Award Bait Song

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Or, Big Damn Bronze Age Disney Style Award Baiting End Credits Power Ballad.

You Tropers who grew up in the early 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.

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

• Tends to start out soothing and mellow.
• Instead of describing events that happen directly in the movie (as the songs in animated musicals tend to), they cover the more sweeping themes of The Power of Love, The Power of Friendship, and so on.
• Extremely feel-good and/or touching; may be a Tear Jerker.
• Tend to have a lot of "sparkly" synth.
• Towards the middle, it gets more and more triumphant and builds to a big, epic finish.
• For some reason, they are often penned by past-their-prime pop/rock stars, especially if the film isn't actually a musical. If the song is a hit, it may prompt a comeback.
• If it's a musical, it may appear in the film, but it's occasionally a Cut Song, as in the Pocahontas and Hunchback examples.
• A "Falling in Love" Montage is a likely context for the song. Bonus points if it's also a ballroom dance.
• Truck Driver's Gear Change

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, Celine 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 An American Tail.

Award Bait Songs are also found in many live-action films, notably "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic. 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.

Note that not every end-credit song is one of these! Movie Bonus Songs in film adaptations of stage musicals are often not these, though they're often accused of being Oscar bids since pre-existing music isn't eligible for Best Original Song. Furthermore, 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 a film (or whatever), 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.

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

Examples of Award Bait Song include:

Anime & Manga

• Pokémon 3 has "To Know The Unown."
  • And of course, The Power of One from Pokémon 2000 (the Japanese version uses a rather dissonant rap bit by Namie Amuro).
  • 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. 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 Wishmaker'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.
• "And Forever" from the ending of The Big O.
• "Half Pain" from the ending of Witch Hunter Robin. It tends towards sorrow more than joy 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".
• Oku Hanako's 'Kawaranai Mono' from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, natch
• 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.
• Gankutsuou's intro "We Were Lovers".
• A group of unofficial Fan Dubbers creating an English track for the movie Arashi no Yoru ni 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.
• AIR. Aozora. Full stop.
  • The Farewell Song brings this troper to the brink of tears, it's so beautiful.
• Tune the Rainbow from the RahXephon movie simply begs for this.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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" as sung by Megumi Hayashibara.
• "Beautiful World" from Rebuild of Evangelion
  • A stripped down version, which comes across as more of an award bait song than the original, is used in Evangelion 2.0.
• Feel like A Girl from School Rumble.
  • Girls Can Rock? That's like one of the most rockin' songs in all of the series!
• No More Words from the first Inuyasha movie.
• Destiny Shukumei from Hitsuji no Uta is a gloomier version of this trope.
• Every Time You Kissed Me from Pandora Hearts.
• After All from Turn a Gundam.
• Gundam X featured Human Touch one of the last works composed by the Soulful Rain Man himself Warren Wiebe.
• Vision of Escaflowne: A Girl In Gaea has You're Not Alone.
• Tuxedo Mirage, the ending theme of Sailor Moon S.
• Gentle Oblivion, ending song for The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. Also Crowning Music of Awesome, since the Tear Jerker a cappella version is the one which plays at the ending credits, rather than the J-popsy released as single.
• One Piece 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.
• Chiisa na Te no Hira (The Palm of a Tiny Hand) from the end of the Clannad series.
• "Sora wo Miagete" by Shirai Takako, the second ED from the first season of You're Under Arrest.
• Full Metal Panic! featured no less than two of these songs as openings in it's run, 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 Fumoffu.

Film

• Celine Dion's 'Because You Loved Me' from Up Close and Personal. It won the Grammy in 1996.
• Dido and AR Rahman's If I Rise from 127 Hours. Lost to Randy Newman's "We Belong Together", from Toy Story 3.
• Another early example among Oscar-nominated songs is "The Last Time I Felt Like This" from Same Time, Next Year (1978).
• "Candle On The Water" from Pete's Dragon (1977) was nominated for an Oscar, but lost to another award bait song -- "You Light Up My Life" from the movie of the same name.
• A fantastic live-action example 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 for Best Original Song but lost to Aladdin's "A Whole New World".
• The Lord of the Rings films gave us some stellar Tear Jerker examples: "May It Be" from "Fellowship of the Ring" and "Into the West" from "The Return Of The King". (1st: nominated for Oscar; 2nd: won)
  • 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.
• There's also Michael Jackson's hit "Will You Be There" featured in 1993's Free Willy.
  • And much earlier than that: 1972's "Ben" - a heartstring-tugging song about the friendship between a boy and his killer rat.
• And OMD's required prom song "If You Leave", from Pretty in Pink.
• Bryan 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 nominated. When Streisand chose not to perform it at the Oscars, Celine Dion stepped in!
• Bryan Adams also did "All for Love" (with Sting and Rod Stewart) from The Three Musketeers 1993 and "Star" from Jack.
• Enchanted naturally had one: "So Close."
  • That didn't keep it from losing to the analogous song, "Falling Slowly", from Once. Then again, the loss was probably due to vote splitting among the Enchanted songs.
• The Narnia series: a few examples:
  • Regina Spektor's "The Call" from The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
  • Switchfoot's "This Is Home," also from Prince Caspain.
  • And Imogen Heap's "I Can't Take It In" from "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe".
  • And Alanis Morissette's "Wunderkind" from the same movie.
    • Incidentally, Academy rules insist that only the first song from the credits can be considered for an Oscar, so "Wunderkind" lost out as the second song; of three songs included in the credits, only "Can't Take it In" qualified. (And then wasn't nominated, while "Wunderkind" was nominated at the Golden Globes, which is less fussy. Should've put Alanis first?)
  • Carrie Underwood's "There's a Place For Us" in the third film.
• Speaking of Ms Morissette, there's "I Remain" from the Prince of Persia movie.
  • And "Still" from Dogma.
• Avril Lavigne's Keep Holding On from Eragon
  • She also made "Alice" from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.
• "Where Are You, Christmas?" from the live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
• Though cut from the theatrical release, The Muppet Christmas Carol had the touching number When Love Is Gone, which was restored to the VHS and fullscreen DVD cut of the film (the widescreen is the theatrical version).
  • Watch the proper end-credits version by Martina McBride here.
• The Muppets did it again in Muppet Treasure Island with the song "Love Led Us Here". This touching ballad of love lost and found is first sung by Piggy and Kermit as they dangle off a cliff edge by their ankles. The song is reprised in the end credits by John Berry and Helen Darling.
• "The Rainbow Connection" from the original Muppet movie could stand as an early example. It was indeed nominated for an Oscar that year.
  • The Weezer and Hayley Williams cover from The Green Album, a tie-in for the 2011 Muppets movie, sounds exactly like a Disney end-credits cover of the song would. Surprisingly, it isn't played over the movie's credits, but the movie 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!)
• Parodied in the 2005 version of The Producers with "The Hop-Clop Goes On", a reprise of "Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop".
• 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 Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack. It didn't get nominated. (but "Jai-Ho" won, and the collaboration with M.I.A. got a nom too)
• "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now", performed by Starship for 1987's Mannequin and nominated for an Oscar.
• "It Goes Like It Goes" by Jennifer Warnes won the Oscar for 1979 for Norma Rae. It beat out "The Rainbow Connection".
• 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 of the film tried to get the song cut, insisting that it was "no good and not a hit."
• Jennifer Warnes had another award-winning duet when she teamed up with Bill Medley for "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life" from Dirty Dancing
• "The Climb" from the Hannah Montana movie is one of these. Too bad it was ineligible for the Oscar because wasn't written for the movie.
  • Also noteworthy for being the X-Factor Winner's Song for 2009 in the UK which was known to always win the Christmas number 1. Not this year though, as it lost to "Killing in the Name" by Rage Against the Machine.
• Relating to Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus sings another award bait song in the form of When I Look At You from The Last Song.
• "Then You Look At Me" from Bicentennial Man. Sung by Celine Dion, natch, and written by the same team that wrote "My Heart Will Go On".
• Much of Moulin Rouge's soundtrack is 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 Shakespeares Romeo and 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?"
• Pearl Harbor's "There You'll Be" by Faith Hill. (nominated for Oscar)
• "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" from Armageddon. (nominated for Oscar... and Aerosmith's sole #1 in the US)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's "Love Before Time", which indeed got nominated.
• "Learn To Be Lonely" from The Phantom of the Opera.
• "The Rose" by Bette Midler, from The Rose, natch. It may be one of the earliest examples of this trope.(1979)
• Bette Midler's version of "Wind Beneath My Wings", prominently featured in Beaches.
• "Endless Love" from the movie of the same name.
• The Phil Collins-Marilyn Martin duet Separate Lives from White Nights. It 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.
• Phil Collins also has Against All Odds from the movie of the same name.
• After All from Chances Are by Cher and Peter Cetera
• Glory Of Love by Peter Cetera was intended to be this trope for Rocky IV. It was passed up, and ended up going to The Karate Kid II.
• 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). The fact that it was so blatant, and featured Beyonce straining against her usual range, is probably why the song flopped. Ironically, the Glee cover by Charice was much better recieved.
• "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 '85 Christmas album, and it adds tons of sparkly synth.
• 2012 has one titled "Time For Miracles". It's especially jarring after seeing a film about death destruction and sacrifice, to hear a Celine Dion-esque song performed by someone from American Idol. And it's Adam Lambert at that!
• James Cameron's 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.
• John Mayer's "Say" from The Bucket List is more low-key than most award bait songs, but it counts too.
• By the time Robin Hood: Men in Tights was made in 1993, this was ubiquitous enough to be parodied with an end-credits reprise of "Marian". It was most directly a parody of the song from the other Robin Hood movie from the 1990s, Bryan Adams' "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You", which was nominated back in '91. In any case, future tropers tended to laugh harder at that than most other people in the theater.
• Never Too Far Away by Mariah Carey from Glitter
• "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 "Don't Wanna Miss a Thing", and is so shamelessly sappy it's utterly fantastic.
• The Neverending Story has the eponymous theme by Limahl.
• "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" from Don Juan Demarco, sung by Bryan Adams. It was nominated for Best Original Song at the 1995 Academy Awards, but lost to "Colors Of The Wind".
• "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 movie. It wasn't eligible for awards though, since the song had already been on one of Switchfoot's albums a few years prior.
• "Storybook Love" from The Princess Bride didn't fail to earn a nomination.
• The Last of the Mohicans - "I Will Find You" by Clannad.
• "How Do I Live" from Con Air. It was nominated, but lost to "My Heart Will Go On".
• Think Queen is immune to this?! Try "Who Wants To Live Forever?" or "One Year Of Love", both from Highlander.
• To Kill A Mockingbird, from, well..... To Kill a Mockingbird
• The song Together in Electric Dreams, by Georgio Moroder and Philip Oakey of the Human League fame, was actually the ending theme song from the movie Electric Dreams, but the song ended up outshining the movie it was supposed to complement.
• "When the World Turns Upside Down" from the upcoming Dorothy of Oz (no relation to the song of the same name by The Adventures).
• The Crow featured "It Can't Rain All The Time" by Jane Siberry as its end credits song. Sadly, no nomination.
• "Take My Breath Away" by Berlin, featured in Top Gun, was the 1986 Best Original Song Oscar winner.
• "A Place Called Home" from A Christmas Carol: The Musical.
• "Safe And Sound" by Taylor Swift, from The Hunger Games.
• "The Living Proof" from The Help.
• "Shine Your Light" from Ladder 49.
• "You're Where I Belong" from Stuart Little.
• James Bond film examples include "Nobody Does it Better" from The Spy Who Loved Me, sung by Carly Simon, Sheena Easton's "For Your Eyes Only" (both nominated for an Oscar), and "All Time High" from Octopussy, sung by Rita Coolidge.
• The title song from Absolute Beginners (1986), written and performed by David Bowie (who has a One-Scene Wonder role in the movie), 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. (No award nominations.)
• Irene Cara's "Flashdance (What a Feeling)", from, well, Flashdance.
• 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, which was a flop.
• R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly", from Space Jam.
• High School Musical 3 features an Award Bait reprise of "We're All in This Together from the first film.

Fan Works

• 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.
• One fan wrote a song, with lyrics and everything, based on Littlepip from Fallout Equestria, called Lil Pip. While it doesn't quite sound like it would fit with the Fallout Aesthetic, it still hits all the proper marks. You can just imagine this song playing as the credits roll and everypony's leaving the theater.

Live-Action TV

• 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 "I'm 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.
• Three Wishes from Hi 5.

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".
• 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 of it, 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", full stop.
• 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.

Professional Wrestling

• WWE wrestler 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.
• After Shawn Michaels left the WWF for a number of reasons (Shawn said it was due to a knee injury, and famously gave a promo on one of the WWF's programs saying that he had also "lost [his] smile", while the Smart Marks insist it was really because he didn't want to lose to Bret Hart), they aired a special tribute video set to an Award Bait Song, "Tell Me a Lie".

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 100% straight.
• Most of the ballads in Jekyll and Hyde, in particular "This Is the Moment" and "A New Life", seem written only to be showstopping applause getters.
• "For Good" from Wicked.
• "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."
• 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.
  • 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.
  • 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, Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, 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 "The Things I Never Said"; a posthumous duet with Aaron's late mother, and "Something That Will Last"; Aaron and Casey's romantic finale duet.

Video Games

• Many Square Enix games, in a bid to prove that Video Games are the new movies, have a song like this.
  • "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 appears in Chain of Memories and Birth by Sleep), then have a longer, slower version that plays over the end credits.
  • "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.
  • "Eyes on Me" from Final Fantasy VIII, the Trope Codifier for Video Games.
  • "Melodies of Life" from Final Fantasy IX
    • Which strangely sounds like "If we hold on Together" from Land Before Time
  • "Suteki Da Ne" from Final Fantasy X.
  • "1000 Words" from Final Fantasy X-2.
  • "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.
  • "Lullaby for You" from The World Ends With You
  • "Little Bird" from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.
  • "Small Two of Pieces" from Xenogears; which was released a year before Final Fantasy VIII and its famous "Eyes on Me".
  • 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 I becoming a French song about prince traveling the galaxy...
  • Even the MMO isn't immune. Distant Worlds the end theme from the Chains of Promathia expansion of Final Fantasy XI.
  • "Why" from Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core.
  • Final Fantasy IV's Love Theme was adapted into this style for the game's DS remake.
  • Parasite Eve had Somnia Memorias, a bilingual (spanish and latin) ending song.
  • Moonless, Starry Night from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is a nice soft tune about coming home after a long journey with friends.
• 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.
• Even a series like Ace Combat has a few to its credit:
  • "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.
• "Dreams Dreams", from NiGHTS Into Dreams, qualifies—especially in its remake in Nights: Journey of Dreams.
• 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.
• "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".
• This song from Valkyria Chronicles, especially towards the end. (warning: major spoilers). When this troper first heard it, he swore its resemblance to 90's Disneyesque ballads was uncanny.
• "Pollyanna" from MOTHER 1 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.
  • It also predates Final Fantasy VI by 5 years.
  • The Mother 3 Theme of Love also qualifies, especially the vocal version.
  • Smiles and Tears from EarthBound counts as well, of course.
• "Girl in the Tower", from King's Quest VI. Geez. Were Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle not available, Sierra? (Note: Video contains lots of Alex and Luna, and no Alexander and Cassima.)
  • 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".
• "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.
  • The Sonic series has plenty of examples. Some others include "My Destiny" from Sonic the Hedgehog, "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: Flickies' Island (the Genesis version just has standard end credits music).
  • Kusuriyubi no Kesshin (based on the music for Star Light Zone), also by Dreams Come True.
• 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.
• 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.
• "Kokoro" from Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht.
• "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.
• "The Fate~Cluster Amaryllis" from Shadow Hearts Covenant.
• 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.
  • Can be considered a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, as the composer Motoi Sakuraba's then-nine-year-old daughter sung the vocals, making it one of his most personal works.
• "Guide You Home", from The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon.
  • Then there's a darker version of this trope with the ending ballad of The Eternal Night's "This Broken Soul".
• Ico ends on the haunting "You Were There."
• Metal Gear Solid has lots of them.
  • The Original Metal Gear Solid had The Best Is Yet to Come.
  • Metal Gear Solid 2 has "Can't Say Goodbye To Yesterday".
  • Metal Gear Solid 3 has Star Sailor's "Way to Fall".
  • Metal Gear Solid 4 has "Here's To You".
  • "Calling to the Night", the ending theme to 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.
  • Peace Walker has Heaven's Divide
• "Still Alive" from Portal.
• "Still Alive" from Mirror's Edge.
• Red Dead Redemption has "Deadman's Gun" poignantly playing in the end.
• 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.
• Fire Emblem Path of Radiance, and its sequel, 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.
  • 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.
• 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.
• From the Persona series:
  • Persona 4 plays the song Never More over the end credits.
  • Persona 3 has probably the best example in the series with Memories of You. Bonus points for the lyrics actually having something to do with the ending.
  • Persona 2 is also 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.
• 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.
• "Always, I wanna be with you, and make believe with you, and live in harmony harmony, oh love..."
• "Reset" by Ayaka Hirahara from Okami counts as one too. Oh it does indeed.
• "One World" From Endless Ocean: Blue World fits this trope perfectly.
• The song "Further" at the end of Iji is basically this.
• Lunar Silver Star Story Complete had Tsubasa/Wings and Wind's Nocturne, which both falls squarely into this trope. The lyrics of the North American PSX version was 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.
• "Fly me to the moon..."
• 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.
• The closing song to the first .hack//G.U. games as well as the third game closer.
• From .hack//LINK Stairs of Time, and Deepest Memories also qualify.
• "Maybe Tomorrow" from Xenosaga III
• Bizarrely enough, Mr. Driller: Drill Land has one in the form of "Days".
• "If you Still Believe" from The Legend of Dragoon
• There is a place, made of sweet childhood memories...
• 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.
• "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.
• 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.
• Gods Eater Burst has "God and Man", which played during both end credit sequences, the first without vocals and the second with them.
• "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.
• For my money, "Fade Away" from InFamous 2 is a pretty good example, especially given the endings.
• "Heavenly Star" by the Genki Rockets, featured in Lumines II, No More Heroes, and most recently Child of Eden. It actually was nominated for Best Song at the 2006 Spike TV Video Game Awards.
  • Better yet, "Flow", the ending credits song to Child of Eden, although it hasn't won any awards yet. Also somewhat of a Tear Jerker.
• The Japanese version of R-Type FINAL had an Award Bait version of Shiina Hekiru'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.
• "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.
• "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.
• Sayonara, from Pokémon Black and White, is an instrumental version of this. It plays at the end when N says goodbye to you.
• 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.
• "Remember You" from Dance Dance Revolution 5th Mix (and the acoustic version from Extreme PSX JP), "Be in My Paradise" from DDR Club Mix, and "Graduation" from DDR Extreme.

Visual Novel

• 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.

Western Animation

• Disney songs:
  • "Beauty and the Beast" from Beauty and the Beast.
    • "A Change in Me" from the later runs of the Broadway adaptation.
  • "A Whole New World" from Aladdin
    • "A Million Miles Away", a new addition to the stage musical.
    • "Proud of Your Boy", a Cut Song prior to the musical.
  • "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from The Lion King.
    • Alternate version from a Disney Sing-Along Songs video that 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 as well.
  • "Part Of Your World from The Little Mermaid.
    • Which almost became a cut song because ONE boy yawned during the test screening. The director fought tooth and nail to keep the sequence, even pointing out the ludicrous idea of "one snot-nosed brat" being the the only reason to cut it.
  • "If I Never Knew You" from Pocahontas. Curiously, in the original theatrical version it was only featured during the end credits (the animated sequence didn't perform well with the test audiences); another insert song, Colors of the Wind took the Oscar.
  • "Someday" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame
    • Some would argue that "God Help The Outcasts" is the better Award Bait Song example even if it didn't get end credit billing. The music got "Best Score" Golden Globe and Oscar nominations but no "Best Song" nods.
  • "Go the Distance" from Hercules.
  • "You'll Be In My Heart" from Tarzan.
  • "Reflection" from Mulan.
  • "Can Somebody Tell Me Who I Am" from Dinosaur.
  • "My Funny Friend and Me", from The Emperors New Groove. 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.
  • "I'm Still Here" from Treasure Planet.
  • Even earlier than the Trope Maker "Somewhere Out There" is "Candle on the Water" from the 1977 Disney film Petes Dragon. It even got an Oscar nomination, but lost to the Award-Bait title tune from You Light Up My Life.
  • The Princess and the Frog has "Never Knew I Needed" by Ne-Yo. It's a little more R&B than other examples, but then you hear that synthy sparkle. Ahhh...
  • There's no cover of it during the credits, but "I See The Light" from Tangled certainly counts.
    • The UK release did include a cover of "I See The Light.
  • "Where The Dream Takes You" from Atlantis the Lost Empire.
  • "Look Through My Eyes" from Brother Bear.
  • "I Thought I Lost You" from Bolt.
  • "Wherever The Trail May Lead" from Home on the Range.
    • And from the princess who started it all we have this.
• Thumbelina, another Don Bluth film, had "Let me be your wings", sung by Barry Manilow and Debra Byrd.
• Barry Manilow does another end-credits cover of "Now and Forever" from The Pebble and the Penguin with Sheena Easton.
• The awesome songs didn't start with Don Bluth with An American Tail, but rather with his Cult Classic Gem Secret of NIMH and the song "Flying Dreams" sung by Paul Williams. Can be found here
• Another Don Bluth example: The Land Before Time showed us how to do this right with "If We Hold On Together". Throughout the film, the song appears as a by-turns plaintive, hopeful, and triumphant instrumental, finally building to Diana Ross' vocal version - over the end credits, naturally.
• Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston's "Dueling Divas" collaboration, "When You Believe" from The Prince of Egypt. (The original version of the song that's featured in the movie, is performed by Michelle Pfeiffer and Sally Dworsky.) It won the Oscar over two other examples in the page, "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" and "The Prayer".
• Pixar, which broke early on from the Disney musical formula and tends to have few (if any) songs in their movies, save for the credits song, often written by Randy Newman:
  • When Somebody Loved Me from Toy Story 2, sung by Sarah McLachlan.
  • Our Town from Cars, sung by James Taylor (one of the few songs in the soundtrack that's not a cover).
  • Down To Earth, by Peter Gabriel, from WALL-E. (lost to Slumdog Millionaire, whose two songs surprisingly didn't cancel each other out like Enchanted's three)
• Father and Daughter from The Wild Thornberrys Movie by Paul Simon. Yes, that Paul Simon.
• "A Dream Worth Keeping" from Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest. A little unusual in that it appeared during a lovey-dovey sequence in the movie and was not reprised over the end credits.
• Played painfully 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. There's another award bait song over the end credits, "Eternity", performed (in English) by the Japanese group Dreams Come True.
  • "Magic of Love" from The Swan Princess 2.
• Anastasia has two: "Journey to the Past" and "At The Beginning". And, arguably, a third: "Once Upon a December" (though some would argue that's more of a bonus "I Want" Song).
• Naturally, South Park Bigger Longer and Uncut took this one on with Satan's big ballad, "Up There", which specifically lampoons "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid and "Out There" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
  • Even better is "Through the Eyes of a Child", played over the end credits. It's performed by Michael McDonald (of the Doobie Brothers) for an extra parody kick.
  • 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...
    • Although Robin Williams' performance of the song at the Oscars was a Crowning Moment of Awesome Music.
  • The nomination of "Blame Canada" over the more normal Award Bait option of "Up There" is even funnier given that the latter is about the only song in the entire movie lacking profanity. The idea of "Blame Canada" even being performed at the Oscars was a bit controversial back in 2000 with some of the content.

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

• "Love Will Find A Way" from The Lion King II
• "Dreams To Dream" from An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.
• Even earlier than most of these examples--in fact, even earlier than the Trope Maker--is "We've Made It To the Top" from the 1980 animated movie Animalympics.
• While not an original song (and thus ineligible for Award Bait), the original Shrek uses Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (as performed by John Cale) as its Award Bait Song.
  • That said, Shrek actually does have an original Award Bait Song, it's just mostly on the soundtrack: "It Is You", which also uses the tune of the movie's instrumental theme, True Love's Kiss.
• Batman: Mask of the Phantasm: "I Never Even Told You" is really quite good.
• The Tigger Movie gave us the heart-wrenching but still wonderfully beautiful "Your Heart Will Lead You Home".
  • Additionally, Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin gave us "Wherever You Are".
  • And "The More I Look Inside" from Piglet's Big Movie.
• Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli's The Prayer from Quest for Camelot.
• Balto has "Reach For The Light" by Steve Winwood.
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron arguably has several of these, but there are two that fit best- "Here I Am", which is both the opening song as well as playing over the credits, and "I Will Always Return", which plays as the finale of the movie. And to top it off, BOTH are sung by Bryan Adams.
• "Still" from Over the Hedge.
• "Whatever You Imagine" from The Pagemaster.
• "Once Upon a Time With Me" from Once Upon a Forest.
• All Dogs Go to Heaven ended on "Love Survives". While the song is a Tear Jerker on its own, it's even worse if you know the Reality Subtext: It was dedicated to Judith "Ducky" Barsi, who was murdered by her father.
  • From it's sequel, All Dogs Go to Heaven 2, there's "I Will Always Be With You."
• The first Rugrats lacked this, but not the second film, giving us "When you love". by Sinead O'Connor! (Didn't get nominated, and at least one newspaper review even expected it to be snubbed for the above mentioned Grinch song, which also wasn't nommed either.)
  • David Bowie had actually written Safe (the B-side for his 2002 single Everyone Says 'Hi' ) for the first movie, but its removal (presumably) resulted in the first movie's lack of an Award Bait Song.
    • Seriously? Does nobody remember "Take me there"!?
• "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 sequence the Disney Acid Sequence.
• "If Only" from the Batman the Brave And The Bold episode Mayhem Of The Music Meister!.
• The upcoming Looking for Group movie 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.
• "Believe", from The Polar Express.
• "What If" from Christmas Carol: The Movie, sung by Kate Winslet.
• As Long As There's Christmas from Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, sung by Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack. Was also nominated for an award at the 1998 Annie Awards.
• The Disney Princesses, given their origin, actually have a whole Award Bait Song of their own. It's called "If You Can Dream", and it features the original Princess' voice actors returning to reprise their roles.
  • Their new theme song, "The Glow," is just as award-baity, if not more.
• The notorious Titanic cartoon just wouldn't be a complete knockoff of the James Cameron hit without its own sappy ballad, and Holding Me delivers.
• Always Come Back To You from The Nutcracker Prince.
  • This troper does remember a version heard on the radio during Operation Desert Storm, that featured the voices of the (then) active service men and women, telling their loved ones they missed them. The version that does deserve the award, when you think about it.
• Thanks to Executive Meddling that insisted on shoehorning the movie 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".
• Tom and Jerry: The Movie has "Do I Miss You?" which is on par with the rest of the movie (i.e., not good).
• "Show Me the Light" from Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer: The Movie. Sung by the team from Dirty Dancing (Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes).
• "Someone Like Me" from Doug's 1st Movie and Doug Live
• The theme song to the English dub of The World of David the Gnome.
• "Love Is The Reason" from Happily Ever After.
• "My Kingdom of The Heart" from The Princess and the Pea.
• "In Your Arms" from The Scarecrow.
• Hell, SpongeBob SquarePants had one. "This Grill is Not a Home".

Other Media

• Disney loves this trope soooooo much, that they finish EPCOTs Big Damn Pyrotechnics Show Illuminations: Reflections of Earth with one of these.
  • This trope extends into the other parks, at the Magic Kindgom its in the form of a duet reprise of the song Wishes played after the fireworks show of the same name, and at the Beauty and the Beast Show at Disneys Hollywood Studios guests exit the show while the Celine Dion version plays.
  • If you visit a Disney Theme Park during a Milestone Celebration, and decide to buy one of the soundtracks the gift shops are selling, expect it to include a brand-new Award Bait Song. One example includes "Remember the Magic", sung by Brian McKnight and written for Walt Disney World's 25th anniversary. A rewritten version now plays during the "Believe...in Holiday Magic" fireworks show. Disneyland's 50th brought "Remember When", sung by LeAnn Rimes and written by Richard Marx. The latter song plays after the "Remember...Dreams Come True" fireworks show, and was sung live at the park by Rimes on May 5, 2005.
  • Naturally, 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.)
  • Hell, Disney is so in love with this trope that for a whole Space Mountain had its own Big Damn Bronze-Age Disney Style Award-Baiting Exit Tunnel Power Ballad. Something surprisingly moving 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.
• 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.