It must be clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition (not necessarily visually presented) of both lyric and melody, used in the body of the motion picture or as the first music cue in the end credits.

"[1] The original requirement was only that the nominated song appear in a motion picture during the previous year.

This rule was changed after the 1941 Academy Awards, when "The Last Time I Saw Paris", from the film Lady Be Good, with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, won.

Kern was upset because he thought that "Blues in the Night" by Harold Arlen (Music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) should have won.

Kern's song was actually written in 1940, after the Germans occupied Paris at the start of World War II.

Kern got the Academy to change the rule so that only songs that are "original and written specifically for the motion picture" are eligible to win.

There was a debate whether Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who were awarded the Oscar in 2008 for "Falling Slowly", were in fact eligible.

Only four films have featured three nominated songs: Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Dreamgirls, and Enchanted.

[9] By the time "We Don't Talk About Bruno" became the breakout hit from Encanto, the producers had for the 94th Academy Awards submitted "Dos Oruguitas", which was nominated but did not win.

(In the case of "The Look Of Love", sung by Dusty Springfield in Casino Royale, the positive reaction to the performance by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 on the 1968 telecast led to their version being released as a single and eventually becoming the bigger hit.)

When neither of those is able to do so (or in rare cases where the telecast producers decide to go with someone else), the Academy chooses more well-known entertainers to perform the song at the ceremony.

For example, Robin Williams performed "Blame Canada" from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut at the 72nd Academy Awards instead of the film's voice actors, Trey Parker and Mary Kay Bergman (Bergman died a few months before the show).

That same year, the song "Al otro lado del río" (On The Other Side Of The River), which was featured in the film The Motorcycle Diaries, won the award, becoming the first song in Spanish and the second in a non-English language to receive such an honor (the first winner was the title tune to Never on Sunday, which was sung in Greek in the film by its star, Melina Mercouri).

Drexler's acceptance speech for the award consisted of him singing a few lines a cappella and closed by simply saying "thank you".

According to representatives of both Collins' record company and Columbia Pictures, this was because the producers of the telecast were not familiar with his work.

[12] Gabriel still attended the ceremony, with John Legend performing the song in his place, backed by the Soweto Gospel Choir.