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Collision of Worlds - Cars 2

Pixar films are as close to sure things as you can get for Best Song contenders, as any of their films that features a song usually gets in. However, most of those songs were written by Randy Newman (Peter Gabriel wrote the song for Wall-E) and all of those movies were beloved. Cars 2 got very little love when it was released, and isn't even a sure thing for Best Animated Film. And while Brad Paisley and Robbie Williams are both respected artists in their genres, neither of them have Randy Newman-level cred with the Academy. I wouldn't be surprised if this song got nominated, but I'd be less surprised if it didn't.

Musicals

Life's a Happy Song/Man or Muppet/Pictures in My Head- The Muppets

As the only wide-release musical in 2011, The Muppets should be in a good position to score at least one nomination in this category. The most obvious comparison to a recent film is Enchanted, which took over the category in 2007 with three nominations, although it didn't win. So which Muppets song is most likely to be nominated? Pictures in My Head is the ballad, and the most nostalgia-inspired of the three, which gives it a good chance. There's no love song in the movie, which is the kind of song most easily nominated, but Pictures is the closest to that kind. However, while it's possible that all three songs will be nominated, I could also see the film being snubbed completely. The guys who are usually nominated for songs from musicals are revered names like Randy Newman, Alan Menken, and Stephen Schwartz. Bret Mckenzie, Jason Segel, and Christophe Beck don't have the level of respect that those legends have.

Star Spangled Man - Captain America: The First Avenger

Speaking of Alan Menken, he is the man behind the most interesting wild card in this year's race. Captain America was not a musical (sadly) but this is essentially a musical number in the film, with dancing girls and all, and is as integrated into the film as any of the Muppets songs are. But when was the last time a song like this nominated in this category? Looking back through the last couple of decades the only remotely similar song is Blame Canada from the South Park movie, but that was far more satirical than this one, which is only lightly poking fun at George Cohan's patriotic anthems. If the voters are willing to step out of their comfort zone they are likely to nominate this song, but it is never safe to assume that any Academy voter is going to step out of their comfort zone.

So now that we've broken down all of the contenders I assume that you are an expert at predicting Best Original Song. That being said, here are what I can confidently call my not totally random guesses, which is as close as I can get to predictions in this year. Not knowing how many songs are going to be nominated makes this even more fun to predict, so here is the best I can do right now:

1. The Living Proof- The Help
2. Pictures in My Head- The Muppets
3. Lay Your Head Down- Albert Nobbs
4. Hello Hello- Gnomeo and Juliet
5. Star Spangled Man- Captain America: The First Avenger
6. The Keeper- Machine Gun Preacher
7. Life's a Happy Song- The Muppets
8. Man or Muppet- The Muppets
9. Collision of Worlds- Cars 2
10. Love Builds a Garden- Gnomeo and Juliet

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