Award-Bait Song

"This song I've written for you is so schmaltzy, it'll make 'Moon River' sound like a farting orangutan."

— Homer Simpson, The Simpsons, "A Star is Torn"

Or: The Big Damn Bronze Age Disney-Style Award-Baiting End-Credits Power Ballad.

Tropers who grew up in the 1990s know what we're talking about, right? It's the kind of song which plays over the end credits (usually) of an animated (usually) Disney (usually) movie (usually) from the '90s (usually). They each share a distinctive style and, as per the title, once you hear it you just know it's going to get nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song, and if it doesn't, somebody's getting fired.

They generally have at least four of the following distinctive traits:

• Starts out soothing and mellow. Chances are high the first thing to come out of the singer(s) mouth is "Mmmmmmmm..."
• Instead of describing events that happen directly in the movie, it usually covers the more sweeping themes used in it such as The Power of Love, The Power of Friendship, and so on. May be a Silly Love Song. Most Award Bait Songs have absolutely nothing to do with the plot (love songs in movies with no romance, for example), and are rarely referenced in the film itself.
• Extremely feel-good and/or touching; may be a Tear Jerker.
• Lots of "sparkly" synth.
• Towards the middle, it gets more and more triumphant and builds to a big, epic finish.
• Is penned by a (usually) past-their-prime pop/rock star, especially if the film isn't a musical. If the song is a hit, it may prompt a comeback.
• If it is a musical it may appear in the film, but it's occasionally a Cut Song, as in the Pocahontas and Hunchback of Notre Dame examples.
• Context of a Falling-in-Love Montage (bonus points if it's also a ballroom dance).
• Truck Driver's Gear Change.
• A soaring electric guitar solo.
• Especially since the Turn of the Millennium (as opening credit sequences are almost unheard of except in James Bond films), it's not necessarily considered the film's theme song.
• A Video Full of Film Clips.

The distinguishing trademark, however, is when the song has a reprise, frequently a duet, done over the end credits. Bonus points if you can get Barbra Streisand, Céline Dion (or someone who sounds like her), Whitney Houston, Peabo Bryson, or Bryan Adams to sing it.

Sounds like the kind of song popularized by nineties Disney films, yes? The funny thing is that the film that probably helped to make this sort of thing popular during this particular part of movie history would be "Somewhere Out There" from Don Bluth's An American Tail, although Don Bluth's team had also had "Flying Dreams" in the earlier The Secret of NIMH. And even before that, songs unrelated to the story, usually of the love song variety, often sung by popular singers, had been a staple of closing credits for Asian films — particularly anime — for decades.

Award Bait Songs are also found in many live-action films, notably "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic (1997). Many, many films from the late-70's through late-90's had a song like this, leading some critics to call this period the last really amazing time for movie songs. This has been exchanged for "hip" pop songs from the popular artists at the time, and/or more commonly the movie soundtrack.

Movie Bonus Songs in film adaptations of stage musicals often fall under this trope, since the songs adapted from the stage play aren't eligible for Best Original Song, and this is the filmmakers' attempt at letting the film receive some accolade for its music. Whatever the song's reason for being, the "Award-Baiting" part isn't the important part, nor is the "End Credits" part. The important part is that the song is strongly associated with the narrative work, serves as a fitting capstone, and is in the style described above.

One tactic when trying for an award bait song is to take an existing, usually famous, song and record a Softer and Slower Cover.

It should also be noted that, while the song may be blatant award bait, that doesn't mean they still can't be really good regardless.

For other kinds of popular and/or Award-winning movie songs, see Breakaway Pop Hit and "I Want" Song. Compare The Power of Rock.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• After War Gundam X featured Human Touch, which was one of the last works composed by the Soulful Rain Man himself Warren Wiebe.
• "Happiness on the Same Earth" from Aikatsu!.
• AIR gave us the lovely "Aozora".
  • There's also the ED, "Farewell Song".
• Ichiban no Takaramono (My Most Precious Treasure) and My Song from Angel Beats!
• "Mierudarou Byston Well" and "Ao no Speech Balloon" from Aura Battler Dunbine.
• Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King features the beautiful and uplifting song Utsukushiki Mono (Something Beautiful) by R&B artist Ai, from her album Independent Woman which topped charts in Japan. According to The Other Wiki she felt it was the most vocally challenging song she had ever recorded.
  • Guts' Theme from the Berserk (1997) series is an instrumental example.
  • Wish by Mika Nakashima, from Berserk: The Golden Age Arc: Memorial Edition.
• Life from Canaan.
• Mother from Carole & Tuesday.
• A Path from Casshern Sins.
• Chiisana Tenohira (The Palm of a Tiny Hand) from the end of the CLANNAD series.
  • From ~After Story~, we got Toki wo Kizamu Uta (The Song That Transcends Time).
• Cowboy Bebop has The Real Folk Blues and the final ending theme Blue. The Movie has Knock a Little Harder.
• "I Really Want to Stay at Your House" from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is an interesting example given that it preexisted the anime by about two years. It was originally a song on one of the in-game radio stations in Cyberpunk 2077 and was well-regarded but given recontextualization by the anime it really exploded in popularity in 2022.
• Dragon Ball GT may be not have been seen as great in everyone's eyes, but this Sabitsuita Machine Gun by WANDS was a great song to finish off to finish the franchise.
  • Dragon Ball Z had "Hikari no Tabi" for its "Bardock: the Father of Goku" special. Bonus points for being a duet.
• Kimi ga Kureta Mono from Fairy Tail fits this trope very well.
• The Nasuverse is rife with this:
  • Sora wa Takaku Kaze wa Utau, sung from Irisviel's perspective and Manten from Fate/Zero.
  • The Unlimited Blade Works anime has Brave Shine from Aimer on the opening, which actually won a Best Anime Theme Song award in Japan.
  • The first anime movie adaptation of Heaven's Feel, Presage Flower has Hana no Uta, or Song of Flowers also by Aimer, which, in full of Heaven's Feel Tear Jerker glory, captures perfectly Sakura's feelings of his past treatment from the Matous, as well as to Shirou, being her only hope to get out of the mess.
• Speaking of Aimer, she herself is a fine example of this trope, with songs like Ninelie from Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress and Dare ka Umi wo from Terror in Resonance being great examples.
• Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) has the song Bratya which was featured at the end of the episode where we see Ed's and Al's past. Even though it's in Russian, a language most viewers probably don't understand, it definitely packs a punch.
  • The English version even more so.(this is a dead link, but it seems to have been for a Vic Mignogna english version, to save you the trouble of trying to archive.com it and read non flash 2010 YouTube, and search for it using a search engine, this troper kept the link there just in case you wanna doublecheck the research.)
• Full Metal Panic! featured no less than two of these songs as openings for its anime adaptation. The first, "tomorrow", was used for the original series, the second "Sore ga Ai deshou?"("I guess that's love?") strangely enough was used as the opening for Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu.
• Wakatte Ita Hazu from Fushigi Yuugi, used as an insert song for the most emotional moments of the anime.
• Gankutsuou's intro, "We Were Lovers".
• Guilty Crown gives us three songs for consideration: "Euterpe", "Departures ~Anata ni Okuru Ai no Uta~", and from the Lost Christmas OVA/game, "Planetes".
• Toki no Kawa wo Koete for GunBuster and Tatsu Tori Ato wo Nigosa zu for DieBuster are instrumental versions of this type of song. WELCOME HOME.
• Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer has "Qualia" by UVE Rworld.
  • Don't forget Yuna Ito's "Trust You".
• ''Tender Oblivion'', ending song for ''The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya''. The a cappella version is the one which plays at the ending credits, rather than the J-Pop version released as single.
• Destiny ~Shukumei~ from Hitsuji no Uta is a gloomier version of this trope.
• Nagareboshi Kirari, the fourth ending for Hunter × Hunter (2011), which has a much more somber tone compared to the other more energetic ending songs and plays during the first half of the Chimera Ant arc, arguably the darkest, most tragic arc in the entire series.
• No More Words from the first Inuyasha movie.
• "Season" from the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure 2012 anime, sung by Kaori Kano and composed by Taku Iwasaki.
• "Kaerimichi", the first opening of Mahoromatic.
• Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro has Kodoku no Hikari, the lyrics especially capture the feeling of trying to be hopeful in a very depressing environment which is very not that far from the actual events in the story especially with all of the Big Bad Sicks' atrocities and the death of Sasazuka while having a bittersweet tone that the show tries to give us.
• Eternal Wind from Mobile Suit Gundam F91, which unlike the planned series opening was preserved for the ending credits.
• My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising has "Might+U", an epic arrangement of "You Say Run" that plays during the film's final battle after Midoriya transfers One For All to Bakugo.
• Love Live! Sunshine!! has "Kiseki Hikaru", which isn't an end credits theme and was instead used as an insert song in The Movie, but nonetheless sounds like one and thematically fits the series' conclusion. It starts off as a soft, innocent tune reminiscing about a long journey's end, but the orchestral accompaniment steadily becomes more grand and sweeping as the lyrics become increasingly bittersweet and reveal it's actually about Aqours trying to stay hopeful after failing to accomplish their goals. (which is relevant to the ending of the anime, where they failed to save their school.) Nonetheless, it ends on an optimistic note, that the sun will rise again.
• "Itsumo, Itsumo", from Now and Then, Here and There.
• One Piece Film: Strong World has Fanfare by Mr. Children.
  • There's also "One Day" by The Rootless, although it kind of spoiled the fact that Portgas D. Ace got Killed Off for Real.
  • ''Tsuki to Taiyou'', the twelfth ending, definitely sounds like one of these.
• A group of unofficial fan dubbers creating an English track for the movie One Stormy Night took it upon themselves to actually pen an all-original award bait song for the end credits, replacing the movie's original end credits theme, "Star". "Watch the Moonrise" is actually quite sweet.
  • Can also become a Tear Jerker, depending on how you look at it.
• Every Time You Kissed Me from PandoraHearts.
• Even Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt gets in on this trope with "Chocolat" by Stocking's Japanese voice actress Mariya Ise. It especially works in the context of its episode, "Ghost; The Phantom of Daten City".
• The eponymous song from the ending of the 2004 Phoenix anime. May sound like a fairly ordinary anime vocal ending at first, but easily becomes Tear Jerker by the end of the story by sheer stunning context with it. Effect may be amplified if you are particularly moved by the style of The Carpenters.
• Pokémon 3 has "To Know The Unown" performed by the girl group Innocence.
  • And of course, The Power of One by the late great Donna Summer from Pokémon 2000 (the Japanese version uses a rather dissonant rap bit by Namie Amuro). This one was famous enough for Herman Cain to quote the lyrics for his exit speech from the 2012 USA Election Republican leadership race, with him referring to Donna Summer as "a poet."
  • Pokémon: The First Movie features "We're A Miracle", which fits the trope fairly well, except being a little less epic and sung by a big pop star, Christina Aguilera. Curiously, the Japanese version of the film featured "Kaze to Issho ni", which certainly sounds like one of these. Honestly, every Pokémon movie makes an attempt at this.
    • It Was You by Ashley Ballard.
  • Pokémon: Jirachi: Wish Maker's "Make a Wish".
    • By that extension, the Japanese version's "Chiisaki Mono" (A Small Thing).
  • The Rise of Darkrai uses, of all things, "I Will Be With You (Where the Lost Ones Go)" for its award bait song—even in the Japanese version! Can lead to a bit of Soundtrack Dissonance over the ending credits, which has the beautiful, soulful ballad played over scenes of adorable frolicking Pokémon.
  • Open My Eyes, the ending theme of Pokémon: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction. The song has the theme of letting go of one's fears and opening up to the world, with the second half being a beautiful melody.
• "All Alone With You" by EGOIST, the second ED from Psycho-Pass.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica gives us a soft-rock variation on this with Kyoko and Sayaka's Image Song "And I'm Home" by their seiyuu Ai Nonaka and Eri Kitamura, the ending for the Blu-Ray version of episode 9.
  • Kalafina's Hikari Furu (a vocal version of the already heartbreaking Sagitta Luminis) is this for the second movie.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion celebrates Homura triumphant in her belief that Utopia Justifies the Means with the heartbreaking "Your Silver Garden".
• Tune the Rainbow from the RahXephon movie simply begs for this.
• "Beautiful World" from Rebuild of Evangelion.
  • An acoustic version, which comes across as more of an award bait song than the original, is used in Evangelion:2.0.
  • 3.0 does it again, this time with "Sakura Nagashi". Quite possibly the most Award-Bait-y out of all the Evangelion songs.
  • 3.0+1.0 then tops out the previous songs with "One Last Kiss", followed by a seamless transition into a Triumphant Reprise of "Beautiful World", after being absent from the Downer Ending of the third film.
• "Awake" from RWBY: Ice Queendom.
• "Tuxedo Mirage", the ending theme of Sailor Moon S. The song for that season's Non-Serial Movie, Moonlight Destiny, moreso, bonus points for coming from an actual film.
• "Blue Dream" from Saint Seiya.
• "Feel like A Girl" from School Rumble.
  • "Girls Can Rock". That's like one of the most rockin' songs in all of the series!
• Slayers has "Somewhere in the World" that was used as the credits theme for the anime's third season finale, sung by Houko Kuwashima (the voice of Fillia). Sung in English no less.
• "Bokura no Natsu no Yume" (Our Summer Dream), from Summer Wars, sung by Tatsuro Yamashita.
• "First Love Song" from Symphogear.
  • Weaponized with "Xtreme Vibes" from Symphogear XV as a way to save the entire fucking world.
• The Macross franchise has a few J-Pop-style showstoppers, but special mention must be given to "Do You Remember Love?", specially written for the Summer Blockbuster of the same name by the late Kazuhiko Katoh.
• Tenchi Forever, which was meant to be the conclusion of the Tenchi Universe canon, has Love Song ga Kikoeru, which is appropriate considering he actually picks someone in this continuity.
  • "Tenchi Muyo! in Love" has "Alchemy of Love" by Nina Hagen and Rick Jude.
• "Namida no Tane, Egao no Hana" from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann The movie: Lagann-Hen.
• "And Forever" from the ending of The Big O.
• Oku Hanako's "Kawaranai Mono" from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, natch
• Quite a few in Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-
  • "Tsubasa" by FictionJunction KAORI
  • "Yume no Tsubasa" by Yui Makino there's also a duet version with Miyu Irino
  • "Ring Your Song" by Eri Ito
  • "Kaze no Machi He" by FictionJunction KEIKO
  • "You Are My Love" by Yui Makino and there's an English version by Eri Ito
  • "Dream Scape" by FictionJunction KAORI
• After All from ∀ Gundam.
• "Zutto Sono Machi De" from Uta∽Kata.
• The Vision of Escaflowne: A Girl In Gaea has You're Not Alone.
• "Half Pain" from the ending of Witch Hunter Robin. The lyrics are heart-wrenching, but is warm and soft in its delivery. Hauntingly beautiful.
  • Roughly "So long ago, I threw away my brightness; and like the light of the morning sun, it can never return".
• The second ending to the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series.
• "Sora wo Miagete" by Shirai Takako, the second ED from the first season of You're Under Arrest!.
• The original Hellsing anime has "Shine" by Mr. Big as the ending song.
• After the epic fight to finish the first season of the anime series, the finale ending song for One-Punch Man has "Kanashimi Tachi Wo Dakishimete". Sayonara indeed.
• The second ending theme for Season 2 of Assassination Classroom, "Mata Kimi ni Aeru no Hi" (Until the Day I See You Again).
• When I cry from the 1997 anime movie adaptation of A Dog of Flanders. Fittingly, its one hell of a Tear Jerker.
• "Wishing", the insert song for Rem from Re:Zero which is sung by her voice actress Minori Inase, is used this way to end episode 18 of the anime. Knowledge of her final fate at the end of arc 3 in the Web Novel can make this hope filled song a massive Tear Jerker.
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans has "Orphans no Namida" by MISIA, "Streetlight of War", and "Freesia" by Uru.
• "Trust You Forever" from Mobile Fighter G Gundam.
• Mobile Suit Gundam SEED has "Mizu no Akashi" sung by Rie Tanaka (as the character Lacus Clyne).
  • The sequel, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, takes the trope further, by using the song "Fields of Hope" to accompany visuals of a space colony crashing into the Earth, destroying entire cities and killing millions.
• GaoGaiGar has "Itsuka Hoshi no Umi de" (Someday, In the Sea of Stars) by Shinomari Satoko as its ending theme.
• The gently sung "Boku no Honesty" by Shinichiro Kawakami plays during credits in the anime adaptation of They Were Eleven.
• "Asu e no Kaze" by George Yanagi in the credits of Venus Wars. An atypical example for the artist since he's mostly known for upbeat songs.
• "Kimi o shinjiteru" by STEVE from Giant Gorg, a series also of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko fame. Weirdly enough, sounds a bit similar to the famous "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from The Lion King (1994) despite being released years prior.
• Great Pretender has three examples, each fitting different Award Bait criteria:
  • First is "Someday," the theme of the third arc. It begins with sparkly synth, it starts slow and builds to a big finish, it's played over a Falling-in-Love Montage, and it's a soulful ballad about overcoming one's past. It's treated as the Signature Song of the series, being heavily promoted by the show's social media and being one of the songs available on its official Spotify. However, it's more somber than other Award Bait, and it is directly about events that happen in the show.
  • Second is "Our Love," the song used as a Friendship Song for Makoto and the other members of Team Confidence. It's a heartwarming, uplifting, and uptempo Silly Love Song about The Power of Love which isn't directly about the events of the series, it builds to a big finish, and it ends on a delicate piano trill. It's used in multiple places in the series and is one of its other signature songs.
  • Finally, there's "Through the Night," the show's actual final song, used during its "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue. It's a big, sweeping ballad about persevering in the face of adversity, and it's actually used during the show's conclusion, as is traditional for Award Bait Songs. It's also not directly about the events of the series, though it does tie into them.

Disney Productions (Including Pixar)

In chronological order:

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the film that launched the Disney Animated Canon, has "Some Day My Prince Will Come".
  • And then the song got a cover version to coincide with the Diamond Edition re-release of the movie which brings the song up to the same sparkly synth standards as other songs of this trope from the Disney Renaissance era.
  • The cover released for the Platinum Edition even moreso.
• Pinocchio's "When You Wish Upon A Star" was the first Disney song to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and has been covered by many artists since then. If the Walt Disney Company has a Bootstrapped Theme, this is it.
• Bambi has "Love Is A Song" sung by Donald Novis. Though it's primarily used over the opening, a short reprise is also used during the ending.
  • Bambi II had several country pop songs, though "Through Your Eyes" by Martina McBride plays over the end credits and fills most of the usual credentials best.
• "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" from Cinderella.
• Sleeping Beauty has "Once Upon a Dream".
• Despite not being a credits song, "Feed The Birds" from Mary Poppins semi-qualifies seeing as it was Walt Disney's favorite song. The Sherman Brothers performed it repeatedly for him. It was even played at his funeral and the 2001 rededication of the "Partners" statue at Disney World, sending the song straight into Tear Jerker territory.
  • "Being Mrs. Banks" from the Screen-to-Stage Adaptation also fits the bill.
• "Someone's Waiting For You" from The Rescuers.
• "Candle on the Water" from Pete's Dragon (1977) received an Oscar nomination, but lost to the title tune from You Light Up My Life (see Film — Live-Action).
• "Part Of Your World" from The Little Mermaid (1989). Like "Over the Rainbow" 50 years before, it almost became a Cut Song — because one boy yawned during the test screening. The director and the song's lyricist Howard Ashman fought tooth and nail to keep it, saying it was a bad idea to cut it because of "one snot-nosed brat". It wasn't nominated for the Oscar in favor of the more upbeat Sidekick Songs "Under the Sea" and "Kiss the Girl"; the former won.
  • The tie-in album The Little Mermaid and Friends features an Image Song for Ariel titled "One Dance".
  • The Screen-to-Stage Adaptation adds "Her Voice" and "One Step Closer". Both are sung by Eric, and the latter has him teaching the mute Ariel to dance.
• Talespin has "Home is Where the Heart Is" which was used in the uncut version of the pilot and is sadly edited out of the syndicated release of the episode. There's also a full-length version as can be heard in the link, which was available on the Disney Afternoon soundtrack.
• The title song from Beauty and the Beast won the 1991 Best Original Song Oscar.
  • "A Change in Me" from the later years of the Broadway Screen-to-Stage Adaptation, by replacement Belle Toni Braxton's request for a big number in Act Two.
  • "As Long As There's Christmas" from Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, sung by Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack. Nominated at the 1998 Annie Awards.
  • "How Does A Moment Last Forever?" and "Evermore" from the 2017 Live-Action Adaptation. The former's end credits version is even sung by Céline Dion, as with the title song from the original, while Josh Groban does the same for "Evermore". And of course the previously mentioned title song wound up with a cover by Ariana Grande and John Legend.
• "A Whole New World" from Aladdin was the 1992 Oscar winner.
  • "Proud of Your Boy" was a Cut Song reinstated to the Screen-to-Stage Adaptation.
  • "A Million Miles Away" was a new addition to the stage musical.
• Though cut from the theatrical release, The Muppet Christmas Carol had the touching number "When Love Is Gone", which appears on the Laserdisc and VHS releases, the fullscreen DVD cut (the widescreen is the theatrical version), and was added to Disney+ beginning in 2022.
  • Watch the proper end-credits version by Martina McBride here.
• "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from The Lion King (1994) continues to receive radio airplay even to this day. Oscar winner.
  • An alternate version from a Disney Sing-Along Songs video was performed in the standard "'90s Disney movie duet credits pop song" style; so far it has not shown up on any albums.
  • "Circle of Life" is another, also nominated. Elton John's single version still gets occasional radio airplay.
  • "Love Will Find A Way" from The Lion King II: Simba's Pride.
• "If I Never Knew You" from Pocahontas. In the original theatrical version it was only featured during the end credits, as the animated sequence didn't perform well with the test audiences.
  • "Colors of the Wind" took the 1995 Oscar.
  • The sequel has "Between Two Worlds", by Judy Kuhn and Billy Zane.
• "Someday" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. A Cut Song from the body of the film.
  • "God Help The Outcasts" is another example, though the Rewritten Pop Version sung by Bette Midler is buried in the back of the end credits. The film's music got Best Score Golden Globe and Oscar nominations but no Best Song nods; this was at the point that people were getting tired of Disney's domination of the category and the bloom was off the rose for the animated features themselves.
• The Muppets did it again in Muppet Treasure Island with "Love Led Us Here"...which is first sung by Piggy and Kermit as they dangle off a cliff edge by their ankles, and is largely Played for Laughs. The song is given a sincere reprise in the end credits by John Berry and Helen Darling.
• Disney Theme Parks often commission these for ad campaigns, day-ending pyrotechnic shows and/or Milestone Celebrations.
  • 25th anniversary of Walt Disney World (1996): "Remember the Magic", sung by Brian McKnight, was probably the first example of this trope for the theme parks. A rewritten version was incorporated into the later Believe...in Holiday Magic fireworks show.
  • EPCOT's Big Damn Pyrotechnics Show Illuminations: Reflections of Earth ends with one of these, followed by the exit music "Promise".
  • The Millennium Celebration (1999-2000) centered on Epcot had the general theme song "Celebrate the Future Hand in Hand".
  • A duet reprise of the song "Wishes" plays after the Magic Kingdom fireworks show of the same name.
  • Beauty and the Beast — Live on Stage at Hollywood Studios uses the Céline Dion / Peabo Bryson version of the title song as exit music.
  • 50th anniversary of Disneyland (2005): "Remember When", sung by LeAnn Rimes and written by Richard Marx. The finale of the Remember...Dreams Come True fireworks show was sung live at the park by Rimes on May 5th, 2005.
  • World of Color has its own song with all sugary-sweetness we expect and love from Disney - although the portion played during the finale sounds less like an Award Bait Song.
  • Even Space Mountain had its own Big Damn Bronze-Age Disney Style Award-Baiting Exit Tunnel Power Ballad for a while, a surprisingly moving number about believing in dreams and reaching for the stars. Not to be outdone, Mission: Space has a similar theme song, entitled "Destiny", about courage and hope and whatnot.
  • The current fireworks show at Magic Kingdom, Happily Ever After has the titular song performed by Jordan Fisher and Angie Keilhauer playing during the opening and finale segments of the show. In addition, "Go the Distance" from Hercules plays during the start of the finale.
• "Go the Distance" from Hercules, performed by Michael Bolton, was Oscar-nominated but lost to "My Heart Will Go On".
• Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin: "Wherever You Are". Attached to a Direct to Video Winnie-the-Pooh movie that got a mixed critical reception, it failed to get nominated for any awards, though it's since become one of Disney's most popular songs of this type from the '90s.
  • The Tigger Movie: "Your Heart Will Lead You Home" by Kenny Loggins.
  • "The More I Look Inside" from Piglet's Big Movie.
• "Reflection" from Mulan. Although not featured during the credits, the soundtrack album has a substantially longer cover version by Christina Aguilera.
• "Someone Like Me" from Doug's 1st Movie and Doug Live!.
• "You'll Be In My Heart" from Tarzan, courtesy of Phil Collins. 1999 Oscar winner.
• Pixar films tend to have few (if any) songs in their movies save for a credits song, often written by Randy Newman and usually not fitting this trope. There are a few exceptions:
  • "When She Loved Me" from Toy Story 2, sung by Sarah McLachlan. Lost the Oscar to "You'll Be in My Heart".
  • "Our Town" from Cars, sung by James Taylor (one of the few songs on that soundtrack that's not a cover). Another one from the same movie, which is more baity, is "Find Yourself".
  • "Down to Earth", by Peter Gabriel, from WALL•E. Lost the 2008 Oscar to Slumdog Millionaire, whose two songs surprisingly didn't cancel each other out like Enchanted's three did.
  • "Learn Me Right", by Birdy, featuring Mumford & Sons, from Brave.
  • Turning Red does this too with "1 True Love" performed by the in-universe boy band 4*Town.
• "Can Somebody Tell Me Who I Am" from the German version of Dinosaur.
• "My Funny Friend and Me", from The Emperor's New Groove, performed by Sting. It's also one of the few songs that actually remains in the movie in some fashion, being used as the Leitmotif for the "good" side of Kuzco. Oscar-nominated.
• "Where The Dream Takes You" by Mýa, from Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
• "A Boy Needs a Dog" from the feature film of Teacher's Pet is more or less a parody of these types of numbers. Though the mood is played straight in the reprise, it is not played in the credits, nor was it nominated for any awards.
• "I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)" from Treasure Planet, by John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls.
• "Look Through My Eyes" by Phil Collins, from Brother Bear.
• "Anytime You Need a Friend" and "Wherever The Trail May Lead" from Home on the Range.
• The Princess Diaries 2 brings us Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway", co-written by Avril Lavigne.
• Even Chicken Little has one. "All I Know".
• Bridge to Terabithia has "I Learned From You" by Miley Cyrus, "Try" by Hayden Panettiere and "Keep Your Mind Wide Open" by AnnaSophia Robb. The Japanese dub adds "To Be In Love" by MISIA.
• "Little Wonders" by Rob Thomas and "Another Believer" by Rufus Wainwright, from Meet the Robinsons.
• Enchanted had not one, not two, but three songs nominated: "Happy Working Song", "That's How You Know", and "So Close." Of the three, the last one fits this trope the most. That didn't keep it from losing to the analogous song, "Falling Slowly", from Once. The loss may or may not have been due to vote splitting among the Enchanted songs; after this, the Academy decided to limit a single film's song nominations to just two.
• High School Musical 3 features an Award Bait reprise of "We're All in This Together from the first film.
  • For an original song, there's the Troyella duet "Right Here Right Now".
• "I Still Believe" from Cinderella III: A Twist in Time.
• "I Thought I Lost You" from Bolt.
• The Princess and the Frog has "Never Knew I Needed" by Ne-Yo. It's a little more R&B than previous examples, but then you hear that synthy sparkle. Ahhh...
• Almost all of DisneyNature's Green Aesop documentary films since 2010 have one of these:
  • "Make A Wave" by Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato, from Oceans (2010).
    • The Japanese release of the same film replaces "Make A Wave" with "Sailing My Life" by Hirahara Ayaka and Fujisawa Norisama.
  • "The World I Knew" by Jordin Sparks, from African Cats (2011).
  • "Rise" by the McClain sisters, from Chimpanzee (2012).
  • "Carry On" by Olivia Holt, from Bears (2014).
• There's no cover of it during the credits, but "I See The Light" from Tangled certainly counts.
  • The UK release adds a cover.
• "When Can I See You Again?" from Wreck-It Ralph, performed by Owl City. It's a bit more upbeat than most examples, but it's still got plenty of synth...
• "Let It Go" from Frozen. The movie version is performed by Idina Menzel (and as such, could be considered Disney's "Defying Gravity"), while the end credits version is sung by Demi Lovato; most of the movie's popularity can be attributed to Menzel's version, however. Interestingly enough, this was planned as a Villain Song in early stages of the movie when Elsa was planned to make a Face–Heel Turn. In that case Anna's "I Want" Song "For The First Time In Forever" would be the Award-Bait Song.
• "I'll Get You What You Want (Cockatoo in Malibiu)" from Muppets Most Wanted is something of a parody. It's too much of a comedy song to really be an example, but it does technically check a lot of the boxes, and it even has an official cover version performed by Pop-Star Composer Bret McKenzie (although the closing credits used Constantine's version).
  • "Something So Right" is a more straight example, that even has Céline Dion singing along to it.
• Fall Out Boy's theme for Big Hero 6, "Immortals" isn't much of an example, but the movie's Japanese theme song "Story" by Ai hits all the right notes for this trope. Too bad it would have been ineligible for the Oscar even if it was included in the North American release, since it wasn't written for the movie (in fact, the original Japanese version of the song predates the film by at least 5 years).
• Cinderella (2015) has "Strong" by Sonna Rele. Chimes? Check. Upbeat message about inner strength and holding onto your dreams? Check. Chorus at the end? Check.
• "How Far I'll Go" from Moana.
  • Its reprise "I Am Moana" also qualifies, shifting the former from the "I Want" Song to an "I Am" Song.
• The Disney Princess squad have a whole Award Bait Song of their own: "If You Can Dream", featuring several of the original princess' voice actors reprising their roles.
  • The later "The Glow," is just as award-baity, if not more.
• Mary Poppins Returns has "The Place Where Lost Things Go".
• Aladdin (2019) has "Speechless", with lyrics by Alan Menken, music by Pasek And Paul, and performed by Naomi Scott. It is both an "I Want" Song and a proud "I Am" Song as Jasmine first voices, then asserts her desire to be the leader her kingdom needs.
• The Lion King (2019) has two all-new songs that fit: "Spirit" by Beyoncé, who played Nala in the remake; and "Never Too Late" by Elton John, who wrote all the songs of the original film (which all carried over to the remake).
• Frozen II has three, all of which have pop versions in the credits and on the soundtrack. "Into the Unknown", "All is Found" and "Lost in the Woods" have their credits versions sung by Panic! at the Disco, Kacey Musgraves and Weezer respectively. The first of the three got its Oscar nomination, but lost to "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again" from Rocketman (2019).
• Raya and the Last Dragon has "Lead the Way" sung by Jhené Aiko, blasting The Power of Trust.
• Encanto has the traditional "I Want" Song "Waiting on a Miracle" as well as "Dos Oruguitas", which appears over a montage of Abuela Alma and her husband. Neither has a pop version, but the latter has an English version that appears during the credits. And while both songs charted on the Hot 100, and "Oruguitas" was nominated for the Oscar and Golden Globe, they were overshadowed in popularity by the more upbeat "Surface Pressure" and especially "We Don't Talk About Bruno", both of which had Top 10 peaks, with the latter reaching the top position.

Fan Work

• A Very Potter Musical has the affectionate parody "Not Alone".
  "Now that we're finished that four-part harmony..."
• Aerith's Theme, a tribute to Aerith from Final Fantasy VII, also deserves to be mentioned.
• Team Starkid's Twisted parodies this with a slowed down pop-version of the main love duet over the end credits, which sounds exactly like every Disney credits song of the 90s.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • "Twilight's Journey" by Ponyphonic; a song about Twilight Sparkle's transformation into an alicorn princess.
  • Forest Rain and Decibelle's "Great to Be Different", a duet ballad dedicated to Derpy Hooves.
  • Another Forest Rain song, "To Catch a Falling Star", is an instrumental Lonely Piano Piece with a bit of an interesting history. Originally composed without any connotation to the show, it was to be released on a Kickstarter-funded community album in support of Kiki Havivy, a (very young) friend of Tara Strong's who had cancer. The album never got released and Kiki lost her cancer battle several months later. Forest Rain later uploaded it to YouTube in her honor.
  • Acoustic Brony's and MandoPony's "A Long Way from Equestria" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vwHzwkStCg ) plays at the end of Bronies The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fansof My Little Pony, and perfectly reflects the fandom's struggles and beliefs.
• Undertale the Musical has "Home".
• Fangbone! has a nice tribute fan song called "Fight for Your Heart" which is a nice ballad about our favourite barbarian.

Film — Animated

In chronological order:

• "It's All Too Much" caps off the animated bulk of Yellow Submarine. While the song itself didn't get any Grammy nods, the soundtrack did get nominated for Outstanding Original Score for Motion Picture or Television. It should also be considered that "It's All Too Much" was not composed specifically for the film; it was one of four songs done during the Sgt. Pepper sessions (the others being "All Together Now", "Only a Northern Song" and "Hey Bulldog") that John Lennon had delivered to Heinz Edelmann at TVC-London with a note that read "Can you use any of these?"
• "Time Will Tell" from Wizards.
• "Bright Eyes", from Watership Down, sung by Art Garfunkel. Also a Tear Jerker on several levels (it was originally written for a cancer patient), and in the actual film it underscores a Disney Acid Sequence.
• "We've Made It to the Top" from Animalympics, written and performed by Graham Gouldman of 10cc.
• Awesome songs didn't start for Don Bluth with An American Tail, but rather with his Cult Classic gem The Secret of NIMH and "Flying Dreams" sung by Paul Williams.
• "Man's Road" from The Last Unicorn, written by Jimmy Webb and performed by America.
• "Rainbow Brite and Me" from Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer. An edited version went on to be used in the credits of the TV series.
• "Somewhere Out There" from An American Tail, as described above, is the Trope Maker.
  • "Dreams to Dream" from the sequel An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. An ironically straight example, as at the start of the film Tanya gets pelted with tomatoes by annoyed neighbors while reprising "Somewhere Out There".
• Another Don Bluth example: The Land Before Time does this right with "If We Hold On Together". Throughout the film, the song appears, eventually using Diana Ross' vocal version — over the end credits, naturally.
  • The fifth film, The Mysterious Island has the gentle and plaintive "Always There".
  • The tenth film, The Great Longneck Migration, has "Best of Friends" by Olivia Newton-John, a cover of another song heard in the film.
• Babar: The Movie has "The Best We Both Can Be" by Molly Johnson.
• All Dogs Go to Heaven ends with "Love Survives". While the song is a Tear Jerker on its own, it's even more heartbreaking if you know the Reality Subtext: It was dedicated to Judith Barsi, the voice of Anne Marie, who was murdered by her father.
  • From All Dogs Go to Heaven 2, there's "I Will Always Be with You".
• Jetsons: The Movie has "Home" and "I Always Thought I'd See You Again", both by Tiffany (who also provided the voice for Judy). Also, a young Shane Sutton performs "With You All the Way".
• "Sometimes Secretly" from The BFG: The Movie.
• "Always Come Back to You" from The Nutcracker Prince, a Rewritten Pop Version of the ballet's "Waltz of the Snowflakes".
• The German version of Felix the Cat: The Movie has the song "Something More Than Friends" sung by an unknown duet.
• "Nothing Can Stop Us Now" from the 1991 Direct to Video adaptation of The Little Engine That Could.
• Tom and Jerry: The Movie has "Do I Miss You?" and "All in How Much We Give", the latter of which is a closer example of this.
• "A Dream Worth Keeping" from FernGully: The Last Rainforest, performed by Sheena Easton. A little unusual in that it appears during a lovey-dovey sequence in the film and was not reprised over the end credits (instead the song in the credits is Elton John's "Some Other World").
• "Heaven Is" by Al Jarreau from The Magic Voyage.
• Freddie as F.R.O.7 gives us "I'll Keep Your Dreams Alive", performed by George Benson and Patti Austin.
• "Love Is the Reason" from Happily Ever After.
• "Once Upon a Time with Me" from Once Upon a Forest.
• Batman: Mask of the Phantasm has "I Never Even Told You".
• Thumbelina has this with "Let Me Be Your Wings", with co-writer Barry Manilow and Debra Byrd handling end-credit duties. (In an odd inversion, the comedy number "Marry the Mole" won a Razzie for Worst Song, the only animated feature that can claim such a "feat".)
• Played straight by "Far Longer Than Forever" from The Swan Princess, which rips off "Beauty and the Beast" to the point that they almost have the same melody on their respective title lines! That Regina Belle and Jeffrey Osborne handle the end credit reprise — just like the former did for Aladdin — doesn't help.
  • "Eternity", performed by Japanese group Dreams Come True, has an English-language version played over the second half of the end credits. The Japanese-language version of the song is the one that got a music video, though.
  • "Magic of Love" from The Swan Princess: Escape from Castle Mountain.
  • "Because I Love Her" from "The Swan Princess: The Mystery Of The Enchanted Kingdom".
• "Whatever You Imagine" from The Pagemaster.
  • "Dream Away" only appears in the end credits.
• Barry Manilow strikes again with an end-credits cover of "Now and Forever" from The Pebble and the Penguin with Sheena Easton.
• Thanks to Executive Meddling that insisted on shoehorning the film into a Disney formula, the theatrical cuts of The Thief and the Cobbler contain not one but two of these: "Am I Feeling Love?" and "It's So Amazing".
• Balto has "Reach for the Light" by Steve Winwood.
• Cats Don't Dance has "Our Time Has Come" and "I Do Believe", the former being a reprise of an upbeat version appearing in the opening credits.
• "Don't You Worry" from The Fearless Four. It was also dubbed into English by James Ingram and Oleta Adams.
  • The original German version also has an Award Bait cover of an earlier song, "What Can Go Wrong?"
• Anastasia has two: "Journey to the Past" and "At the Beginning". "Once Upon a December" is either this or a bonus "I Want" Song. "Journey to the Past" got the Oscar nomination (and a cover by Aaliyah, performed at the ceremony), but lost to "My Heart Will Go On".
• Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli's "The Prayer" from Quest for Camelot. Nominated for an 1998 Oscar and won a Golden Globe, but this was almost solely because it was a Breakaway Pop Hit — in the film itself, Dion's solo performance is shoehorned into an action sequence. (The film had a Mid-Development Genre Shift.)
• "Show Me the Light" from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1998). Sung by the team from Dirty Dancing, Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes!
• Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston's "Dueling Divas" collaboration, "When You Believe" from The Prince of Egypt. (The version featured in the film is performed by Michelle Pfeiffer and Sally Dworsky.) It won the 1998 Oscar over two other examples of the trope, "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" and "The Prayer".
  • There's also "I Will Get There", performed by Boyz II Men. There's the acapella version that closes out the end credits and is on the offical soundtrack album, and the R&B/pop version featured in the "Inspirational" soundtrack.
• Naturally, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut took this one on with Satan's big ballad, "Up There", which specifically lampoons "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid (1989) and "Out There" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
  • A more traditional example is "Through the Eyes of a Child", played over the back half of the end credits. It's performed by Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers and only slowly tips its hand with lyrics like "Sure, life is kinda gay/But it doesn't seem that way/Through the eyes of a child".
  • Ironically, it was "Blame Canada" that was nominated for the Oscar... and it lost to the aforementioned "You'll Be in My Heart". (Matt and Trey did not react to this well...) That this was nominated over "Up There" is even funnier given that the latter is about the only song in the entire film lacking profanity. The idea of "Blame Canada" even being performed at the Oscars was a bit controversial back in 2000 due to the lyrics, but Robin Williams was equally awesome and hilarious singing it!

    Robin Williams: Because when Canada is gone, there'll be no more Céline Dion!

• The first Rugrats movie had "Take Me There" by Mya Ft. Blackstreet, Mase, & Blinky Blink and "I Throw My Toys Around" by No Doubt, the second film had "When You Love" by Sinead O'Connor. No Oscar nomination for either — at least one newspaper review expected the latter to be snubbed for "Where Are You, Christmas?" (see Film — Live-Action), but that song wasn't nominated either.
  • David Bowie originally wrote Safe — which went on to be the B-side for his 2002 single Everyone Says 'Hi' — for the first film, it ultimately went unused in favor of "Take Me There".
• The Road to El Dorado has "Someday Out of the Blue" and "Without Question", both performed by Elton John.
• "In Your Arms" from The Scarecrow.
• Titanic: The Legend Goes On just wouldn't be a complete knockoff of the James Cameron hit without its own sappy ballad, and "Holding Me" delivers.
• While not an original song and thus ineligible for awards, the original Shrek uses Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (as performed by John Cale) as its award bait-style song. That said, Shrek actually does have an original award bait song, but it's on the back end of the credits and was overlooked: "It Is You", which also uses the tune of the movie's instrumental theme "True Love's Kiss".
• "What If" from 2001's Christmas Carol: The Movie, sung by Kate Winslet.
• Ice Age: The North American version doesn't have an awards bait song, but, in Japan, there's "Hitoshizuku" by Zone.
• In Britain, Ice Age: The Meltdown has "Real Love" by Lee Ryan.
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron arguably has several of these, but there are two that fit best — "Here I Am", the opening song that also plays over the end credits, and "I Will Always Return", the finale. And to top it off, BOTH are sung by Bryan Adams.
  • Meanwhile, its pseudo-sequel Spirit Untamed has "Fearless" by Isabela Merced. There's also a Spanish duet version featuring Eiza González that plays during the credits too.
• "Father and Daughter" from The Wild Thornberrys Movie by Paul Simon. Yes, that Paul Simon. Oscar-nominated.
• "My Kingdom of the Heart" from The Princess and the Pea.
• El Cid: The Legend, a Spanish animated film, has "The Power of a Broken Heart"; there are versions of the song in both Spanish and English.
• Caillou has the closing credits song "Everyday" in Caillou's Holiday Movie, a Direct to Video film.
• The Teacher's Pet Finale Movie has "A Boy Needs a Dog", an emotionally-driven number where Spot and Leonard spell out the importance of their bond.
• Team America: World Police parodies this trope with "The End Of An Act".
• "Touch the Sky" by Wonderwall, from the 2004 film Laura's Star. On a somewhat lesser scale, the song that plays over the Good-Times Montage, "Stay."
• "Believe", from The Polar Express, was Josh Groban's first encounter with this trope. Oscar-nominated.
• The Sponge Bob Square Pants Movie has "The Best Day Ever". Let's see... Sparkly synth? Check. Moving lyrics (the term "The Best Day Ever" could symbolize SpongeBob getting his manager placement at the end of the film)? Check. Backing vocals for the chorus? Check. Truck Driver's Gear Change? Check. Yup, this one qualifies.
• Curious George's 2006 film has "Upside Down" by Jack Johnson.
• Céline Dion's "Let Your Heart Decide" from Astérix and the Vikings.
• "Shine" from Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses.
• "Still" from Over the Hedge.
• "Meet Me in the Meadow" from Open Season.
  • A more straight example from this movie is "I Belong", particullarly the reprise used in the film.
• Donkey Xote, more Spanish fare, has "Dónde Están Mis Sueños", a more energetic example of this trope.
• "Yo Viviré en tus Sueños" from The Hairy Tooth Fairy. Also Spanish.
• "What We Gonna Do?" and "Do the Right Thing" from The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie. They both are very upbeat and catchy.
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has the rather upbeat, but still very sappy, "Raining Sunshine", performed by Miranda Cosgrove.
• "Telling The World" from Rio.
• Renée Fleming's beautiful "Still Dream" from Rise of the Guardians.
• Parodied in the Mexican animated film El Santos Contra La Tetona Mendoza with the theme song "Zombilaridad", ("Zombie-larity" in Spanish), who is a parody of "Solidaridad", a propaganda song used by the PRI (A political party in Mexico) in the '90s.
• Equestria Girls:
  • The first film has the end credits song "A Friend for Life", sung by Canadian Idol Season 2 semifinalist Jerrica Santos, who later sang as Torch Song in "Find the Music in You" from the fourth season episode "Filli Vanilli".
  • Rainbow Rocks has "Shine Like Rainbows" from the end credits, and Sunset Shimmer's post-movie Image Song "My Past Is Not Today".
  • Continuing with the trend, Friendship Games gives us "What More Is Out There?" Although not an end credits song, it stylistically fits this trope.
  • And Legend of Everfree has "Embrace the Magic". It's notably Sunset Shimmer's first in-movie solo.
• "When the World Turns Upside Down" from Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (no relation to the song of the same name by The Adventures).
• "I Love You Too Much" and "The Apology Song" from The Book of Life.
• Home (2015) has "Feel the Light", courtesy of Jennifer Lopez.
• The Japanese dub of The Peanuts Movie ends on a surprisingly melancholy note for a lighthearted family film: "A Song for You" by Ayaka. That said, it stands out as more of this trope than the two Meghan Trainor songs featured in the North American release.
• The Transformers: The Movie has "The Touch" by Stan Bush, the franchise's unofficial theme song.
• An example from China, Big Fish & Begonia has many songs that fit this trope perfectly, especially "Big Fish" by Zhou Shen and "Rendevous in This World" by Eason Chan.
• Kubo and the Two Strings has Regina Spektor's reworking of The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".
• The Boss Baby has a cover of "What the World Needs Now is Love", sung by Missi Hale (who voices Mrs. Templeton).
• Smurfs: The Lost Village is a great example of this with the song "You Will Always Find Me In Your Heart" performed by Shaley Scott.
• My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) has "Rainbow" by Sia, starring as the pegasus popstar Songbird Serenade.
• Teen Titans Go! To the Movies playfully lampoons these types of songs with "Upbeat Inspirational Song About Life". For extra parody kick, it features Michael Bolton.

It's the kick in the pants you needed

This song will open up your eyes

It's the feeling you can't be defeated

It's an 80's song with synthy vibes

And you know it's super... upbeat, upbeat...

• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has two which qualify: "Sunflower" by Swae Lee and Post Malone, as well as "What's up Danger" by Blackway and Black Caviar.
• Uglydolls has "Unbreakable", which bears a suspiciously similar melody to Golden Globe winner "This Is Me" from The Greatest Showman. Chances of the song being nominated for any major awards is slim, considering the film's overall negative reviews and commercial disappointment.

Film — Live-Action

In chronological order:

• The Ur-Example for films is likely "Over the Rainbow" from 1939's The Wizard of Oz, which won the Oscar and may well be the most famous movie theme song of all time.
• Dean Martin's "That's Amore", revived as the theme to Moonstruck, was originally composed for 1953's The Caddy, and subsequently nominated for an Oscar, but lost to "Secret Love" from Calamity Jane.
• The Righteous Brothers' 1960's hit "Unchained Melody", known in recent years as "the theme to Ghost (1990)", was introduced in a now-forgotten 1955 film titled Unchained, and was nominated for an Oscar.
• To Kill a Mockingbird, from, well... To Kill a Mockingbird.
• "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
• "The Morning After" from The Poseidon Adventure is, unusually, featured in the movie and not just as part of the soundtrack when the ship's singer performs it in the ballroom. It won the Best Original Song Oscar, beating Michael Jackson's "Ben".
  • The same songwriters and singer responsible for "The Morning After" re-teamed two years later for "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno, which was once again performed in-film by a singer at a ballroom party, and once again won the Oscar.
• The Man from Hong Kong has "Sky High" by Jigsaw, which became a Breakaway Pop Hit, during both the opening and closing credits.
• Many James Bond theme tunes are called, but few are chosen for Oscar nominations and fewer still are this trope. But of those that are...
  • "Nobody Does it Better" from The Spy Who Loved Me, sung by Carly Simon.
  • "For Your Eyes Only", sung by Sheena Easton.
  • "All Time High" from Octopussy, sung by Rita Coolidge.
  • Adele's "Skyfall" from the film of the same name. The first James Bond anthem to win an Oscar.
  • The Spiritual Successor to "Skyfall" is "Writing's on the Wall" by Sam Smith, the theme from Spectre, which won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, and by that time was already the favorite to win the Oscar in that category and become the second James Bond anthem to do so — it did.
  • A notable song that wasn't Oscar-nominated is Patti LaBelle's "If You Asked Me To" from Licence to Kill. It didn't truly take off until Céline Dion got a hold of it and it became one of her first English-language hits.
• "You Light Up My Life" from the 1977 film of the same title was originally performed by Kasey Cisyk, but it was Debby Boone's Covered Up version that became a gigantic Breakaway Pop Hit. It wound up winning the Best Original Song Oscar.
• The Bee Gees' "How Deep Is Your Love", from Saturday Night Fever, won a Grammy for Best Pop Song Performed by a Group, and was nominated for a Best Original Song Golden Globe award, but lost the latter to "You Light Up My Life". No Oscar nomination for this or any of the other songs even as the soundtrack was one of the biggest albums of The '70s and three of the actual 1977 nominees were from little-loved family films (the fourth was "Nobody Does It Better"). Producer Robert Stigwood called out the Academy for being behind the times. The next Oscar ceremony acknowledged the embarrassing omission with a medley of songs that were not nominated for Oscars, including three from this film.
• The Goodbye Girl has a Title Theme Tune, "Goodbye Girl", performed by David Gates (of the group Bread). Despite having a mellow start, big finish, heartwarming feel-good lyrics, and some electric guitar showboating — and coming out of the film that ended up winning the 1977 Best Actor Oscar — it wasn't nominated. The 2004 made-for-TV remake features a Cover Version performed by Hootie & the Blowfish.
• "Can You Read My Mind?", made for Superman: The Movie. Not nominated because it doesn't actually appear as a song in the film, but Maureen McGovern did record it as a single tying into it.
• "The Last Time I Felt Like This" from Same Time, Next Year was nominated for an Oscar in 1978, but lost to "Last Dance" from Thank God It's Friday.
• Barry Manilow's "Ready to Take a Chance Again" from Foul Play was also nominated in 1978.
• "The Rainbow Connection" from the original Muppet film was Oscar-nominated in 1979 and became the Bootstrapped Theme of The Muppets as a franchise. The Great Muppet Caper had an award bait song parody "The First Time It Happens" which was then nominated for an Oscar for real.
  • The Weezer and Hayley Williams cover from The Green Album, a tie-in for the 2011 Muppets film, sounds exactly like a Disney end-credits cover of the song would. Surprisingly, it isn't played over the movie's credits^note although Kermit and Piggy do sing the regular version of the song during the film itself, but the film does bring us "Man or Muppet", despite it not being played over the end credits either. And being the most award-baity, "Man or Muppet" even won the Oscar! (Against one other nominee, granted.)
• "The Rose" by Bette Midler, from The Rose, naturally. Wasn't nominated for the 1979 Best Song Oscar, but it did win the Golden Globe.
• A lower-key but still award-baity Oscar nominee from 1979 is "It's Easy to Say", from 10 (1979). It's a mellow, piano-based Silly Love Song with touching lyrics — but it's also important to the story even though the film is not a musical. The main character (Dudley Moore) is a composer who has won awards for his film work in-universe, who comes up with the melody as the basis for a song to give to his at-the-time estranged girlfriend (Julie Andrews), a professional singer, to record. In the denouement, the now-finished song helps bring them back together when he performs it on a piano and she joins him, turning it into a duet. From there, the same actors perform a more polished version of the song over the end credits.
• Melissa Manchester performed not one, but two Oscar-nominated love songs in 1979: "Through the Eyes of Love" from Ice Castles and "I'll Never Say Goodbye" from The Promise. Both are sappy silly love songs created for maximum tearjerking, as befits a pair of romantic melodramas.
• And finally "It Goes Like It Goes" by Jennifer Warnes won the Oscar for 1979 (the film was Norma Rae) but may better be recalled now as the song that beat "The Rainbow Connection".
• Not to be confused with the later Mannequin song, there's "Nothing Can Stop Us Now" from Stir Crazy, performed by Kiki Dee.
• The title song from Xanadu, sung by Olivia Newton-John. Also a Breakaway Pop Hit, since the song and soundtrack album were far more popular than the film itself.
• "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" from Arthur (1981) was a stepping stone in this trope's evolution. It has a soothing mellow start, feel-good tone, buildup starting with the second chorus, a epic saxophone bridge (as opposed to electric guitar), and a Video Full of Film Clips. At the same time it defies eventual conventions of the trope: singer/co-writer Christopher Cross was just coming off of five Grammy Award wins, its lyrics openly reference the plot and characters, its melody turns up in the underscore, and it bookends the movie by playing under both sets of credits. It not only won the Best Original Song Oscar and Golden Globe (plus Grammy nominations for Record and Song of the Year) but was one of Cross's biggest hits, spending 3 weeks at Number One on the Billboard charts, and appeared in the Credits Medley at the end of the Academy Awards ceremony for years. The 2011 remake uses it in both instrumental and Cover Version forms (the latter by Fitz and the Tantrums).
  • The soundtrack Arthur — The Album contains three songs that aren't in the movie but work off of the underscore's themes. Stephen Bishop's "It's Only Love" fits the stereotypes of this trope even better than "Arthur's Theme" — mellow start, feel-good tone, non-specific lyrics, electric guitar solo, and heavy buildup, though the song has a mellow finish.
  • The 1988 sequel On the Rocks has "Love Is My Decision", performed and co-written by Chris de Burgh. This one's a straight-up Silly Love Song with sparkly synth and a BIG wrap-up — but still film-specific because the first-person lyrics are clearly from the perspective of the main character.
• "Endless Love" from the film of the same name. Nominated for the Best Song Oscar, but lost to "Arthur's Theme". It actually spent three times as many weeks (nine total) at Number One on the Billboard charts as the winner did, but probably lost because its source was not as well-liked, nor does the Silly Love Song match its tone. (The film is about a Stalker with a Crush.)
• The Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes duet "Up Where We Belong" from An Officer and a Gentleman was award-baity enough to win a Golden Globe, Oscar, BAFTA and a Grammy. All this after the producer tried to get the song cut, insisting that it was "no good and not a hit."
• "That's What Friends Are For" by Rod Stewart from Night Shift was later Covered Up by Dionne & Friends (Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Elton John).
• "Forbidden Colours" by Ryuichi Sakomoto and David Sylvian, from Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.
• Romantic Comedy — yes, that's the actual title — has "Maybe" performed by Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack over its end credits after the melody turns up throughout the film as an instrumental. It's a Silly Love Song and Let's Duet, and has a soothing start, feel-good tone, gradual buildup in "bigness", and Truck Driver's Gear Change at the very end for the fade out.
• Irene Cara's "Flashdance (What a Feeling)", from, well, Flashdance was the 1983 Oscar winner.
• Phil Collins first brushed with this trope with "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" from Against All Odds. Oscar-nominated but lost to "I Just Called to Say I Love You"; notoriously Collins was not asked to perform this song at the Oscars...even though, as co-writer of the song, he was going to be at the ceremony anyway. Ann Reinking performed it instead.
• "Together in Electric Dreams", by Giorgio Moroder and Philip Oakey of The Human League fame, is the ending theme from Electric Dreams but ended up outshining the film it was supposed to complement.
• The NeverEnding Story has the eponymous theme by Limahl.
  • The third movie in the series has Shortcut To Forever by Phillip Ingram & Siedah Garrett.
• Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome has "We Don't Need Another Hero".
• Micki + Maude has "Something New in My Life". It bookends the film by playing first as an instrumental under the opening titles, while the end titles feature a Stephen Bishop vocal. It has a mellow start and epic finish, with non-specific lyrics that could be about romance and/or impending fatherhood and a feel-good tone.
• The Breakfast Club has "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds. Despite how popular it was, it wasn't nominated for any awards.
• "Christmas All Over the World" was performed by Sheena Easton for the end credits of Santa Claus: The Movie (1985). The link is to the full-length version of the song; the first verse doesn't appear in the film, which means it skips past the "soothing and mellow" part. New Edition recorded their own version of this for their 1985 Christmas album, and it adds tons of sparkly synth to the mix.
• The Phil Collins-Marilyn Martin duet "Separate Lives" from White Nights was nominated but lost to another song from the movie: "Say You, Say Me" by Lionel Richie, which isn't as award-baity of a song.
• "Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera was intended to be this for Rocky IV. It was passed over and ended up in The Karate Kid Part II, getting an Oscar nomination for its trouble.
• OMD's required prom song "If You Leave", from Pretty in Pink.
• Think Queen is immune to this?! Try "Who Wants to Live Forever?" or "One Year of Love", both from Highlander.
• "Take My Breath Away" by Berlin, featured in Top Gun, was the 1986 Best Original Song Oscar winner. The Cantonese Translated Cover Version, as featured in Wong Kar-wai's As Tears Go By also qualifies.
  • In the sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, there's "Hold My Hand" by Lady Gaga, with some considering it to be a Spiritual Successor to the above song.
  • Honorable mention goes to "Heaven in Your Eyes" by Loverboy.
• "Loving on Borrowed Time" from Cobra, sung by Bill Medley and Gladys Knight.
  • From the same film, "Two Into One" by Medley and Carmen Twillie.
• Before the award was retired at the Turn of the Millennium^note Though it was revived one last time in 2002, The Razzies had a Worst Original Song category. While most of the nominees/winners were simply bizarre and tacky, there are three fascinating cases of songs being nominated for both an Oscar for Best Original Song and a Razzie for Worst Original Song!
  • "Life in a Looking Glass" from That's Life! Lost to "Take My Breath Away" on the Oscar side.
  • Trisha Yearwood's version of "How Do I Live" from Con Air. Lost to "My Heart Will Go On" on the Oscar side.
  • "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" from Armageddon (1998). Lost to "When You Believe" on the Oscar side. The song also stands as Aerosmith's sole #1 in the US.
• The title song from Absolute Beginners (1986), written and performed by David Bowie (who has a One-Scene Wonder role), is a feel-good love song that bookends the musical via the credit sequences. The full-length version linked to above — with a video that doubled as the movie's theatrical trailer in the U.K. — is almost eight minutes long, with a long, dramatic instrumental finish.
  • Bowie also contributed "As the World Falls Down" to Labyrinth the same year. Although the song itself fits the criteria, underscoring a ballroom dance, its actual meaning is more subversive— Jareth has fallen for Sarah and is attempting to seduce her into giving up her quest. She realizes she's fallen into a trap, and shatters the illusion to prove the Goblin King has no power over her.
• "Storybook Love" from The Princess Bride didn't fail to earn an Oscar nomination in 1987.
• "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now", performed by Starship for 1987's Mannequin and nominated for an Oscar; lost to the next entry...
• Jennifer Warnes had another Oscar-winning duet when she teamed up with Bill Medley for "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing.
• Bette Midler's Cover Version of "Wind Beneath My Wings" was prominently featured in Beaches and became one of her biggest hits.
• "After All" from Chances Are by Cher and Peter Cetera. Oscar-nominated but lost to "Under the Sea".
• "Surrender to Me" from Tequila Sunrise. Performed by Cheap Trick's Robin Zander and Music/Heart's Ann Wilson; co-written by Richard Marx.
• Home Alone has "Somewhere in My Memory", sung in the background by a Christmas choir, and a full version sung by Bette Midler in the sequel's end credits. Oscar-nominated, but lost to "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)".
  • John Williams strikes again in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York with "Christmas Star". The film's soundtrack won a BMI Film Music Award.
• Bryan Adams started to do a lot of these starting with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves's "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" in 1991. It was nominated for an Oscar and was one of the biggest hits of its year, but lost to the title song of Beauty and the Beast.
  • Two years later, Adams performed "All for Love" with Sting and Rod Stewart from The Three Musketeers (1993). Both of these films were scored by Michael Kamen — and after Kamen died in 2003, Adams went suspiciously silent...
  • "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" from Don Juan De Marco was nominated for Best Original Song at the 1995 Academy Awards, but lost to "Colors of the Wind" (Pocahontas).
  • In 1996, Adams joined forces with Barbra Streisand for "I Finally Found Someone", which played over the end credits of The Mirror Has Two Faces and didn't fail to get Oscar-nominated. When Streisand chose not to perform it at the Oscars, Celine Dion (herself stepping in for Natalie Cole) stepped in!
  • Also in 1996, Adams contributed "Star" to Jack.
  • See Films — Animated above for more Adams examples.
• One of the most famous live-action examples is Whitney Houston's cover of "I Will Always Love You" from The Bodyguard. It wasn't nominated for the Oscar because it was a cover of a Dolly Parton song from the 1970s. Parton herself sang it in the movie version of The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas in 1982.
  • "Run to You" and "I Have Nothing" from this film also count and were both nominated...but lost to Aladdin's "A Whole New World".
• The Last of the Mohicans had "I Will Find You" by Clannad.
• White Men Can't Jump has "Let Me Make It Up to You" by Jody Watley, and "If I Lose" by Aretha Franklin.
• Annie Lennox contributed "Love Song for a Vampire" from Bram Stoker's Dracula.
• By the time Robin Hood: Men in Tights was made in 1993, this trope was ubiquitous enough to be parodied with an end-credits reprise of "Marian". It was most directly a parody of "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", from that other '90s Robin Hood movie (see above). In any case, future tropers tended to laugh harder at that than most other people in the theater.
• Super Mario Bros. (1993), being a family film released in the '90s, naturally had one of these: "Almost Unreal" by Roxette, as well as "I Would Stop the World" when Mario and Big Bertha dance. They were some of the few songs written for the film, while most of its soundtrack was composed of other popular songs, including a cover of "Walk the Dinosaur".
• Street Fighter had "Something There" by Chage and Aska, which played during the credits, as well as "Worth Fighting For" by Angelique Kidjo, which played when Guile remembered happy times with Charlie.
• "The Day I Fall in Love" from Beethoven's 2nd, performed by James Ingram and Dolly Parton, was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a Grammy for Best Song from a Motion Picture. The lyrics are from the first-person perspective of dogs.
• A Leagueof Their Own had "This Used to Be My Playground" by Madonna with the theme of nostalgia tying into the film.
• The Crow featured "It Can't Rain All the Time" by Jane Siberry as its end credits song.
• Michael Jackson's hit "Will You Be There" was featured in 1993's Free Willy. Ineligible for an Oscar because it was originally from his 1991 album Dangerous.
  • And much earlier than that: 1972's "Ben" — a heartstring-tugging song about the friendship between a boy and his killer rat as depicted in Ben. And it was Oscar-nominated!
  • Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home has the Jackson original "Childhood (Theme from Free Willy 2)", which was simultaneously released on his album HI Story Past Present And Future Book I. It underscores an otherwise expendable sequence involving a secondary character. No nominations.
• "Christmas Will Return" from the first The Santa Clause movie, performed by Brenda Russel and Howard Hewett.
• R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly" from Space Jam.
• "Anyone Can Be a Hero" from Blankman, preformed by Lalah Hathaway.
• "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal didn't take off until it was recycled into the Batman Forever soundtrack. But since it had already been released as a single, it was ineligible for awards nominations.
  • "Foolish Games" by Jewel from Batman & Robin is a subversion, as the song was written and released two years prior to the film, but became ubiquitous enough to become the second best-selling single of 1997.
  • Speaking of Batman & Robin, "Gotham City" by R. Kelly was a blatant attempt at cashing in on this trope, hoping to repeat the success of "Kiss from a Rose" as well as R. Kelly's previous hit "I Believe I Can Fly" from Space Jam. The song was a modest hit, reaching Number 9 on the pop charts, and unlike previous Batman examples it was actually eligible for Best Original Song. Nonetheless, it wasn't even nominated.
• Céline Dion's "Because You Loved Me" from Up Close and Personal didn't win the Oscar it was up for, but it did win a Grammy in 1996.
• Dion also has the case mentioned atop the page, "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic (1997). James Cameron originally didn't want a pop song finishing the movie feeling it would be inappropriate, and considering his usual behavior, composer James Horner had to find him in a really good mood to present the demo, with Cameron eventually giving approval, also thinking that after such a Troubled Production "a hit song from his movie could only be a positive factor in guaranteeing its completion".
• The Mask of Zorro took multiple cues from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, including an award-bait song of its own. It gave us "I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You" by Marc Anthony and Tina Arena. And written by James Horner and Will Jennings, the team responsible for the Titanic (1997) theme, to boot.
• Bicentennial Man: "Then You Look At Me", sung by Céline Dion, and written by the same team behind "My Heart Will Go On", no less. It doesn't describe any specific moment in the story, but is used as the love song between Andrew and Portia (with Little Miss substituting for her childhood years). The official music video takes clips from the relationship and displays them in a monitor in the background.
• Man on the Moon has R.E.M.'s "The Great Beyond", which rocks harder and has more obscure lyrics than most examples of this trope — though they make sense in context of being an Image Song for the film's subject matter, Andy Kaufman; it doubles as a sequel to their song about Kaufman that the film's named after. But it is extremely touching, builds to a huge finish via string instruments coming in during the bridge, and has a Video Full of Film Clips that lampshades the huge finish by having more and more guitars and microphones turn up out of nowhere in the recording studio. No nominations, but became a gigantic Breakaway Pop Hit for the group in Europe; years later, a documentary about the film's production would be Titled After the Song (Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond).
• "You're Where I Belong" from Stuart Little.
  • "I'm Alive" by Céline Dion from Stuart Little 2.
• "Where Are You, Christmas?" from the live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's "A Love Before Time" was Oscar-nominated in 2000.
• Bizarrely, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle - which is significantly heavier on cartoon humor than most works that warrant an Award Bait Song - has one called "Through the Eyes of a Child" (not to be confused with the ones from Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa or ESPECIALLY South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut).
• Pearl Harbor's "There You'll Be" by Faith Hill (nominated for Oscar).
• Much of Moulin Rouge!'s soundtrack consists of covers, but it naturally has its own Big Damn Love Song: "Come What May". Ineligible for the Oscar because it was originally written for Baz Luhrmann's previous Red Curtain film, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet).
  • From the other Moulin Rouge, Zsa Zsa Gabor as Jane Avril has "The Song From Moulin Rouge", also known as "Where Is Your Heart?"
• "Never Too Far" by Mariah Carey from Glitter.
• The Lord of the Rings films gave us some stellar Tear Jerker examples: "May It Be" from The Fellowship of the Ring and "Into the West" from The Return of the King. Both were nominated for Oscars, with the latter even winning.
  • Subverted in The Two Towers with "Gollum's Song", which has a somewhat similar style but a minor key and a much darker tone and sung by Emiliana Torrini.
• The Hobbit, the prequel trilogy to The Lord of the Rings, continued where those movies left off.
  • "Song of the Lonely Mountain" by Neil Finn from An Unexpected Journey.
  • "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran from The Desolation of Smaug.
  • "The Last Goodbye" by Billy Boyd from The Battle of the Five Armies.
• The Sum of All Fears has "If We Could Remember" by Yolanda Adams.
• "Only Hope" from A Walk to Remember has the original version by Switchfoot over the end credits and a very award-baity cover by Mandy Moore during the film. Ineligible for awards since the song had already been on one of Switchfoot's albums a few years prior.
• The 2002 supernatural thriller Dragonfly starring Kevin Costner has Star by the band Zoo Story.
• The 2003 film Film/Daredevil had "For You" from The Calling. It didn't really catch on.
• "Learn to Be Lonely" from The Phantom of the Opera (2004). Nominated for but lost the Oscar.
• The 2004 live-action Devilman film has "Hikari no naka de" by Hiroko Shimabukuro.
• "Shine Your Light" from Ladder 49.
• Troy: "Remember" sung by Josh Groban and composed by James Horner.
• "A Place Called Home" from A Christmas Carol: The Musical is a rare TV movie example.
• The Chronicles of Narnia series:
  • Imogen Heap's "I Can't Take It In" from "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe".
  • Alanis Morissette's "Wunderkind" from the same film. As current Academy rules insist that among songs that appear only in a film's credits, only the first song can be considered for an Oscar, this went un-nominated as the second song ("I Can't Take it In" qualified but wasn't nominated. "Wunderkind" was nominated at the Golden Globes, which are less fussy. Should've put Alanis first?).
    • Other Alanis Morissette examples are "Still" from Dogma and "I Remain" from Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
  • Regina Spektor's "The Call" from The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
  • Switchfoot's "This Is Home", also from Prince Caspian.
  • Carrie Underwood's "There's a Place for Us" in the third film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
• Parodied in the 2005 version of The Producers with "The Hop-Clop Goes On", a stylized reprise of "Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop".
• "Fly Away" by Nelly in The Longest Yard remake.
• "My Immortal" by Evanescence, featured in Daredevil (2003).
• Avril Lavigne's "Keep Holding On" from Eragon.
  • "Alice" from Alice in Wonderland (2010) was more popular.
• In Dreamgirls, the Movie Bonus Song "Listen" stands out as an attempt to give Beyoncé a big showstopping number to rival "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" (itself not eligible for Best Song since it's from the original musical). The fact that it was so blatant, and featured Beyonce straining against her usual range, is probably why the song flopped (though the Glee cover by Charice was much better received). The end credits reprise of "When I First Saw You" also hits some of the notes of this trope (though it was likewise ineligible).
• GACKT's "Returner", featured in the Japanese release of The Prestige, is similar to the above-mentioned "Gollum's Song" in that it has a much darker sound than most other examples of this trope (though it's fitting for a Visual Kei artist). The song itself, coincidentally, was made as a theme song for the NHK historical drama Fūrin Kazan. At least, the genre itself warranted the hamminess and wide sweep of the song.
• Yet another Alternative Foreign Theme Song example: "Shiawase no Chikara" by Sowelu, from the Japanese dub of The Pursuit of Happyness.
• John Mayer's "Say" from The Bucket List is more low-key than most award bait songs, but it counts too.
• The Wrestler has, appropriately enough, "The Wrestler" by Bruce Springsteen. Unfortunately, the Springsteen solo album it also appeared on arrived first, disqualifying the song from an Oscar nomination even though it was specifically written for the movie.
• Slumdog Millionaire had an award-bait song and Bollywood dance routine over the end credits. Subverted with "Dreams on Fire", which seems like the primary Oscar Bait song from the soundtrack. It didn't get nominated, but "Jai-Ho" won, and the collaboration with M.I.A. got a nom too).
• "The Climb" from the Hannah Montana movie was ineligible for the Oscar because it wasn't written for the film. Also noteworthy for being the X-Factor Winner's Song for 2009 in the U.K., which was known to always win the Christmas Number One standing on the charts. Not this year though — it lost to "Killing in the Name" by Rage Against the Machine.
• Avatar brings us "I See You", a Spiritual Successor to "My Heart Will Go On" co-written by James Horner and performed by Leona Lewis.
  • Avatar: The Way of Water has "Nothing is Lost (You Give Me Strength)" by The Weeknd, which incorporates Simon Franglen's traditonal Na'vi score and pop elements by Swedish House Mafia.
• "All The Love In The World" from Gooby, sung by Anne Morrone and musical duo RyanDan (aka former b4-4 members Ryan & Dan Kowarsky)
• Dido and A.R. Rahman's "If I Rise" from 127 Hours was nominated for an Oscar but lost to Randy Newman's "We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3.
• Miley Cyrus sings another award bait song in the form of "When I Look at You" from The Last Song.
• "Love Lives" by Steven Tyler (a solo effort by the Aerosmith frontman), written for the Japanese film Space Battleship Yamato, adapted from the anime series. It feels a good deal like "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing", and is so shamelessly sappy it's utterly fantastic.
• "The Living Proof" from The Help.
• "A Real Hero" by College, featuring Electric Youth, from Drive (2011), was nominated for Best Song from a Movie by the MTV Movie Awards.
• "A Thousand Years" from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1.
  • The duet version from Part 2.
• "Calling for Your Love" from Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away.
• 2012 has "Time for Miracles". It's especially jarring, after seeing a film about death, destruction and sacrifice, to hear a Céline Dion-esque song performed by someone from American Idol. And it's Adam Lambert at that!
• Songs from eco-documentaries such as Chasing Ice and Racing Extinction are generally this in order to repeat the Best Song win for An Inconvenient Truth. Weirdly enough, the nommed songs for both mentioned films ("Before My Time" and "Manta Ray" respectively) lost to James Bond themes.
• Les Misérables (2012)'s Movie Bonus Song "Suddenly" fits this trope to a T.
• "Safe and Sound" by Taylor Swift, from The Hunger Games.
• "Almost Home" from Oz the Great and Powerful, performed by Mariah Carey. Ineligible for the Oscar because it wasn't the first song played during the credits.
• "Oblivion" from the likewise named Oblivion. That opening is just so sparkly.
• "Young and Beautiful" by Lana Del Rey and "Over the Love" by Florence + the Machine from The Great Gatsby (2013).
• Annie (2014) has at least two movie bonus songs that qualify for this trope.
  • "Opportunity", the song the title character sings to wow the crowd (and Stacks) at the Guggenheim event. Nominated for Golden Globe and shortlisted for the Oscar.
  • "Who Am I" is a lesser example, but it still counts.
• "Not About Angels" by Birdy, from The Fault in Our Stars.
• "Miasto" from the Polish film Miasto 44.
• "Eien no Motto Mate Made" by Seiko Matsuda, from the Japanese dub of Pan.
  • She also has "I'll Fall in Love" from the 2005 Bewitched film.
• Furious 7 has "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa. Despite being a huge hit on the Billboard charts when it came out, the bait didn't take with most awards groups –- it got a Golden Globe nomination but failed to get recognized by the Oscars.
• Pitch Perfect 2 has the uplifting "Flashlight" sung by Jessie J. Despite this version being perfect for the credits treatment, it only appears on the film's soundtrack. The song does still appear in the film, although it's sung by the Bellas as part of their A Cappella World Championship performance. ^note Within the film's context, new member Emily Junk wrote the song herself and sang it for her audition. Hailee Steinfeld also recorded an official cover for the soundtrack, and released her own acoustic version following the film's release.
• "Just a Wish", from the biopic Walt Before Mickey.
• La La Land has "City of Stars" and "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)", both of which were nominated for Oscars. The former won both the Oscar and the Golden Globe.
• Star Trek Beyond has Rihanna's "Sledgehammer" over the end credits.
• "Go Now" was Sing Street's attempt at this, but the bait sadly didn't take.
• "To Be Human" from Wonder Woman (2017), sung by Sia and Labrinth.
• A chunk of the songs in The Greatest Showman qualify, namely "A Million Dreams" (which gets the Falling-in-Love Montage honor), "Never Enough" (showboating diva solo), "This Is Me" (won the Golden Globe and nominated for the Oscar), "Rewrite the Stars" (the love duet for the Beta Couple), and the eleventh-hour number "From Now On".
• Black Panther (2018) has the melancholic and somber "All the Stars" by Kendrick Lamar and SZA. Nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and several Grammys.
  • The sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, has "Lift Me Up" by Rihanna.
• "Ashes". A serious Tear Jerker of a Power Ballad by Titanic crooner Céline Dion herself. Which makes it completely apropos it's on the soundtrack to raunchy superhero comedy Deadpool 2. Parodied in the music video, where Deadpool's criticism is that it's too good for the film and asks her to dial it down.
• If anyone in the current pop music industry could be called the modern equivalent to Celine Dion in terms of Oscar bait-y songs written for film soundtracks, it's Ellie Goulding, with a whopping four examples of this, all written for different films: "How Long Will I Love You?" from About Time, "Beating Heart" from Divergent, "Love Me Like You Do" from Fifty Shades of Grey, and "Still Falling for You" from Bridget Jones' Baby. However, none of them managed to score an actual Oscar nomination; in "Love Me Like You Do"'s case, despite it being the song from the soundtrack to get the Video Full of Film Clips treatment, it was passed over in favor of The Weeknd's much darker "Earned It".
  • The Fifty Shades series also has a slew of other examples, with Fifty Shades Darker having "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" by Zayn and Taylor Swift, and Fifty Shades Freed having "For You" by Rita Ora and Zayn's former One Direction bandmate Liam Payne, as well as a slightly rearranged reprisal of "Love Me Like You Do".
• The infamous Patch Adams had "Faith of the Heart" by Rod Stewart, three years before it was Covered Up by Russell Watson and became the most polarizing Star Trek theme ever written. (See Star Trek: Enterprise.)
• Aquaman (2018) has "Everything I Need" by Skylar Grey.
• The Sia film Music has "Together", a song about The Power of Friendship and how Children Raise You.
• There's No Such Thing as Vampires has "I'll Wait" by NINA.
• Lampshaded by "Now You Know", the the end credits song for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
  "This song is technically eligible for Oscar consideration!"

Live-Action TV

• Blue Swat has one for its opening theme, "True Dream".
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer parodied this in "Once More, with Feeling", when Anya complained that her song with Xander would "never be a Breakaway Pop Hit". That would be reserved for Tara's "Under Your Spell".
• Glee usually just does covers, but they also churned out a few original songs that qualify as award baity: "Get It Right", "Pretending" and "As Long As You're There".
• Hi-5, a competitor to The Wiggles, has ''Three Wishes'' (which is interesting considering that The Wiggles have never really done one themselves).
• "Don't Forget Me", the finale song to Smash.
• On Johnny and the Sprites, the songs were all written by composers from Broadway shows, many of them Tony award-winners. Of all the songs they've written for this show, "Brightly Shining" stands out as the most blatant example of Award Bait. (It was going to be part of a stage show entitled Magical Holiday, but that was canceled and retooled as a more general non-holiday-themed stage show.)
• "Our World" and "When The River Meets The Sea" from Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas . Both were composed by Paul Williams two years before he did "Rainbow Connection" for The Muppet Movie.
• Roundhouse has a few, notably "I Can Dream", "Don't Wanna Play Games", "The Bridge", "If I Give You My Heart", "Trying To Reach You", "Sunrise", "Do Not Care", "Have A Little Faith", "Give Me A Second Chance", "Just A Dream" and "Can't Let Go". The first and last named songs won Best Song trophies from the Cable ACE Awards and the Youth Excellence Awards respectively. "Just a Dream", on the other hand, wouldn't be eligible for any such awards, as it was written by Madonna independently of the show, but she never recorded it (lyrically it wouldn't sound too out of place on Like a Prayer). Neither would "The Bridge", which was written by the show's primary musical director Benny Hester and dates back to 1978, 15 years before it was performed on the show.
• Overlapping with Breakaway Pop Hit, Céline Dion's "To Love You More" was originally written for the 1995 Japanese drama Koibito Yo (My Dear Lover). The Japanese version has since made its way to Website/YouTube.
• The Noddy Shop:
  • "Thank You For Being You" from the Season 1 finale, "Noah's Leaving", could be considered this. So much so, that Dennis Scott wrote a Rewritten Pop Version for a tribute album to another PBS Kids show, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, in 2005, which would be re-recorded again for another Mister Rogers tribute album 14 years later.
  • From the Season 2 finale, there's "One Goodbye At A Time".
  • Another song that qualifies is "The Friend You've Found in Me", a song about friendship.
• The Green Balloon Club has the song "It's Our World" which teaches children how to keep the planet clean.
• Kamen Rider Kuuga has "Aozora ni Naru" by Jin Hashimoto.
• Kamen Rider Ryuki caps off its final episode with Yui's character song, "INORI".
• Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger has "Healing You" by Salia.

Music

• If you don't think "Weird Al" Yankovic has parodied this, you must not know Weird Al very well! Peep your ears at "I Need a Nap". "Sparkle synth?" Check. Soulful duet? Lampshaded Truck Driver's Gear Change? Check. Passing melodic resemblance to "Part of Your World?" Check!
  • Also "Don't Download This Song", a style parody of the forementioned "We Are the World".
• #1 Radio Single by by Psychostick describes how to write just such a song.
  Whoooa yeah. whooooie oh, oh yeah. Whooooa yeah. Whoa whoa yeah, whoooa yeah
  This is the part of the song where I talk about emotions.
  This is the part of the song where I sing about how I feel so cold inside.
  And this is where my producer told me to say, "Yeah!"
• Cascada - "Everytime We Touch" (candlelight version) and "Another You"
• USA for Africa's "We Are the World"
• "Do They Know It's Christmas" by Band Aid, with excessive amounts of Sparkle Synth.
• Heart's "Alone", Carrie Underwood's version even more so.
• Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is", and Mariah Carey's Cover Version, which includes a Truck Driver's Gear Change.
• Fly on the Wings of Love by the Olsen Brothers.
• DHT - "Listen to Your Heart" (unplugged version), and for an original song, there's "My Dream".
• "Sea of Stars", "Town Circus" and "Shining Christmas Star" by mindXpander are of the instrumental type.
• "You Raise Me Up", no matter who is singing it.
• "One Moment in Time" by Whitney Houston
• "Can't We Try", anyone?
• "From A Distance", written as a fairly simple Folk Music piece, but Bette Midler's hit version unabashedly goes in this direction.
• Sash has also made a song that fits this trope perfectly called "Just Around the Hill".
• Halfway through Hadestown is "Why We Build the Wall," a sequence of Hades brainwashing the dead into thinking the wall is keeping them free... by explaining that the impoverished living are trying to get in. You know, the living who can get in at any time. Even for brainwashing, it makes little sense, but perfect sense played out of context as a commentary on capitalist ethics... especially since it doesn't contain a single mention of the album's mythological elements other than the unidentified wall.
• Kelly Clarkson - "A Moment Like This", winner of the first season of American Idol.
  • Arguably, all the American Idol coronation songs qualify as award bait.
• The Alan Parsons Project has a number of songs that could be considered baitworthy. A few notable examples include "The Same Old Sun", "Days Are Numbers (The Traveller)", "Time", just to name a few.
• "Winner" by the Pet Shop Boys.
• "After the Fall" and "This Is Who You Are" from Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Rock Opera Beethoven's Last Night are hard-rock takes on the award bait song.
• The Bangles' "Eternal Flame".
• Parodied in Ylvis's "Someone Like Me", which alternates between a Disney-style romance ballad and a dubstep breakdown.
• "Sleeping Sun" by Nightwish
• Pink Floyd of all bands did a few of these later: "On the Turning Away" is a very straight example, while "Lost for Words" subverts this with award bait music but Lyrical Dissonance, including a Precision F-Strike. "Marooned", an instrumental, was an untwisted variant of this: it actually won them their only Grammy.
• "Just Give Me a Reason" by P!nk and Nate Ruess of Music/fun.
• "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", whether the Céline Dion version, or the duet with Meat Loaf and Marion Raven. Really, any Power Ballad written by Jim Steinman would qualify.
• Even Rush (Band) did one. Listen to "The Garden".
• "All I Ask" by Adele.
• Vaults' cover of "One Day I'll Fly Away", which is based on the Moulin Rouge! version.
• "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" by John Lennon & Yoko Ono.
• "Close Your Eyes" by synthwave project The Rain Within.
• Mike Mareen's "Peace to Mankind"
• "Here In My Heart" is sung by Jodi Benson (the voice of Ariel) for the Christian children's album, Songs From The Beginner's Bible.
• The Caramella Girls, formerly Caramell of "Caramelldansen" fame, give us "How Can You Say Goodbye?", a Eurovision-worthy love ballad with the traditional award bait characteristics, including a Truck Driver's Gear Change at the end.
• Believe it or not, Green Day, of all bands, wrote one. "Wake Me Up When September Ends". The lyrics tell the stories of Billie Joe's father, who died when he was younger.
• Synthwave queen NINA's Synthian album concludes with the arena-style power ballad "The Distance", an ode to a long distance relationship especially relevant during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• "Now I'm Alive" by Michael Oakley & Dana Jean Phoenix is a love letter to classic award bait ballads, complete with a mellow intro, sparkling keyboards, The Power of Love, a soaring synthesizer solo, and a Truck Driver's Gear Change leading to the epic finale.
• Faith Assembly have a textbook example in the form of "Rian", the finale track of their debut album Shades of Blue.
• Blixemi's Warrior Cats fan song Sink Away fits this, with the tear-jerking lyrics that build up to a triumphant conclusion, as well as lyrics that talk about love and hope without any mention of cats living in clans or other direct indication it is about Warrior Cats.
• Country-pop singer Sylvia (Hutton) presents "Surprise", from her 1984 album of the same name.
• Chicago's "Hard Habit to Break" is another solid example.
• Michael Bolton's "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You".

Professional Wrestling

• Goldust's theme, true to his film-obsessed gimmick, sounds like an instrumental mashup between an award bait song and a more traditional symphonic score.
• Shawn Michaels was injured at one point in a real life altercation in which he suffered a concussion in the mid-90s. He collapsed mid-match a few weeks later and when the medical report on why it happened came out, it was revealed that he was suffering from post-concussion syndrome. Apparently the doctors (and for that matter pretty much everyone) Failed a Spot Check, since nobody knew about this at the time, and even Shawn thought he was back to full health at the time. Anyway, it was briefly feared that Shawn would be forced to retire due to the incident both in-universe and out. To really drive home the point that Shawn's career might be in jeopardy, they aired a special tribute video set to an award bait song, "Tell Me a Lie".

Sports

• CBS has "One Shining Moment", which is traditionally played over a final montage at the end of the NCAA basketball tournament. It was originally intended as a closing montage song for Super Bowl XXI, but the broadcast was running too long and it had to be cut for time. A few months later, CBS decided to re-purpose it (with amended lyrics) for the NCAA tournament, where it has been played ever since.
• CTV had one for its Olympic Games coverage, "I Believe", which was its official "anthem" for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and also used as the basis for its main theme music. The song was used practically everywhere, from commercials, to montages, and of course, the closing ceremonies. It quickly became a pet peeve for many viewers, especially the ones who wished CBC hadn't had the Olympics swiped from under them like CTV also did with the Hockey Night in Canada theme (CBC did get the Olympics back in 2014, though).

Studio Ghibli and Pre-Ghibli

In chronological order

• Horus: Prince of the Sun has Hilda's songs.
• Panda! Go Panda! has "Nennen Panda" by Ado Mizumori in The Rainy-Day Circus.
• The Castle of Cagliostro has "Fire Treasure" in the opening credits and ending, being a much slower and more sombre song for the otherwise action-packed Lupin III franchise.
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind has the titular theme song performed by Narumi Yasuda, which does not play in the film itself but played prominently in promotional material. The film itself has instrumental examples with "Nausicaä - Requiem" during the climax of the film and "The Bird People" during the end credits. The first Cantonese dub also has "Green Water, Clear Wind", a Cantonese cover of "The Bird People" With Lyrics, performed by Sandy Lam (most known for singing a Translated Cover Version of "Take My Breath Away" for Wong Kar-wai's first film As Tears Go By).
• Castle in the Sky has "Carrying You" as performed by Azumi Inoue in the end credits. Another example would be the Image Song "If I Could Fly in the Sky" by Yohko Obata, which was used in some early promotional material but never played in the film itself nor was included in most soundtrack releases.
• My Neighbor Totoro has the titular theme, "Mother" and "A Lost Child", both performed by Azumi Inoue, as well as "The Path of the Wind" performed by the Suginami Children's Choir. The former is played during the end credits of the film while the latter three songs are played as instrumental versions in the film.
• Grave of the Fireflies has "Home, Sweet Home" by Amelita Galli-Curci.
• Kiki's Delivery Service has two '70s pop songs from Yumi Matsutoya "Message in Rouge" and "If I Were Covered in Tenderness" as the opening and ending themes, respectively. There are also two Image Songs by Azumi Inoue that are definitely Award-Bait Songs, "Turning Seasons" and "The Warmth of Magic", which would be included as instrumental versions in the film. Earlier releases of the American Disney dub additionally add in "Soaring" and "I'm Gonna Fly" from Sydney Forest, replacing the two Yumi Matsutoya songs, though these songs have since been removed in favour of the original Japanese songs.
• Only Yesterday has "Love is a Flower, You Are the Seed" by Harumi Miyako, a Translated Cover Version of Bette Midler's "The Rose".
• Porco Rosso has a cover version of "Le Temps de Cerises" and the original song "Once In a While, Talk of the Old Days" both by Tokiko Kato, Gina's voice actress. The film also has instrumental examples with "Bygone Days" and "Porco e Bella"
• The obscure Ocean Waves has "If I Could Be the Sea" by Youko Sakamoto.
• Pom Poko has "In This Town of Asia" and "Always, Someone Is", both performed by Shang Shang Typhoon. The former is only used in the film's marketing while the latter is the end credit theme.
• Whisper of the Heart has a Translated Cover Version of John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads", as sang by Yoko Honna, Shizuku's voice actress. Another example would be "The Baron's Song", also performed by Yoko Honna.
• On Your Mark was made as a music video to such a song from Chage & Aska (of Street Fighter: The Movie fame)
• Princess Mononoke has the titular theme, sang by Mai Hisaishi (composer Joe Hisaishi's daughter) in the Image Album, Yoshikazu Mera in the Japanese version of the film, and Sasha Lazard in the English version of the film.
• My Neighbors the Yamadas has Akiko Yano's "Quit Being Alone" and a Translated Cover Version of "Que Sera, Sera" performed by the cast.
• Spirited Away has Yumi Kimura's "Always With Me" (played during the end credits) and "The Name of Life" (which only plays in the film as an instrumental version). Other examples would be the Image Song "White Dragon" performed by Rikki (of "Suteki da ne" fame), and the instrumental song "Reprise", during the climax of the film.
• The Cat Returns has the end credit song "Become the Wind" by Ayano Tsuji.
• Howl's Moving Castle has "The Promise of the World" by Chieko Baisho, Sophie's Japanese voice.
• Tales from Earthsea has two examples from Aoi Teshima (Therru's Japanese voice actress): "Therru's Song" and "Song of Time".
• While the titular theme of Ponyo may not count, the Image Song "Rondo of the House of Sunflowers" by Mai Hisaishi, which plays in the film as an instrumental version, definitely does.
• Arrietty has "Arrietty's Song" and "The Neglected Garden" by Cécile Corbel. The Image Album has more such songs like "Sho's Song", "Forbidden Love", and "Sho's Lament". The American Disney dub also adds in Bridgit Mendler's (Arrietty's American voice) "Summertime".
• From Up on Poppy Hill has Aoi Teshima doing a new cover version of "Summer of Farewell", originally a theme song for an '80s dorama.
• The Studio Ghibli-Level-5 video game collaboration Ni no Kuni has "Pieces of a Broken Heart", performed by Mai Hisaishi in the Japanese version and by young chorist Archie Buchanan in the English version.
• The Wind Rises has Yumi Matsutoya's '70s hit "Vapor Trail" as the Award-Bait Song. An instrumental example would be Nahoko's leitmotif throughout the film.
• The Tale of the Princess Kaguya has "When I Remember This Life" by Kazumi Nikaido, with instrumental examples in "Flying" and "The Procession of Celestial Beings".
• When Marnie Was There has "Fine on the Outside" by Priscilla Ahn.
• Ronja the Robber's Daughter has the "Wolf Song".
• Earwig and the Witch has "The World is in My Hands" by Sherina Munaf (the Japanese voice of Earwig's mother), with an instrumental example in "Memories are Always Beautiful".

Theater

• "The Song That Goes Like This" from Spamalot is largely a spoof of this type of song, as well as Andrew Lloyd Webber ballads (there's some overlap between them stylistically); "Find Your Grail," meanwhile, plays it straighter, albeit with the Lady of the Lake hamming it up.
• Most of the ballads in Jekyll & Hyde, in particular "This Is the Moment" and "A New Life", seem written only to be showstopping applause getters.
• "Defying Gravity" and "For Good" from Wicked. Idina Menzel also recorded a pop single version of the former.
• "Say It Somehow" from The Light in the Piazza.
• "Seasons of Love" from RENT, to the point where the original cast album has, after the show's finale, a version of the song "featuring Stevie Wonder and the cast of Rent."
  • Also, "Your Eyes", and the reprise of "I'll Cover You", which overlays the chorus of "Seasons of Love" in its last part.
• The incarnation of "Chase The Morning" from the 2002 stage play version of Repo! The Genetic Opera. It had to be changed drastically for the film because it was too much of an Award Bait Song.
• If ever there was a theatrical analogue to Disney, it's Andrew Lloyd Webber:
  • "Memory", from Cats.
  • The Phantom of the Opera has two: "Music of the Night", and "All I Ask of You". "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" comes in as a close runner-up, but it stands alone without reprise, whereas the former two are not only called back several times, but run together in the finale.
  • "Close Every Door" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
    • Not to mention "Any Dream Will Do" which even gets a big-finale reprise.
  • Starlight Express has the Starlight Sequence and its titular song, which was dialed up with the El DeBarge cover.
  • Evita (and Madonna) give us "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina".
• Vanities: The Musical has three potential candidates: "Looking Good", the closing jazz ballad of the Theatreworks and Second Stage productions, as well as the original cast album, includes The Power of Friendship and a triumphant last verse and chorus following a Truck Driver's Gear Change. "Friendship Isn't What It Used To Be", although lyrically darker, also qualifies. And of course, "Cute Boys with Short Haircuts".
• "The Letter" from the elementary school musical Freedom Bound by Jill and Michael Gallina.
• "Fantasies Come True" from Avenue Q, also doubling as a major Tear Jerker.
• "Tomorrow" from Annie.
• First Date has "Things I Never Said", a posthumous duet with Aaron's late mother; and "Something That Will Last", Aaron and Casey's Final Love Duet.
• "Somewhere" from West Side Story.
• "Last Midnight" in Into the Woods is a possible example, though it does forward the plot.
• "I Dreamed a Dream" and "Stars" from Les Misérables. The 2012 film versions are especially tear jerkers.
• Cirque du Soleil has these occasionally, including:
  • "Kalimando" from Mystere, later reused in the film Bogus.
  • "Let Me Fall" from Quidam.
  • "Reve Rouge" from La Nouba.
  • "Alegria" and "Querer" from Alegría.
  • "Vocea" from Varekai.
  • "Hope" and "Run" from Amaluna.
  • "Cierra los ojos" from Luzia, the live version more so.
  • "To the Stars", "Inside Me", and "The Change" from Volta all meet the criteria, but the one that really takes the cake is "Because You're Still Here", added to the show in late 2018 in memory of aerialist Yann Arnaud.
• Flashdance: The Musical has a romance duet of this style titled "Here And Now", which also incorporates a reprise of "Don't Stop". The Beta Couple also gets one with "Remember Me".
• "You Have Brought Me Love", from the stage musical adaptation of Secondhand Lions.
• "Something To Believe In" from Disney's stage musical adaptation of Newsies hits all the major stylistic points, including calm piano opening, synth sparkles and dramatic modulations.
• "Somewhere That's Green" from Little Shop of Horrors.
  • "Suddenly Seymour" also counts. In fact, the writers knew they could write a vaguer version of the song ("Suddenly Someone") and sell it as a pop hit, but they refused because they knew it wasn't true to the characters.
• "Just One Person", originating in a Peanuts-inspired musical called Snoopy: The Musical. Jim Henson had stated it to be his all-time favorite song, so much so, it would eventually go on to be used at his funeral.
• Matilda: The Musical has "I'm Here" and "My House", the former of which is reprised in counterpoint at the latter's climax.
  • "When I Grow Up" also qualifies.
• "Some Other Me" and "Always Starting Over" from If/Then.
• The infamous 1988 musical version of Carrie would have had an example of this in "Unsuspecting Hearts", if the existence if a "pop version" demo is any indication.
• The Musical of The Secret Garden has "How Could I Ever Know", an eleventh hour duet between Archie and Lily's ghost.
• "It's A Giant Mystery" and "Without You" from Romy and Michele's High School Reunion: The Musical.
• The Broadway musical of Fun Home has "Ring of Keys", which was the producers' showcase number at the 2015 Tony Awards where the show won Best Musical. "Changing My Major" also qualifies.
• Heathers The Musical has a three-fer: "Our Love Is God", "Seventeen", and "Kindergarten Boyfriend".
• "The Portrait Song" from Austen's Pride.
• The Mrs. Doubtfire stage musical has three songs with this aesthetic, all in the show's last third: "Let Go", the Eleven O'Clock Number "Pretend", and the finale ultimo "As Long As There Is Love".
• "Send In the Clowns" from A Little Night Music, popularized by Judy Collins.
• The Prom has "Dance With You", which gets a Final Love Duet Triumphant Reprise to start off the finale. Other contenders include "The Acceptance Song" and "Unruly Heart".

Video Games

• 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim has Seaside Vacation, played during wave 2-10 of the combat section of the game and the ending credits. It has been compared to "Do You Remember Love" from Macross above.
• Even a series like Ace Combat has a few to its credit:
  • Blue Skies from Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies.
  • "The Journey Home" from Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War.
  • "Gravity" from Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy. Although the lyrics are about the Player Character's status as an invincible ace pilot.
  • A Brand New Day from Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation.
• "In Your Belief" From Asura's Wrath. A beautiful somber song by the singer of Aura's Theme from .hack, Tomoyo Mitani, it manages to be used both for the epic beginning in episode 1, The heartbreaking second half of episode 12 and the credits for the end of the final act. Both of them.
• Le Ali Del Principio from Baten Kaitos Origins. Notable for being used in not only the end credits, but the incredibly well-done Heart-to-Heart scene and the True Final Boss, yet somehow NOT being an example of Soundtrack Dissonance.
  • The composer Motoi Sakuraba's then-nine-year-old daughter sang the vocals, making it one of his most personal works.
  • Then there's a darker version of this trope with the ending ballad of The Eternal Night's "This Broken Soul".
• The Bayonetta games all have at least one, usually in the form of a classic song played over the staff roll that the game would also use a faster-paced remix of as one of the battle themes.
  • The first game had Peggy Lee's "Fly Me to the Moon", played over Bayonetta performing a slow pole dance as the second half of the credits roll.
  • Bayonetta 2 had Andy Williams' "Moon River" used under the same circumstances.
  • Bayonetta 3 has two. At first, it bucks the trend of using pre-existing songs in the staff roll by using an original, more tragic composition known as "We Are As One", with Bayonetta performing a solo dance, which is more befitting of the ending's circumstances of Bayonetta meeting her end just after the Final Boss and being sent to the afterlife along with her lover. Just to drive the point home, various stills of moments across the entire series appear as crystals and float upward, before Bayonetta herself crystallises and does the same thing. But then, after one more boss battle, we get another pole dance for the second half of the staff roll, this time to Frank Sinatra's take on "Moonlight Serenade"
• Will The Circle Be Unbroken from BioShock Infinite. Especially when one takes the ending into consideration. The Burial At Sea DLC features Courtnee Draper (Elizabeth's VA) singing You Belong To Me over Episode 2's closing credits; the song, however, is referenced in-game if the player chooses to visit an optional area.
• From the Blazblue series, Stardust Memory - Place Of Promise by Kanako Kondou, the voice actress for the main heroine Noel Vermillion.
• Because the 2009 A Boy and His Blob deliberately set out to emulate a Disney-esque feel, they couldn't let the end credits go without one of these. The ending song, "Everything to Me", is exactly the sort of friendship song that fits best—though a sad sort of one.
• Indie platform shooter/80's action movie homage Broforce has The Ballad of Rambro. Bonus points for actually winning an award!
• I Just Smile from Burning Rangers.
• "I Am the Wind" from the end credits of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It was rather jarring, playing through a gothic-horror-themed Metroidvania game set in the Victorian era, only to be greeted with a Celine Dion-styled ballad at the end of the game...
  • Apparently, the reason that song is in the game is because Yamane had made a friendly bet with Rika Muranaka in 1996 and lost. It's actually pretty funny.
  • A patch for the Xbox Live version replaces the song with "Admiration Towards the Clan" from Lament of Innocence, while the PSP version uses a new song called "Serenade of Sympathy".
• "Heavenly Star" by the Genki Rockets is featured in Child of Eden.
  • Better yet, "Flow", the ending credits song to Child of Eden. Somewhat of a Tear Jerker.
• "Off to Sleep" from Child of Light.
• Chrono Cross has Radical Dreamers~ Unstolen Jewel.
• "Baba Yetu", the opening music from Civilization 4. Literally Award Bait, as it's the only video game music to have ever been considered for and given a Grammy Award.
  • Firaxis attempted another one in Civilization VI via Sogno di Volare. It was nominated for the 2017 Game Audio Network Guild Awards, but sadly did not win.
• "Remember You" from DanceDanceRevolution 5th Mix (and the acoustic version from Extreme PSX JP), "Be in My Paradise" from DDR Club Mix, and "Graduation" from DDR Extreme.
• The ending theme of Death Smiles, Period. The song could be considered heartwarming or a Tear Jerker.
• Death Stranding has, well, "Death Stranding", by CHVRCHES.
• Devil May Cry tends to play with this, with the end credits theme usually starting off hard-rocking and energetic fitting the games' tone, but then seguing into softer ballad's midway into the credits. Seeds of Love from the first game begins as a fast-paced techno-rock before fading into a vocal version of Eva and Trish's theme. Shall Never Surrender from 4 starts out as a remix of Nero's battle them for its first 2 minutes before becoming more award bait-y, the Bentley Jones cover exaggerates its award bait aspects. The only game to avert this completely is the third game, which ironically has the most Bitter Sweet Ending out of all the games. Devils Never Cry otherwise fits the criteria in that its leitmotif is used throughout the game numerous times thorughout several key moments and tracks, and starting out somber and melancholic, but averts it by becoming a hard-rocking metal song a minute in and staying that way to the end. 5 finally plays it straight with Legacy.
• DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou for the Xbox 360 has Heading For Tomorrow from Zwei.
• Gentle Hands; the closing song to the first .hack//G.U. games as well as the third game closer, The Truth of One's Whereabouts
  • You Smiled Kindly by the Singer of In Your Belief down below.
• From DuckTales Remastered: The credits version of the Moon theme is an instrumental Softer and Slower Cover example.
• "Pollyanna" from EarthBound Beginnings is a bit peppier than most award bait songs, but has perfectly fitting lyrics for the song type. This fan-made remix only tackles the first bit of the song, but puts it in "true" Award Bait Song mode, complete with synth sparkle.
  • The Mother 3 Theme of Love also qualifies, especially the vocal version.
  • Smiles and Tears from EarthBound (1994) counts, of course, though it didn't have an official vocal version until over a decade after the game's release.
• "One World" From Endless Ocean: Blue World fits this trope perfectly.
• Fallout: New Vegas: Begin Again.
• Fatal Frame has this going for it as well, starting with the second game and the song 'Chou' by Amano Tsukiko. This was followed with the rather hauntingly beautiful 'Koe' from the third game, again performed by Amano; and then the fourth game had TWO of these songs: 'NOISE' which plays over the end credits on easy/normal difficulty, and 'Zero no Chouritsu' which is the actual 'theme song' of the game.
• Final Fantasy:
  • The concept reaches its logical conclusion with the albums "Pray" and "Love Will Grow" which consist of nothing but attempts to adapt Final Fantasy songs into this style. Though some of them have little to no connection to the source, such as Matoya's Theme from Final Fantasy becoming a French song about prince traveling the galaxy...
  • Final Fantasy IV's Love Theme was adapted into this style for the game's DS remake.
  • "Aria Di Mezzo Carattere" from Final Fantasy VI. It starts as Celes' show-stopping number in the Opera House performance, and then becomes Locke and Celes' love theme, and only grows more and more into award bait along the way.
  • "Why" from Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core.
  • "Eyes on Me" from Final Fantasy VIII, the Trope Codifier for Video Games.
  • "Melodies of Life" from Final Fantasy IX. The lyrics even resemble "My Heart Will Go On."
  • "Suteki da ne" from Final Fantasy X.
  • "1000 Words" from Final Fantasy X-2.
  • Even the MMO isn't immune. Distant Worlds the end theme from the Chains of Promathia expansion of Final Fantasy XI.
  • "Kiss Me Good-Bye" from Final Fantasy XII.
  • "My Hands" from the US version of Final Fantasy XIII. Performed by the very same Leona Lewis that performed the song "I See You" that was in Avatar. The Japanese version got an equally powerful award bait song, "Kimi ga Iru Kara".
  • "New World" by Charice, from the English-language version of Final Fantasy XIII-2. The Japanese version of the game got the epic "Yakusoku no Bashou" by Mai Fukui.
  • "Answers" from Final Fantasy XIV. Not only plays during the FMV that closed the failed 1.0 servers in preparation for the Realm Reborn relaunch, but makes it in game during the "Binding Coils of Bahamut" Raids.
    • Each of the game's expansions would also have it's own instance of this trope:
    • Heavensward had "Dragonsong", which plays over the expansion's end credits as well as the first phase of the The Final Steps of Faith Trial. On top of this, the song's Leitmotif is present throughout the expansion's score. The music video for this song even plays over footage from the expansion.
    • Stormblood had "Revolutions", although this time it only plays over the end credits. Otherwise it is much like Dragonsong.
    • While Shadowbringers' main theme (titled after the expansion itself) doesn't fit this trope, the song "Tomorrow and Tomorrow" certainly does.
    • Endwalker follows in Shadowbringers' footsteps in having a main theme that doesn't fit this trope, but proceeding to have a song (or in this case two) that do:
    • "Flow" (video contains spoilers), which is the character theme of Venat/Hydaelyn, is the straighter example of this trope, with it mostly playing in an instrumental only rendition until a moment towards the end the expansion when it finally plays with lyrics.
    • "Close in the Distance" (video contains spoilers) is the final zone theme & also exhibits many components of this trope.
  • Florence + the Machine's cover of Stand by Me fills this role in both the Japanese and English versions of Final Fantasy XV.
  • Moonless, Starry Night from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is a nice soft tune about coming home after a long journey with friends.
• Fire Emblem:
  • Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, and its sequel, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, both have songs like this sung over their credits, each representing one of the heron galdrs plot important to the game in question. Life Returns and Dawn Awakens, respectively.
  • The Sacred Stones did this as well. Certainly a unique use of this trope, given that the song in question, Fly With the Breeze, lacks vocals - but it hits every other aspect spot-on.
  • Fire Emblem Fates started the tradition of having sorrowful lyrical ballads sung at the end credits with "Lost in Thoughts All Alone." It is possibly the straightest example in the series. Sparkly synth? Check. Truck Driver's Gear Change? Check. Played over the end credits? Check. Reprise of a song sung during the game? Check (and by a princess character, no less, with the same voice actress reprising the credits version).
  • "Heritors of Arcadia" from the Video Game Remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden appears to have dethroned "Lost in Thoughts All Alone" as the straightest example of an Award-Bait Song. It's again, a synth laden ballad with a Truck Driver's Gear Change played at the end credits and, in the English version, is sung by Silque's voice actress.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses continues the tradition set by Fates with "The Edge of Dawn", which plays in the intro and has a much longer reprise that plays in the credits.
  • Fire Emblem Engage follows suit with "Fiery Bonds", a vocalized version of the game's Leitmotif.
• The God Eater series loves including a big, epic, sappy orchestral song. Although the games are made in Japan, these songs are sung in English. Most of them play over the end credits and have at least one Truck Driver's Gear Change near the end.
  • God Eater Burst has "God and Man", which played during both end credit sequences, the first without vocals and the second with them.
  • God Eater 2 has no less that three such songs when the Rage Burst expansion is taken into account:
    • "Revolving Lantern", which plays during Romeo's Dying Moment of Awesome in the original story as well as the flashback to his time with Livie in the orphanage in Rage Burst. A song with vocals by Ingrid Gerdes about the emotions the aforementioned character feels as he dies, lamenting the fact that he'll be missing out on so much of life's experiences yet celebrating that he's sacrificing himself for the greater good. One of the few songs here to not have a Truck Driver's Gear Change, and to not play over the end credits.
    • "Faith", the Rage Burst credits theme, is about determination in the face of adversity. It has more of a Pop sound compared to other examples from this series, but otherwise hits many of this trope's notes, including sparkly sounds during the intro.
    • "Tree of Life", which plays after completing Julius' character episodes, is about how far the characters have come.
  • God Eater 3 has "All I Know" during its credits, which starts off gentle but builds up to a triumphant, sweeping chorus; however, it also has a lot of Lyrical Dissonnance if you pay attention to the words. It also features the aforementioned "God and Man"'s Recurring Riff during one section.
• From .hack//LINK Stairs of Time, and Deepest Memories also qualify.
• For a game built around a soundtrack, Heavy Rain did well to make "Before the Storm" stand out quite as well as it did, introducing a theme to be repeated no end throughout the game.
• A somewhat odd example from Homeworld. The music piece itself was not written for the game, but plays at key moments. I am of course referring to Agnus Dei. To re-iterate: It is first played during the epic launch of the Mothership. The second time it accompanies when the player first returns to Kharak and witnesses their burning home (Tear Jerker right there). The third and final it plays during the final montage showing the Kushan people returning to their homeworld Hiigara after millennia of exile. After this final piece, progressive rock band Yes' song Homeworld (The Ladder) plays.
• ICO ends on the haunting "You Were There."
• Several songs from the iDOLM@STER franchise are written in the style of Award Bait Songs, including Tonari Ni..., ALIVE, Hummingbird and Massugu. Massugu was even used as the ending theme for the first console version of the game.
• The song "Further" at the end of Iji is basically this.
• "Fade Away" from Infamous 2 is a pretty good example, especially given the endings.
• "The Child You Were" is I Was a Teenage Exocolonist's ending song, which is a rock ballad about the loss of childhood innocence and learning self-love despite the loneliness that's part of growing up.
• I Was Born For This from Journey (2012)
• "Simple and Clean" / "Hikari" and "Sanctuary" / "Passion" (the Japanese versions have different names as well as the entirely different lyrics) from Kingdom Hearts. Both play in the openings of their respective games ("Simple and Clean" / "Hikari" also appear in Chain of Memories and Birth by Sleep), then have a longer, slower version that plays over the end credits.
• "Girl in the Tower", from King's Quest VI. Geez. Were Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle not available, Sierra?
  • King's Quest VII tried again with "Land Beyond Dreams". The Fan Remake of King's Quest II got into the act with "When I Saw You". Infamous Adventures' Fan Remake of King's Quest III has "My Way Home", while AGD Interactive's remake has "Coming Home". The Fan Sequel The Silver Lining even throws in with one called "I Will Remember".
• Many Kirby credits songs hit the marks of this trope.
  • The credits music from Kirby Super Star lacks vocals (obviously, given the SNES's sound limitations), and is about twice the tempo of your average Award Bait Song, but hits pretty much every other aspect on the list.
  • Kirby's Epic Yarn's staff credits theme also fits, featuring a slow-paced, feel-good piano melody.
  • The one that fits this bill the most is the credits music for Kirby's Return to Dream Land, "Returning to Dream Land". It starts off slow, incorporates many of the game's leitmotifs, and builds up to a triumphant finish.
  • Super Kirby Clash has "Green Tree Memories from Kirby," a song with actual sung vocals in both English and Japanese.
• L.A. Noire had "(I Always Kill) The Things I Love" playing in the end credits. This extraordinary piece of jazz fits the game like a glove, and it's a tearjerker too.
• The Last Story has The Flying One, the vocal version of its main theme, which plays over the end credits. It shares a number of stylistic similarities with the end credits songs favored by Studio Ghibli, but it's still distinctly Award Bait-y.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky has I Swear... from the second installment of the game that fit this trope to a T. Starts out slow and mellow? Check. Covers The Power of Friendship? Check. Extremely touching? Check. Sparkly synths? Check. Becomes triumphant towards the end? Check. Make no mistake, this is an Award Bait Song that was so good that it was reused in the future sequel, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel.
• "If You Still Believe" from The Legend of Dragoon.
• "Song of Mana" from Legend of Mana. A bit more folksy and energetic than most of the songs in this trope, but pulls it off with considerable grace and feasibility. As a song about love, longing and life passion, it avoids being merely an "I Want" Song by capturing both the motivation and the happy ending of the story. This song is notable for being sung entirely in Swedish by native Swedish vocalist Annika Ljungberg, but as the crowning song of a game never published in Swedish.
• "This Broken Soul" from The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night fits this trope perfectly. Same for the sequel's (Dawn of the Dragon) credits, "Guide You Home".
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening: The "Ballad of the Windfish" sounds magnificent, especially once you've collected all of the Siren's instruments.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: The Final Duet with Zelda which contains reprises from all the Lokomos you've met leads into the Final Boss Climax Music. And it's gorgeous.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: The Ballad of the Goddess is not only bombastic, but also serves a a major plot point in-game to unlock an ancient gate.
• LEGO Dimensions has "You Wouldn't Know", which, for all intents and purposes, is a Portal song and has many of the same traits as its predecessors.
• "Heavenly Star" by the Genki Rockets, featured in Lumines II. Nominated for Best Song at the 2006 Spike TV Video Game Awards.
• Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete has Tsu-ba-sa/Wings and Wind's Nocturne, which both falls squarely into this trope. The lyrics of the North American PSX version was even Woolseyised to sound like something that was created at Disney. However the North American PSP version was retranslated to keep with the original meaning of the Japanese lyrics, and the net result was a Broken Base. The PSP version also added the obligatory sparkles to Wings. The sequel has Lucia's Theme.
• Mass Effect: Andromeda has "Under Stars" by Aurora.
• Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne has Poets of the Fall's "Late Goodbye" as the country-inspired Recurring Riff and Solemn Ending Theme, which netted a 2004 Game Audio Network Guild Award.
• "The Songless Nightingale" from Medal of Honor: Frontline's OST doesn't actually appear in the game, although the German drinking song in the Golden Lion pub uses its tune.
• Mega Man:
  • The Mega Man ending theme.
  • Protoman's Theme from Mega Man 3, which was also remixed for his ending in Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters. Unfortunately, in the former game, the cutscene ends before the song completes its loop.
  • Freesia from the album Remastered Tracks Rockman Zero Physis, a remix of the ending of Mega Man Zero 4.
• Metal Gear has lots of them.
  • The Original Metal Gear Solid had "The Best Is Yet to Come".
  • Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty has "Can't Say Goodbye To Yesterday".
  • Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has Star Sailor's "Way to Fall".
  • Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has "Here's To You".
  • "Calling to the Night", the ending theme to Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.
    • The song reappears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as one of the background music tracks for Snake's stage, so you can listen to all its heart-wrenching, tear-jerking, sparkly goodness while watching Snake and Pikachu beat the hell out of each other.
  • Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker has "Heaven's Divide".
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain likewise has "Sins of the Father" and "A Phantom Pain".
• Bizarrely enough, Mr. Driller: Drill Land has one in the form of "Days".
• Mirror's Edge has "Still Alive" by Lisa Miskovsky. (Note: a completely different song from the Portal song.) The reboot, Mirror's Edge Catalyst, has "Warning Call" by CHVRCHES, although due to licensing conflicts between the developers and their record label, it doesn't play during the end credits, instead being substituted with the similar instrumental piece "Catalyst".
• Namco × Capcom has Someday, Under the Moon while the Japanese version of Project × Zone has Galaxy. Project X Zone 2 has Moonlight Curtain Call.
• Nier has a more Tearjerker focused one, "Ashes of Dreams". The song stands out for being real English, the only example of a real language in the whole soundtrack. The song deals with a total loss of hope, and considering it plays after you've doomed humanity is sure to make the tears flow. Besides the English version, there are versions in fake Gaelic, French, and Japanese, each version playing at the end of their respective endings A, B, C and D.
• NieR: Automata has an especially poignant example in "Weight of the World" from Ending E of the game, which comes in four different version. The english Version, Japanese version Fictional In game language version and The Medley version combining all 3 with added Chorus.
• "Dreams Dreams", from Ni GHTS Into Dreams, qualifies—especially in its remake in the sequel, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams.
• Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence has one of these in the form of "Shine -Mirai he Kazasu Hi no Youni-" composed by Yoko Kanno and performed by Ayaka Hirahara. The song also served as the series' 30th anniversary theme and as a celebration of the tenth year of Hirahara's successful career.
• No More Heroes also features "Heavenly Star" by the Genki Rockets.
• Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee has a slow ballad in its New 'n' Tasty remake called ''Born to Love You'' which plays in the credits of the game.
• In an example that doubles as a case of Real Song Theme Tune, the use of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" performed by Judy Garland is played over the credits in the non-secret endings of OFF.
• "Reset" by Ayaka Hirahara from Ōkami counts as one. Oh it does indeed.
• Parasite Eve had Somnia Memorias, a bilingual (spanish and latin) ending song.
• From the Persona series:
  • Persona 2 is a possible contender for the best example in the series with Change Your Way, the ending song for Eternal Punishment which has lyrics relating to the themes of the game.
  • Persona 3 has another example in the series with Memories of You. Bonus points for the lyrics actually having something to do with the ending.
  • Persona 4 plays the song Never More over the end credits.
  • Persona 5 has "Hoshi To Bokura To" which plays over the end credits. Played with in that it alternates between a softer style typical of this trope, and a harder rock section.
  • Persona 5 Royal has Our Light in place of the above song, which is arguably a straighter example.
• Pokémon:
  • Sayonara, from Pokémon Black and White, is an instrumental version of this. It plays at the end when N says goodbye to you.
  • KISEKI from Pokémon X and Y has a similar melody to "Sayonara"; even if the lyrics aren't actually sung, they are still shown as what the lyrics would be if you sang along to its melody.
  • Pokémon Scarlet and Violet has "Celestial" by Ed Sheeran play over its credits, notable for being the first vocal credits song in the franchise.
• "Still Alive" from Portal. Arguably the most well-known example of this trope, at least in the video game field, though it technically breaks some of the criteria by the fact it is performed by a character in the game and makes direct reference to the events of it.
• Similarly, Want You Gone from Portal 2. As with "Still Alive," the song violates some of the Award Bait criteria by being not only performed by a character, and making reference to the events of the game, it also includes a major spoiler in the lyrics for those who haven't played it yet.
• Prey (2006) has the incredibly bittersweet "Take Me Home" by After Midnight Project.
• "You and I" and "Love Forever", both from Ragnarok Online. You won't hear either song anywhere in the game, but they're part of the official soundtrack and have been part of its promotional campaign during the early years.
• Raiden III has "Fairy" during its credits, which also recieved a remix on the Raiden IV OST.
• Red Dead Redemption has "Deadman's Gun" poignantly playing in the end.
• Red Dead Redemption II plays the incredibly somber "That's the Way it Is" in the lead up to the emotional climax.
• Robot Unicorn Attack: "Always, I wanna be with you, and make believe with you, and live in harmony harmony, oh love..."
• Rogue Galaxy provides delicious award bait with the end credit song Dreaming My Way Home. Combine it with the scene it first appears in and there won't be a dry eye in the house.
• "Thank You" and "Let's Go On" from Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure.
• The Japanese version of R-Type FINAL had an Award Bait version of Hekiru Shiina's "Proud of You." The original song is a lot more upbeat and happy, but the one used in FINAL is a downright Tear Jerker.
• The Sengoku Basara games have a few of these, all as credits songs. Sengoku BASARA 2: Heroes features Oichi's image song "Nemure hi no Hana" performed by her seiyuu, Mamiko Noto, which plays during the credits of her story only; Sengoku BASARA 3 features "Gyakko" performed by Chiaki Ishikawa; Sengoku BASARA 3: Utage features "Tasogare" performed by Do As Infinity; and Sengoku BASARA 4: Sumeragi features "Heavenly Blue" once more performed by Chiaki Ishikawa.
• From the critically acclaimed Metroidvania game Shadow Complex, "Light of the Day/Dark of the Night" by Shaun Barrows.
• "The Fate~Cluster Amaryllis" from Shadow Hearts: Covenant.
• Silent Hill series:
  • The first game has the Spanish-language song "Esperandote" during the Bad Ending credits.
  • Silent Hill 3 has "I Want Love" and "Hometown", the latter being a vocal arrangement of the first game's title theme.
  • Silent Hill 4: The Room has "Your Rain" and "Cradle of Forest".
  • Silent Hill: Shattered Memories has two possible end credits songs depending on how you play the game; one of them, "Acceptance," is a haunting, minor-key, depressing example of this trope. The other one's a rock song that doesn't really fit.
• Although SimCity isn't really much of an emotionally driven game, Sim City 4 Rush Hour gives us an orchestral version of this trope with the ''The Morning Commute''. Considering most of the music in the series is either jazz or jazz-inspired, this piece stands out greatly.
  • The original Sim City 4 also had one- the powerful rock opera Epicenter, complete with faux Latin vocals.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • "Sweet Dream" / "Sweet Sweet Sweet", from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, written by Dreams Come True. Showed up in instrumental chiptune form in the game, then was released on one of DCT's albums with lyrics and live instruments. This latter version was remixed for the credits of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
  • Some others include "My Destiny" from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), "Worth a Chance" from Sonic and the Secret Rings, and, to some extent, "You're My Hero" from the Sega Saturn version of Sonic 3D Blast (the Genesis version just has standard end credits music).
  • The verse of Kusuriyubi no Kesshin, also by Dreams Come True, is the Star Light Zone theme With Lyrics.
  • Sonic R's soundtrack was made of Award Bait Songs. While they were techno-style, the songs generally fit the mold of this type.
  • To an extent, "Live and Learn" from Sonic Adventure 2 would count as well. It's usually counted as one of the best (if not the best) Crush 40 (let alone Sonic) tracks of all time, and, while not particularly "sad" in tone, the lyrics and placement of the song work within the context of the ending credits
  • While not related to the games themselves, the now extinct indoor theme park Sega World Sydney had a horribly cheesy stage show called "Sonic: Live in Sydney", obviously geared towards younger children. Of all the songs in that show, "Sonic, Thank You For Being You" stands out the most, and has even been used in countless SonicXSally fanvids.
  • Sonic Forces has one in "Light of Hope" which plays over the credits.
• Even Splatoon gets in on the act with "Fresh Start", the ending theme from Splatoon 2. Apparently, this trope transcends species as well as time!
• "Tobikata wo Wasureta Chiisana Tori" from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.
• Although Princess Daisy's theme was short and, well... 8-bit, the official Super Mario Land soundtrack expanded it and turned it into an instrumental example of this trope.
• Tales of Legendia: There is a place, made of sweet childhood memories...
• The Look of That Day, the song that plays over the credits of Tales of the Abyss, could be considered an instrumental version of this. The song starts with calming piano, but has a buildup into an orchestral end.
• Love Dream from Thunder Force IV. Even better, Love Dream is also a full-length Japanese song.
  • Last Letter from V.
• Everything's Alright from To the Moon squarely fits this trope.
• Undertale has the piece titled "Undertale", which is played when the player is told the story of Asriel and the first human. Despite being an instrumental, it contains multiple criteria of an award bait song; it starts off mellow, gradually builds up, contains a modulation in the middle, and is used in a Tear Jerker context.
• This song from Valkyria Chronicles, especially towards the end. (warning: major spoilers). Its resemblance to 90's Disneyesque ballads was uncanny.
  • It packs heavier punch in the original version, since it's more child-like and less like Céline Dion. Fitting, since it's mostly about Isara, a little girl who must face the horrors of war.
  • Realizing that overuse of this kind of song can quickly lead to Narm, the ending theme in the sequels are closer to ballads and pops.
  • Sora Wa Aoi Mama from the anime is equally poignant.
• Crystal Letter from Wild ARMs 5, and to a lesser extent, Wings from Wild ARMs 3. The latter is less soft and more awesome than most of these songs tend to be.
• Wolfenstein: The New Order has I Believe, the credits song.
• "Lullaby for You" from The World Ends with You.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1:
  • Beyond the Sky from Xenoblade. Unlike most examples, it plays entirely during the ending scene itself rather than the credits.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has two. Drifting Soul which plays over Vandham's death, the reveal that Nia is a Flesh Eater Blade & Rex's speech during the mid point of the final battle against Malos, making it something of a Power Up Theme Tune, and One Last You which plays over the game's credits & ending cutscene, more true to the trope.
  • The Torna expansion adds its own credits song, A Moment of Eternity.
  • Unlike most instances of this trope, Drifting Soul, One Last You, and A Moment Of Eternity are very clearly connected to the plot. The lyrics of Drifting Soul have multiple interpretations, including Rex's, Malos' or Pyra/Mythra's experiences throughout the story while One Last You and A Moment of Eternity are sung from the perspectives of Pyra/Mythra and Lora respectively during the sequences where they play.
• "Small Two of Pieces" from Xenogears; which was released a year before Final Fantasy VIII and its famous "Eyes on Me".
• "Kokoro" from Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht.
• Maybe Tomorrow from Xenosaga III''.
• Yakuza, as well as its remake Yakuza Kiwami, has a cover of "Amazing Grace".
• The ending music from Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished ~ Omen (excluding the PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 CD version), "The Morning Glow", has an award-baiting vocal remix titled "Endless History", that was used for the credits music of the anime adaptation.

Visual Novel

• narcissu ~eon~ has all the trappings of one, despite being the theme for the comparatively small-time VN Narcissu 2. Power ballad, check. Sparkly synth, check. Covering a theme of the game itself, check. Being a Tear Jerker song despite the seemingly-hopeful tune, check.
• All the Yarudora games have memorable Ending Songs, but the one that fits the trope out them all is "Kisetsu o Dakishimete", from the game of the same name. A love ballad sung by Oto Fumi in 1998, it's the only song in the Yarudora games to have entered the Japanese weekly Oricon charts, reaching the #64 rank and being charted for four weeks.

Web Original

• Parodied with "Sean Connery: The Musical" by legolambs, a heartfelt ballad shung by "Sean Connery" about hish shignature acshent.
  "Shome people shay I can't help it,
  I ashure you thish ishn't the cashe.
  It'sh jusht that I find,
  You get more out of life,
  When you follow your 's' with an 'h'!"
• The Looking for Group movie, which lapsed into Development Hell before being retooled into a Kickstarter-funded series, seems to be an Affectionate Parody of the Disney animated musical. So far we've seen "Part Of Your World" and "A Whole New World".

Western Animation

• South Park: The episode "Pee" has a parody with "Minorities in my Waterpark", sung by Cartman. The lyrics are about Cartman's displeasure with too many minorities showing up at the waterpark.
• "If Only" from the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Mayhem Of The Music Meister!".
• "There's Always Tomorrow" from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964).
  • Fellow Rankin/Bass Christmas special, the relatively obscure 1967 production Cricket On The Hearth, has the unnamed song that plays from the point of view of the leading human character; comparing his and his blind daughter's current Christmas with that of the First Christmas and realizing that it can still be Christmas without the usual decorations and trimmings associated with the holiday as long as he and his daughter still have each other. The song is actually reprised over the end credits, making it somewhat of an Ur-Example to the songs that played over the end credits of many a movie from the 80s onward.
• The theme song to the English dub of The World of David the Gnome.
• SpongeBob SquarePants had a parody in the form of "This Grill is Not a Home".
  • "All You Need Is Friendship" is a straight example.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • "Love Is in Bloom," from the "Canterlot Wedding" two-parter. Appropriately, a Disneyish season finale ends with a Disneyish song.
  • The Season 3 finale, which is also a Musical Episode, has "I've Got to Find A Way" and "Celestia's Ballad".
  • Pinkie Pride, the show's second musical episode, gives us "Pinkie's Lament", which according to writer Amy Keating Rogers, was inspired by the aforementioned "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina".
  • Season 4's finale does it again with "You'll Play Your Part" in Part 1, and "Let The Rainbow Remind You" in Part 2. Especially the former, with its Disney-esque instrumentation and lyrics.
  • The Mane Theme itself has recieved an Award Bait arrangement sung by Kaylee Johnston, which was intended for the Equestria Girls ending credits but dropped in favor of the aforementioned "A Friend For Life".
  • Crusaders of the Lost Mark, the show's third musical episode, marking the CMC's earning of their Cutie Marks and the fifth anniversary of the show's premiere, appropriately has "The Pony I Want to Be", also Diamond Tiara's first solo song.
  • Season 5 Episode 24, "The Mane Attraction", features "The Magic Inside (I Am Just a Pony)", sung by Tony Award winner Lena Hall.
  • The Times They are a Changeling gives Spike an award-baiting solo number with "A Changeling Can Change".
  • Season 7's "The Perfect Pear" was the episode to finally give a backstory to Applejack's parents and naturally featured "You're In My Head Like A Catchy Song" - a love song from her mother to her father. Also performed by guest star Felicia Day.
  • "Fame and Misfortune" climaxes with the Mane Six breaking into "Flawless" - an anthem about how none of them are perfect but it doesn't matter with The Power of Friendship. In six-part harmony too!
  • The Grand Finale of the series, fittingly titled "The Last Problem", gives us an award-baiting final number called "The Magic of Friendship Grows", celebrating all the good times throughout the years.
• The song "Wishes" from the Madeline Christmas special stands out as this because of its pop-like quality and sound despite not being sung by someone famous. It doesn't lose the syrupy nature of most Madeline songs, and it fits.
• The Raccoons has three; ''Ain't No Planes'', ''All Life Long'', and ''New World''.
• Speaking of Christmas specials, the infamous Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa closes out with "Through the Eyes of A Child", sung by Paige O'Hara and Peabo Bryson. It's a bit more upbeat than a lot of other examples, but it still falls under this. Also, it's pretty much the only genuinely good thing about the special, while the rest of it falls squarely into So Bad, It's Good.
• "The Brightest Star" from the Precious Moments animated specials, most notably "Timmy's Gift", as performed by James Ingram and Melissa Manchester.
• Even Horrid Henry gets into this trope with ''Rockstar'' from the fictional band The Killer Boy Rats.
• Miraculous Ladybug: The song Ce mur qui nous sépare ("This wall between us") is a love duet between Marinette/Ladybug and Adrien/Cat noir and intended for the upcoming movie Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening.
• Although it was co-produced in South Korea, Iron Kid is a good example of this with the ending theme from the original Korean version ''Come Back'' performed by May. Another song on the show's soundtrack, also from the original Korean version, but not in the series are also slow and dreamy ballads like ''Forever.'' The ending theme from the Japanese dub is even more baity.
• Jelly Jamm has a more upbeat and lively use but manages to keep it's positive message about diversity with ''Holding Hands.'' It was also used for a Christmas album that Guille Milkyway, the person behind the songs in the show worked on.
• Ready Jet Go!: "The Spirit of Christmas" from "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", has all the makings of one, including a piano instrumental, soft vocals, a message about friendship, and an overall warm tone. Jet even notes that the song is a crowd-pleaser. Despite this, it never won any awards in real life.
• "Hope's Song" from VeggieTales' "An Easter Carol".

Other

• Award Bait Songs were so pervasive that in 2003, the Academy revised the rules. Nominees must be written specifically for the film and occur during the main action or as the first song in the credits. A later revision is that only two songs are eligible per movie (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Dreamgirls, and Enchanted had hogged the categories with three nominations each prior to this; the last two actually lost the category presumably due to vote splitting).
• In the '90s, a pair of artists and a composer created an internet poll to gauge people's opinions of various musical elements. Then, based on the data gathered, they created "The Most Unwanted Song", filled with the most unpopular elements on the survey, and "The Most Wanted Song", filled with the most popular. The latter is total award bait.
• The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has had a few, at least one of which was nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Original Song:
  • The earliest known award bait song associated with the parade was "It's Thanksgiving Day", which Ed McMahon would sing at the end of the first hour of coverage, at least since 1979 or so. The last time he did it (1981), he sang it with a girl named Kaleena Kiff.
  • The successor to that song was another Milton and Anne DeLugg composition, "Giving Thanks". It was first performed by Mary Jo Catlett (yes, that Mary Jo Catlett) in 1983, and was reprised the next year by John Ratzenberger (yes, that John Ratzengerger). It was also the parade's closing theme for a few years.
  • "A Wonderful Day Like Today", sung by Clifton Davis in 1988, would be a much straighter example if not for it being more upbeat and having a cheesy talk-singing bridge. Like "Giving Thanks", it too was the parade's closing music until 1993.
  • The same with "Santa Claus Adventure" (1997) by Liz Callaway, minus the A Wild Rapper Appears! bridge (in fact, the song was more Disneylike in feel than "Wonderful Day", helped by Callaway's status as a veteran of Disney and non/Disney animated musicals).
  • "Just Beyond The Dream" (1999), by Lillias White, which was also featured in Macy's 2000 4th of July Fireworks show.
  • "When Hope Was There" (2003), by the USO Troupe of Metropolitan New York and Camp Broadway, written as a tribute to the recently-deceased Bob Hope. It's a bit more upbeat and patriotic than most Award Bait Songs, but it fits into this trope nonetheless.
  • "Free To Dream" (2004), by Deborah Voigt
  • "My Gift Of Thanks" (2005), by Michael Feinstein (who wrote it) and the Highbridge Voices
    • That year's parade also featured the above-mentioned "Remember When", as part of a segment paying tribute to the 50th anniversary of Disney Theme Parks.
  • "Key To This Wonderful City" (2007), by Feinstein and Anika Noni Rose is similar to "When Hope Was There" in that it's more upbeat than all of these examples, but still fits this mold.
  • "I Believe" (2008), by Kermit the Frog and Camp Broadway is one of the more popular examples to come out of the parade. The next parade featured both a Triumphant Reprise of the song and a duet version featuring Kermit and actress Tiffany Thornton. The latter version was also released to iTunes and Radio Disney during the 2009 holiday season.
  • "With You I'm Home" (2009), by Jane Krakowski
    • Cheyenne Jackson's "Play To Win" from the same year would count as well, though it's performed in a swinging Rat Pack crooner style that isn't usually associated with Award Bait Songs.
  • "Yes Virginia" (2010), by Ann Hampton Calloway is notable since it was inspired by the Macy's-funded TV special of the same name (which, bizarrely enough, aired on a rival network), but did not appear in it (the special debuted one year earlier).
  • For the 2012 parade, Thirza Defoe contributed the Pocahontas-esque anthem "Tree of Life".
  • Pat Benatar's "One Christmas Night" debuted in 2015.
  • During Obama's last day in office, Lin Manuel Miranda and Christopher Jackson perform 'One Last Time' from Hamilton and the song becomes an award bait song midway through as seen here [1]

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