original

The 2026 original song contenders come from deep inside the characters singing them: a simple man wistfully looking back on his ordinary life; a budding bluesman with talent to burn down the house; a 17-time Oscar nominee; a demon-hunting K-pop star channeling the real-life singer-songwriter behind her; and a joyous expression of life from inside a documentary’s main “character,” a retirement home for musicians.

‘Dear Me’ from ‘Diane Warren: Relentless’

Music and lyrics by Diane Warren

Diane Warren in “Diane Warren: Relentless.”

(Don Holtz)

When 17-time Oscar nominee Diane Warren agreed to be in a documentary about her life, she found herself back in her childhood home in Van Nuys — specifically the bathroom where she wrote songs as an angsty teen.

“The acoustics in that bathroom were always great,” she says. “It was cool to go back and look at the bedroom window I used to sneak out of. I’m always connected to that 14-year-old me, with a guitar my dad bought me.”

Inspired by the documentary’s examination of her troubled youth, Warren wrote an “It gets better” ballad sung by Kesha: “Dear me, it’s gonna be all right, all right / Trust me, all of the pain is gonna fade.”

“I get notes from all ages; the song makes them feel like they could hug the little kid inside them,” says Warren. “It’s a love song to your younger self.”

‘Golden’ from ‘KPop Demon Hunters’

Music and lyrics by Ejae, Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seon and Teddy Park

A scene from “KPop Demon Hunters.”

(Netflix via Associated Press)

Though “Golden” went to No. 1 and has been winning awards, singer and co-writer Ejae still connects “one hundred million percent” to its painful roots in her own, frustrated K-pop dreams.

She related to the film’s protagonist, Rumi, a monster-fighting singer who is secretly part monster herself. “She has this side that she’s so ashamed of, that she was born with. I struggled with my own demons that I was ashamed of, growing up in the K-pop industry, [harshly critiqued for] my physical appearance, my voice, my personality.

“Even when writing ‘Golden,’ things were just not happening. It was a really bad time.”

Yet the hit is a catchy K-pop banger.

“It was very cathartic,” she says. “I remember crying while recording the demo. I was desperate.

“Now when I sing it, it’s a different feeling. I was able to reach a dream, and it makes me feel like this is who I was meant to be.”

‘I Lied to You’ from ‘Sinners’

Music and lyrics by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson

Miles Caton, center, in “Sinners.”

(Warner Bros. Pictures)

Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” features a central moment of musical ecstasy. Emerging bluesman Sammie plays a song he wrote as a confession to his pastor father, a paean to the music he loves. As the juke joint crowd responds, he loses himself in the timeless transcendence artists hope for.

Co-writer Ludwig Göransson says, “It doesn’t happen very often, but you have those experiences when you really are getting into the music and time and space disappears. Ryan’s not a musician, but it was written like he’s been in that position.”

In cosmic communion, practitioners of Black music from many eras appear to Sammie, the joint’s roof combusting in his mind. Göransson assisted in the Dolby Atmos mix, moving the music and sound around spatially as the camera travels.

Co-writer Raphael Saadiq says, “Sammie’s father felt secular music was devil music. Even today, you have people who go to church who don’t listen to the blues [for that reason], but deep down inside, they love it because it’s something we inherited from our ancestors.”

‘Sweet Dreams of Joy’ from ‘Viva Verdi!’

Music and lyrics by Nicholas Pike

Milan’s Casa Verdi, a retirement home for musicians depicted in “Viva Verdi!”

(Viva Verdi! LLC)

Even those who know little about opera have heard of Giuseppe Verdi. What many don’t know is one of his most enduring accomplishments is Casa Verdi — a retirement home for musicians. Yvonne Russo’s documentary “Viva Verdi!” captures the vibrant life inside its walls, expressed in the aria “Sweet Dreams of Joy,” sung by soprano Ana María Martínez and composed by Nicholas Pike.

The filmmakers “sent me this 12-minute assembly, kind of like a teaser, and that’s all I saw,” says Pike. “The passion, the vitality of these residents, the mentoring of young, up-and-coming artists … I went over to the piano and wrote the song.”

He says the whole thing took about a day to craft, with its contemporary piano figures and classical vocals, imbued with the vivaciousness of Casa Verdi’s residents.

He wanted to capture the footage’s “energy and life and hope. We’ve all been to retirement homes; they can be pretty down places. This is 180 degrees from that.”

‘Train Dreams’ from ‘Train Dreams’

Music by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner; lyrics by Nick Cave

Joel Edgerton in “Train Dreams.”

(Netflix)

When “Train Dreams” star Joel Edgerton called Nick Cave to work with composer Bryce Dessner on a song for the film, the postpunk poet and art rocker was on holiday, avoiding the “attendant agony” of songwriting. But Denis Johnson’s book happened to be a favorite of Cave’s.

Edgerton sent him the film. Cave says, “I sat up in bed and watched it with Bryce’s gorgeous score and fell asleep and had a kind of fever dream with all the images of this extraordinary film, and woke up with the lyrics fully formed, which is extremely unusual for me.”

He went to the hotel’s breakfast room, where there was a piano. “It all just sort of poured out of me. The melody and the lyrics fit perfectly to Bryce’s score.”

The song expresses “the inarticulate wonder at the world that the lead character has. There’s this chordal thing after the refrain, that rises up — an expression of that wonder, rising out of the grief.

“‘This has been going on for years … I can’t begin to tell you how that feels.’”

Madeline Duggan starred as EastEnders’ mischievous teenager Lauren Branning for four years, but the 31-year-old actress has come a long way since her days in Albert Square

Madeline Duggan looks worlds away from the chaos-creating character who brought to life one of EastEnders‘ biggest moments.

The actress, who originally played Lauren Branning in the BBC soap, looked completely different from her Walford days as she glammed up for a selfie. Madeline, 31, starred as Max Branning’s eldest daughter from 2006 until 2010, with Jacqueline Jossa then taking on the role.

Lauren famously exposed her dad, Max’s, affair with her daughter-in-law, Stacey’s, in the epic 2007 Christmas special, with her shocked family watching a videotape that revealed the sordid secret. Madeline looks nearly unrecognisable from her time on the soap, after leaving more than 15 years ago.

She is all grown up and she is quick to keep fans up to date with what’s going on in her life. Sitting in a black robe, she showed off her stylish cut after showing off some jet-setting holidays in 2025.

In her latest selfie, she wrote: “Dareee l say… I’m really enjoying the Kylie skin tint & Rhodes blush, but this now means I wanna try the Khy B10k foundation.” She quickly followed that up with another Instagram Story, a ‘well-deserved’ Pina Colada.

After leaving EastEnders, Madeline landed roles in the TV show Rules of Love, before securing a role as the character Amy Chester in the acclaimed BBC crime drama Silent Witness.

A year later, the versatile actress starred in the British film Everyone’s Going to Die, cast as the character Laura in a storyline based on a couple embracing their past and moving on with their lives.

In 2017, she played a waitress in the Channel 4 drama Dates and also had a role in Sky Atlantic’s French detective series The Tunnel: Sabotage and Home Alone.

She also appeared in a number of other films during her eclectic career, including Between Us, Spoilt Eggs, and Maybe I’m Fine in 2019. Madeline has also appeared in two music videos, for the bands Feeder and Shaduno, with acting still high on her priority list. But it’s her role in the iconic Max/Stacey affair-reveal that she is best known for.

Arguably one of the most iconic moments in TV soap history, EastEnders viewers were glued to the screen as Max and Stacey’s sordid affair was finally revealed in front of Max’s wife Tanya and Stacey’s husband, Bradley.

After filming the pair on her video camera on Stacey’s wedding day, angry Lauren burned the footage onto a DVD before playing it to the entire family on Christmas Day.

Madeline revealed in April 2020 that she was working part-time in a doctor’s surgery because “being an out-of-work actress doesn’t pay”.

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