement of the musical program of the 98th Oscars with confirmation of the performances of the songs “Golden” and “I Lied To You” and details about the performers (link)- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – calendar and key dates for the 98th Oscars, including confirmation that the ceremony takes place on March 15, 2026 (link)- Associated Press – preview of the 98th Oscars with the context of this year’s race, the return of Conan O’Brien, and the broader production framework of the ceremony (link)- Associated Press – report on the streaming growth of the song “I’m Just Ken” after the performance at the 2024 Oscars, as an example of the measurable effect of the Oscar stage on music consumption (link)- Vox – analysis of the 2026 Best Original Song category and the context of Diane Warren’s 17th nomination without a competitive win (link)
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