Billie Eilish & Finneas Win Their Second Songwriting Oscar in 3 Years: Who Else Has Done That?

At the 2024 Oscars on Sunday (March 10), Billie Eilish and Finneas won their second Oscar for best original song in three years.

The siblings won in that category in 2022 for “No Time to Die,” from the James Bond film of the same name. They won again this year with “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie, becoming the first songwriter or songwriting team to win twice in the space of three years since Tim Rice won in 1993, 1995 and 1997. Rice co-wrote those songs with three different collaborators.

Eilish and Finneas are the first songwriting team to win twice in the space of three years since Alan Menken & Howard Ashman, who won in 1990 for “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid and in 1992 with the title song from Beauty and the Beast.

“What Was I Made For?” prevailed over another song from Barbie, “I’m Just Ken (co-written by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt). This year’s other nominees for best original song were “The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot (Diane Warren), “It Never Went Away” from American Symphony (Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson) and “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon (Scott George).

Here are all of the songwriting teams, or individual songwriters, who have won two Oscars for best original song in the space of three years. As you’ll see, one songwriting team and one individual songwriter won back-to-back awards in this category. (Bonus points if you can name them without scrolling ahead.) The years shown are the years of the Oscar ceremonies.

Paul Grein

Billboard