AwesomeMusic.Si Iva Gunner: "Calling to the Night" from Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is a beautiful mashup with Céline Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" (which "Calling to the Night" has been compared to a lot) that amplifies the Award-Bait Song factor of the two songs. The lyrics even flow between the two songs surprisingly naturally, especially with the lyric "But the heart will remain as a silhouette of time" from "Calling to the Night".
Theatre.The Trail To Oregon: Call-Forward: The Mother sings a snatch of her Award-Bait Song "When the World's at Stake" all the way back in the intro Patter Song "Independence". Later, an instrumental of "When the World's at Stake" plays over her faked death scene, a few minutes before the song proper begins.A very early one for the deathbed song "You Gotta Go". Mother: Oh, well, if Grandpa dies that's just God's will. Sorry, Grandpa. Grandpa: Oh, that's all right, when you gotta go, you gotta go. You're talking about the shitter, right? In the scene where the Mother fakes her death, she says that she came back from Heaven because St. Peter told her that the Daughter would be "lost without you", which becomes the title of the Daughter's Award-Bait Song. The second time the Son brings up his suggestion to go skinnydipping, he describes it as getting "naked in a lake", and the band actually starts playing the opening bars of "Naked In A Lake" before the Mother cuts it off.
WMG.Todd In The Shadows Worst Of Random Year: "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" by Tina Turner: It's possible Todd would dismiss this song for being a rehash of "What's Love Got to Do with It", except rewritten to promote its namesake movie, although he could also appreciate its lyrics, which are definitely not the same as "What's Love Got to Do with It".
Film.My Big Fat Greek Wedding: The second film has Rita Wilson singing "Even More Mine"—which she also co-wrote. For the third film, she and now 15 time Academy Award nominee Diane Warren provided a far more straightforward example with "Oli Mazi (We Are All Together)"—sung by Wilson along with Greek singer Christos Mastoras.
Film.Don Juan Demarco: "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman" written by Bryan Adams, Michael Kamen and Robert Lange, performed by Mr. Adams. It occupied the number-one ranking for five weeks, on the 'Billboard Hot 100' in the United States (making it the team's third #1 song). The song went on to earn them their second Oscar nomination, though it lost to "Colors of the Wind". It's now a standard make-out tune.
Heartwarming.Lindsay Ellis: Throughout "Why is Cats?", while Lindsay describes the film version as a complete and total mess — albeit one she greatly enjoys — and pointing out seemingly every major issue from the casting to its award-pandering mission statement, she does share genuine appreciation for Jason Derulo as "actually a pretty good Rum Tum Tugger" and Jennifer Hudson's performance of "Memory". "Jennifer Hudson is such a good singer that like, I've never not watched this scene and gotten chills. The arrangement and mixing are so good that even in the two rowdy screenings I've gone to, the audience reverently listens to this bit."
TookTheBadFilmSeriously.Live Action Films: Everyone in X-Men Origins: Wolverine did this, with Ryan Reynolds and Danny Huston being possible exceptions.Reynolds was busy proving that just because you aren't taking the film seriously doesn't mean you can't have a blast taking your character as seriously as he merits. Michael Fassbender's Magneto stands out for being as good as ever in Dark Phoenix when just about every other major actor involved seemed to have realized that their subseries peaked two films ago. Sophie Turner is also doing her best in the lead role but unfortunately falls well short of the threshold. In-Universe and Played for Laughs with Deadpool 2, with the music video for its Award-Bait Song, "Ashes": Deadpool: This is Deadpool 2, not Titanic. Alright, you're at like an eleven. We need to get you down to a five, five-and-a-half tops. Just phone it in. Céline Dion: Listen, this thing (motions to throat) only goes to eleven. So beat it, Spider-Man!
WesternAnimation.Schools Out The Musical: Parodied/Invoked with Cosmo and Wanda's soppy love duet "With You", which they sing in prison after being arrested by Jorgen... with the specific purpose of driving him to tears so they can steal the key to their handcuffs while he's distracted.
Music.No Pier Pressure: "One Kind Of Love" was nominated for an oscar for Best Original Song (but lost).
JustForFun.Disneys Anne Frank: "Living Free (Until the Nazis Find Us Again)" even though, as pointed out in the Nostalgia Chick/Todd in the Shadows crossover "Top Ten Award Bait Disney Songs", it sounds suspiciously similar to Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven is a Place on Earth"... Marie-Rose Blanche's Chariots of Fire-style song "Endurance", which she sings as motivation during Anne's seize on Auschwitz. The ending pop song was actually a Top 40 hit, although it has no official connection to this movie. The singer allegedly punched a reporter for even asking about it. Some fans would argue for "The World I See (from My Secret Window)" as the preferred award-grabbing ballad.
Film.Furious 7: "See You Again". Considering the song started at 100 on the Billboard Top 100, then became the tenth such song in history to peak at #1 note It only took five weeks to go from 100 to 1, breaking a record that had stood since 1959., the award baiting seems to have worked.
WesternAnimation.Pocahontas II Journey To A New World: "Where Do I Go From Here". It has a similar melody to "Somewhere" from West Side Story, but that is forgivable as "Somewhere" borrowed from two classical pieces for its own melody.
Film.Coyote Ugly: "Can't Fight the Moonlight" performed by LeAnn Rimes and also written by no stranger to this, Diane Warren. Interestingly enough, the song was a last minute replacement for "Right Kind of Wrong", because test audiences didn't find it uplifting enough.
AwesomeMusic.The Lion King II Simbas Pride: "Love Will Find a Way" (featuring the always stellar Liz Callaway as Kiara), a song that rides on the movie's themes of love winning even when the odds are stacked against it, and the obligatory End Credits version.
Music.Madonna: “Sooner or Later” from Dick Tracy; “I’ll Remember” from With Honors; “You Must Love Me” from Evita (which actually did win the 1997 Oscar for Best Original Song).
Film.City Slickers: "Where Did My Heart Go?" by the late James Ingram appears in the end credits.
Film.One Hundred And Two Dalmatians: My Spot In The World by Lauren Christy, though it is only featured on the soundtrack and not in the movie itself.
WesternAnimation.Rugrats In Paris: "When You Love." If the ethereal voice of Sinéad O'Connor doesn't get to you, the place in the movie it plays: a dance for kids and their moms, where Chuckie is all alone... "I Want A Mom That Will Last Forever" by Cyndi Lauper playing in the airplane as well is very moving.
Film.Leonard Part 6: "Without You", performed by Peabo Bryson (a few years before he became one of the go-to guys for this trope) and Regina Belle. It was actually a radio hit…and was succeeded five years later by them reuniting to do "A Whole New World" together of course.
SeriesFauxnale.Western Animation: Rick and Morty: Parodies this in "Forgetting Sarick Mortshall", the ninth episode of Season 5, which ends with Rick realizing what a toxic and unhealthy relationship he and Morty have and refusing to reunite with him, instead telling Morty that he's Leaving You to Find Myself. It's deliberately written to provide an overly-cheesy, abrupt, anti-climactic wrap-up for Rick's and Morty's character arcs, complete with ending on an Award-Bait Song and the post-episode behind-the-scenes segments with the writers treating it like Rick and Morty have truly "broken up" for good. There was little fear of viewers taking it seriously: not only had the series had already been renewed at this point for many more seasons, but "Forgetting Sarick Mortshall" wasn't even the season finale. The next episode and actual season finale, "Rickmurai Jack", hit the Reset Button and restored their usual dynamic within the first ten minutes.
VideoGame.Thirteen Sentinels Aegis Rim: "Seaside Vacation" by Hu Ito (who also provides the vocals for "Brat Overflow"), sung in wave 2-10 and the ending credits.
Film.John Q: The Voice Inside My Heart by Patti LaBelle.
Animation.The Seventh Brother: In the American version, there are two: "There is a Place" and "How Lonely".There's the song "Gib nicht auf" ("Don't Give Up") in the German version which plays in the end credits and provides the main theme of this localization. The Italian version uses the same melody. "Nature's Pace" fits the bill for the Tiny Heroes sequel.
TearJerker.To The Moon: And of course, the scene with the Award-Bait Song "Everything's Alright", in which we get to see all of Johnny's memories with River get erased and rewritten so that he'll be driven into going to the moon to fulfill that half-remembered promise. The song itself is rather heart-breaking, what with its references to River's Asperger syndrome. Why do my words Always lose their meaning? What I feel, what I say There's such a rift between them He said, I can't really seem to read you." I just stood there Never know what I should do.
Anime.Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie Rebellion: Kalafina's "Kimi no Gin no Niwa" ("Your Silver Garden"), played during the end credits. A bit different than most examples, since it's a power ballad rather than a soft/romantic one, and the lyrics are more sinister than one would expect.
Literature.Ratmans Notebooks: "Ben". Who knew such a successful and heartfelt ballad could be written out of a movie about killer rats.
Trivia.Foul Play: Breakaway Pop Hit: "Ready to Take a Chance Again" was the Award-Bait Song from this film, and it did indeed get an Oscar nomination, besides becoming a big hit for Barry Manilow. The short-lived TV series attempted to play off of this, using a jaunty instrumental version as its theme (in two versions, a longer version for the pilot and a shorter, recut version for the few regular episodes that actually aired).
Funny.Tipping Forties: "La la la la la la la la la!!!"And later, after the gang admits that "A Thousand Words" is pretty good... Bandunk: "That song's not my favorite! Can you sing 'La la la la la la la la la!!!' again?"
EarthBound.Tropes A To G: "Smiles and Tears". It had official lyrics in the Japanese instruction booklet, but it didn't have official vocals until 2010. A remix of it eventually made its way into the Super Smash Bros. series.
Film.Accidental Hero: Luther Vandross' "Heart Of A Hero" over the closing credits. Originally, Mariah Carey's "Hero" was planned for use in the movie's credits too.
Film.Days Of Thunder: The Last Note Of Freedom by Whitesnake's David Coverdale and Show Me Heaven by Maria McKee.
TearJerker.Home Alone 2 Lost In New York: Any scene in the sequel that has "Christmas Star" playing in the background. For example, Kevin staring out a window in New York and saying, "Good night, Mom", which transitions to Kate also staring out a window in Florida and saying, "Good night, Kevin". Also, Kevin and a sick boy in the children's hospital waving to each other.
Film.Avatar: The theme song "I See You", composed by James Horner and performed by Leona Lewis was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 2010.
Awesome.Rockos Modern Life: Rocko saving Heffer and the rest of the cattle at the climax of "The Good, the Bad, and the Wallaby". It inspires his uncle so much that he not only turns the Lazy I Ranch from a cattle farm to a cattle resort, but even sings an Award-Bait Song in his honor.
VideoGame.Nier: "Ashes of Dreams", a vocal version of Yonah's theme.
Film.Stuart Little: The first movie has the Diane Warren-written "You're Where I Belong" by Trisha Yearwood and the second has "I'm Alive" by Céline Dion.
Music.Kenny Rogers: "Love Will Turn You Around," the theme to his star vehicle Six Pack.
Film.Asterix And Obelix Take On Caesar: The end credits song "Elle ne me voit pas* She Doesn't See Me" by Jean-Jacques Goldman, a slow, mournful ballad about Obelix's unrequited feelings for Panacea, which feels tonally at odds with a comedy film.
AwesomeMusic.Ace Combat: "A Brand New Day", sung by a children choir, is an Award-Bait Song reaching out for hope even amidst the Estovakian occupation, and becomes the rallying song for Emmeria within the story.
VideoGame.Kings Quest: The official games have "This Heart of Mine" (The Weeping Willow Song) (and to a lesser extent "We're the Ants") in King's Quest V, "Girl in the Tower" in King's Quest VI, and "Land Beyond Dreams" in King's Quest VII.
Film.Top Gun Maverick: Lady Gaga recorded a song for the film called "Hold My Hand". Some already consider it to be a Spiritual Successor to Berlin's "Take My Breath Away".
StarCrossedLovers.Video Games: Yandere Simulator: Literally the title of the credits song, an Award-Bait Song that's soft and gentle, about how deeply Yan-chan wants to be with Senpai. In fact, one bit of the lyrics is: And all I aim to prove, is that we're taking on life like star-crossed lovers.
Music.Paul Williams: The credits reprise of "Flying Dreams" in animated classic The Secret of NIMH. Back to Love Again consists almost entirely of archetypal Award Bait Song instrumentation, even including a duet re-recording of "I Won't Last a Day Without You" that could have easily played over any '90s animated film. "Rainbow Connection" is a piece of bait that almost took, but more importantly, its presence in popular culture is still strongly felt, having become an indelible part of The Muppets as its Bootstrapped Theme.
Film.Godspell: "Beautiful City". It is now included in stage productions of Godspell, too.
Music.We Are The World: Considering it was meant to raise money for famine victims, the creators had no qualms throwing in all the clichés of this trope to tug at listeners' heartstrings.
WesternAnimation.The Emperors New Groove: Perhaps the most traditional aspect of the film is "My Funny Friend and Me", sung by Sting over the end credits. Apparently, back when this movie was a more serious endeavor called Kingdom of the Sun, Sting was to provide many songs and the score in a similar way that Elton John did for The Lion King (1994) or Phil Collins did for Tarzan. However, when the film was changed to basically an animated buddy comedy, all these musical numbers were dropped and the only remnants are Kuzco's theme song and "My Funny Friend and Me."
Film.The Crying Game: Averted. "The Crying Game" wasn't original, so it wasn't eligible for an Academy Award.
WesternAnimation.Tangled: "I See the Light", the romantic duet Flynn and Rapunzel sing beneath the lanterns.
KingdomHearts.Tropes A To D: Well, it's based on Disney movies isn't it? Protip: Search iTunes for Utada, the singer, to score the Japanese-lyric versions of both songsnote The Japanese version of "Simple and Clean" is called "Hikari", and "Sanctuary" is "Passion". And yes, the same singer (Utada Hikaru) wrote and sang both versions of both songs. As expected, Kingdom Hearts III gives us another one; "Don't Think Twice", also known as "Chikai" ("oath") in Japanese.
Recap.Mystery Science Theater 3000 S 11 E 09 Yongary: "Push Past the Hurting", a Grief Song (except it's scored as more of a Break Up Song), performed as a spontaneous Distant Duet between five characters — Jonah and the Bots up in space, and Kinga and Max down on Moon 13.
WesternAnimation.Atlantis The Lost Empire: Oh, it may not be a musical, but it is still a Disney animated film. Thus, "Where the Dream Takes You". Sadly, it is not in Atlantean.
WesternAnimation.Cats Dont Dance: "I Do Believe" by Will Downing. However, due to being buried deep in the end credits (after they've been rolling for a couple minutes, and after a long stretch of reprise-less instrumental music), it tends to be forgotten among the rest of the film's songs.
ShoutOut.My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: "Magical Mystery Cure": In the opening musical number two stallions lift Twilight down from a table where she was dancing and she runs forward. It's very reminiscent of the big dance scene at the end of Dirty Dancing.The whole opening number is reminiscent of the opening of Beauty and the Beast, with Twilight taking Belle's place on a morning walk through town. Its ending is highly similar to the end of the Temporal Cold War arc of Star Trek: Enterprise, as seen here. The name of the episode itself is a shoutout to the album Magical Mystery Tour from a certain well known band. The music for the episode borrows heavily from classic Hollywood and Broadway musicals. "Morning in Ponyville" bear a more than passing similarity to "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!" from Oklahoma!. "Celestia's Ballad" is reminiscent of Disney Award Bait Songs. Twilight's transformation into an alicorn features a swirly effect similar to Odette's aforementioned transformation in The Swan Princess.
Film.Mannequin: Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now, by Starship.
WesternAnimation.The Princess And The Frog: "Never Knew I Needed" by Ne-Yo, in Ye Grande Olde Disney tradition. The duet version with Cassandra Steen seems to be trying to push it further. Also duet version two with Italian singer Karima.
Film.Ten 1979: A lower-key but still award-baity Oscar nominee: "It's Easy to Say". 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, as it's the song used by George (a composer) to reconcile with his estranged girlfriend at the end of the film.
Film.Mac And Me: "Take Me, I'll Follow You" by Bobby Caldwell. If Jara Lane was famous, "You're Not A Stranger Anymore" might be considered an attempt at this trope.
Literature.The Weathering Continent: The theme song Kaze no Tairiku by Yui Nishiwaki. And this song featured on the film's soundtrack (meant to be used for the sequel that never happened).
Series.Out Of Jimmys Head: Parodied during a skating lesson in the cartoon world in the episode "Skate Night". Turns out Crocco was singing it.
VideoGame.Yoshis Woolly World: The song that plays in the final part of the Wonderful World of Wool is a lyricless example. It starts off soothing, it has "sparkle synth," it shows up at the very end of the game, is feel-goody, and it gets more triumphant near the end.
MoodWhiplash.Western Animation: In Twilight's Kingdom Part 1, immediately after the Award-Bait Song "You'll Play Your Part", Lord Tirek arrives in Canterlot and begins his spree of draining the ponies' magic.
Recap.Ready Jet Go S 1 E 38 Holidays In Boxwood Terrace: "The Spirit of Christmas" 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.
