The Best Movie Soundtrack Songs Of 2024

As Christmas approaches and New Year with it, we think it's safe to say that 2024 has been another banging year for movies — and it's been a hell of a year for movie bangers, too. From the Merc with a Mouth getting down to some NSYNC to Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott's star-crossed lovers dissolving into 'The Power Of Love', and from Cynthia Erivo defying gravity with her astonishing Elphaba to Barry Keoghan serenading a slimy amphibian, there has been no shortage of pitch perfect needle drops, mesmerising musical moments, showstopping vocals, and cinematic covers to revel in over the last twelve months.

And so, as we bid another year adieu, we thought it high-time to bring back Empire's Best Movie Soundtrack Songs list so you can kick off 2025 with a playlist full of certified bops. Below you will find top trailer tracks, end credit encores, and a whole lot of songs that have taken the films they've appeared in to the next level. So pop your earphones in — or crank your speakers to the max — and join us as we run through the tunes that have made 2024 another cinematic year to remember. Hit it!

The 20 Best Movie Soundtrack Songs Of 2024

Bye Bye Bye — NSYNC (Deadpool & Wolverine)

How do you bring back a beloved movie character when they've already had the perfect cinematic send-off? For Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy, the director and star of Deadpool & Wolverine — which brings Hugh Jackman's adamantium-clawed mutant back to our screens for the first time since his emotional death in 2017's Logan — the answer was thus: Crank up the *NSYNC and have your fourth-wall breaking anti-hero quite literally dance on his grave whilst weaponising his skeleton in an R-rated opening sequence for the ages. Everything about the ‘Bye Bye Bye’ needledrop — from the impeccable choice of millennium bop to the perfectly timed fight chore — is just spectacular. And it’s not even the movie’s only banger…

Like A Prayer  — Madonna (Deadpool & Wolverine)

Not only is Deadpool & Wolverine a real return to form for the MCU, but it also gave us one of the best movie trailers of 2024, too. A huge part of that trailer’s brilliance is its background accompaniment, an epic rendition of Madonna’s pop classic Like A Prayer, taken to new heights by the ethereal tones of the I’ll Take You There choir. It makes for goosebump inducing listening played out of context in a trailer. But in context, at the emotional climax of the movie, it’s transcendent — who’d’ve thunk a Madge x Marvel collab would provide one of the most emotional moments in cinema this year?

The Power Of Love — Frankie Goes To Hollywood (All Of Us Strangers)

Talking of emotional moments, next up we have a beautiful bit of balladry from Frankie Goes To Hollywood. As featured in All Of Us Strangers, Empire’s Best Movie of 2024, the British pop outfit’s ‘The Power Of Love’ serves as something of a love theme for lonely writer Adam (Andrew Scott) and drifter Harry (Paul Mescal), recurring throughout the movie as the duo’s relationship evolves. By the movie’s end, as Adam whispers to Harry “I’ll protect you from the hooded claw, keep the vampires from your door,” the song’s cosmic sense of longing is lifted to new heights, making it feel as if it were written just for these two star-crossed lovers. We still can’t listen to it without bursting into tears.

I Wanna Get Next To You – Adam Pearson (A Different Man)

If there is any justice in this world, then Adam Pearson should be a shoo-in for an Oscar nod for his turn as bona fide matinée idol Oswald in Aaron Schimberg’s darkly satirical thriller A Different Man. Smooth, charismatic, effortlessly funny and confident without ever coming over as bragadocious, Pearson — whose neurofibromatosis inspired Schimberg’s sideways study of what beauty and ugliness truly mean in a shallow society — is a magnetic force of nature opposite Sebastian Stan in the film. And should he get that Oscar nod, the clip the Academy will play must surely be Oswald’s killer karaoke sesh, in which he bangs out an otherworldly rendition of Rose Royce’s soul standard ‘I Wanna Get Next To You’. Unreal stuff.

Defying Gravity — Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande (Wicked)

We all know that Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande can sing — just take a look at our Spotify Wrapped/Apple Music Replays from the last decade or so. We all know that ‘Defying Gravity’ is one of the greatest show tunes of all time — again, just take a look at our Spotify Wrapped/Apple Music Replays from the last decade or so. But nothing could’ve prepared us for hearing Erivo and Grande’s ‘Defying Gravity’ in Jon M. Chu’s Wicked. Sending the movie musical epic out on a high note (literally), none of us could begrudge the rapturous applause audiences broke out in when Erivo belted that final run as Elphaba rose up into the sky. Pure magic!

Smalltown Boy – Bronski Beat (Love Lies Bleeding)

Another trailer track coming at you — and this time it’s gay synth-pop band Bronski Beat’s 1984 classic ‘Bronski Beat’ we’re firing up. Featured in the first trailer for Rose Glass’ queer-noir crime thriller Love Lies Bleeding (another fixture in our Top 20 Movies of 2024), this instrumentalised reworking of the song provides a perfect, synth-soaked backdrop to our first real look at Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian’s dangerous liaison. It’s sexy, enigmatic, dream-like, ethereal… the film in a song.

Beyond — Auli’i Cravalho (Moana 2)

In Disney’s Moana, Auli’i Cravalho’s titular Polynesian not-princess gave us one of the great ‘I Want’ songs in the House of Mouse’s illustrious canon with the Lin Manuel Miranda penned ‘How Far I’ll Go’. But while its sequel may suffer at times from the loss of LMM on songwriting duties, musical duo Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear did give Moana 2 a worthy follow-up in the shape of ‘Beyond’. Framed, boldly, as a literal response to ‘How Far I’ll Go’ (“I’ll go beyond,” confidently belts the Motunuian wayfinder here), this ballad capitalises on Cravalho’s maturation as a singer — and Moana’s as a character — to deal with a moment of doubt and present an empowering reaffirmation of self for our hero. In years to come, expect to see this creeping up Disney song ranking lists.

September — Earth, Wind & Fire (Robot Dreams)

The best needledrops are often the ones that make such an impact, you can never listen to that song again without thinking of the film you heard it in. By that dictum, the use of Earth, Wind & Fire’s funky classic ‘September’ in Pablo Berger’s gorgeous 2D animation Robot Dreams may be up there with the very best needledrops of all time. Centred around the special relationship shared between a dog and his beloved robot, pulled apart by circumstance and left searching for one another everywhere they go, Berger’s vibrant movie is entirely dialogue free. And yet the recurring presence of ‘September’ — early on as the soundtrack to the soon-to-be besties’ burgeoning friendship; later as a wistful yet still somehow joyous reminder of what once was — manages to perfectly encapsulate the rarified beauty of our dog-and-droid duo’s friendship. It’s been in our heads all year, and it just goes on and on and on and on…

Dana-Dan – Bloodywood (Monkey Man)

Dev Patel’s directorial debut Monkey Man is a no holds barred, balls-to-the-wall action movie quite unlike anything else you’ll see this year. And Indian folk metal outfit Bloodywood’s ‘Dana-Dan’, which soundtracks the moment in the film’s immense nightclub fight scene where the hijras — a bad-ass band of trans femme warriors — show up and strut their stuff, is quite unlike anything else you’ll hear this year. The apocalyptic drums, the wrathful shredding of gained-out electric guitars, Jayant Bhadula’s unearthly growl — it’s everything you could possibly want from a needledrop on the best action sequence of the year.

Eternal Flame — The Bangles (Speak No Evil)

When we first learned that Christian Tafdrup’s chilling horror-of-manners Speak No Evil was getting the Hollywood remake treatment, we were trepidatious to say the least. But we knew we were in safe hands with James Watkins’ adaptation when James McAvoy’s overfriendly host Paddy took new pal Ben (Scoot McNairy) out for an excruciatingly uncomfortable drive, serenading him with an incredibly intense — and instantly unforgettable — rendition of The Bangles’ ‘Eternal Flame’. “Do you understand? Do you feel the same?” has never felt quite so palpably threatening… well, except for when McAvoy delivers an altogether more literally fiery encore later in the film, anyway.

Baby One More Time — Tenacious D (Kung Fu Panda 4)

Kung Fu Panda 4 is a fine film, an ultimately extraneous but not unwelcome return to the world of master martial artist mammals and Jack Black’s panda Dragon Warrior Po. Not a classic, not a failure — just a solid movie. But it does have a secret weapon up its sleeve, and it waits right until the end credits to deploy it. Yes, just as the screen fades to black, an all-too-familiar three-note piano bass motif — granted an electric guitar upgrade — rings out, and satirical rock savants Tenacious D launch into a killer version of Britney Spears’ pop bop ‘Baby One More Time’. It’s a shortened version of the song, it holds no bearing on the film, and most cinemagoers had probably left by the time it kicked in… but for those of us who stayed, our patience was richly rewarded. Rock on!

Greatest Day — Take That ft. Calum Scott (Robin Schulz Rework) (Anora)

The lead single from Take That’s 2008 album The Circus may seem like an unconventional choice to serve as the soundtrack to Anora’s stripclub opening sequence — but then again, Sean Baker is an unconventional filmmaker. And in this particular instance, pepped up by Calum Scott’s featuring credit and Robin Schulz’ bassy club remix, the British boyband’s ode to seizing the day and coming together serves as oddly perfect backing to a line of athletic strippers — among them our protagonist, Ani (Mikey Madison) — getting down to business. We didn’t have ‘Greatest Day becomes sex worker anthem’ on our 2024 bingo card, but now we wouldn’t have it any other way.

H.O.O.D. – Kneecap

If you weren’t aware of Irish rap trio Kneecap before their eponymous movie came out earlier this year, then you almost certainly are now. A ‘mostly true’ origin story for the hip-hop collective —  Ó Cairealláin, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh and JJ Ó Dochartaigh (who all play themselves in the film) — Kneecap plays out like Derry Girls meets 8 Mile in the best possible way (there’s a reason the movie’s in our Top 20 films of 2024). And while any number of tracks could’ve landed themself a spot on this list, ‘H.O.O.D’ — a half-Irish, half-English, all-banger boom-bap rebel rap anthem — is the one that’s been really notching up the streams in the office for us. All together now… “I'm a H.O.O.D / Low-life scum, that's what they say about me / 'Cause I'm a H.O.O.D / Low-life scum, that's what they say about me.”

The Last Ballad Of Damrod — Bear McCreary & Jens Kidman (The Rings Of Power)

Lower your pitchforks, your axes, your bow-and-arrows — we know, The Rings Of Power is not a movie, no matter how cinematic Amazon’s billion-dollar Lord Of The Rings show may be. But we couldn’t talk about soundtrack songs from this year without acknowledging the moment in which composer Bear McCreary brought heavy metal to Middle-earth during the show’s spectacular Siege of Eregion. Backed by Meshuggah frontman Jens Kidman, ‘The Last Ballad Of Damrod’ is a primal howl from the bowels of Middle-earth, a cacophony of eldritch screams, crunching guitars, and thunderous drums that plays out as the titular Hill-troll wrecks house left, right, and centre.  “this is the most brutal thing I've ever heard in Lord of the Rings,” McCreary told Empire earlier this year, reflecting on seeing the track in the finished episode. “Nothing else is like it, but it works!’” We’ll say!

Live That Way Forever — Richard Reed Parry & Laurel Spengelmeyer (The Iron Claw)

Of the original film songs that have cut through and remained in heavy rotation at Empire offices in 2024, ‘Live That Way Forever’ from The Iron Claw could well be the best of the lot. Right at the heart of Sean Durkin’s movie about tragedy-stricken wrestling dynasty The Von Erichs is second-youngest brother Mike Von Erich (Stanley Simons), a tender soul whose musical ambitions eventually are forced out in favour of continuing the family business. But in one shining moment of levity amid the movie’s many traumas, Mike tears it up at a house party with this earworm of an 80s-style rock anthem as his brothers rally round. And if “I’ve been scared of the future, but I’m tougher than pain” doesn’t just sum up the whole movie, then we don’t know what else could.

Yellow — Coldplay (Bird)

Earlier in this list, we talked about how a well-placed needledrop can forever change the way we hear a song. Never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined the way Andrea Arnold deploys Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’ in her social-magical-realist drama Bird, though. Yes, somehow the most emotional scene in Arnold’s tender-hearted yet hard-edged study of life lived on society’s margins is the one in which Barry Keoghan, playing a fully-tatted young father named Bug, corrals his pals into serenading a toad with the weepy ballad in order to encourage it to produce hallucinogenic slime. The theory, as Bug explains, is that sincere emotion encourages the amphibian to excrete its lucrative ooze. And while we can’t exactly vouch for the science, nor explain the singular effect of seeing it play out, we can confirm that you’ll never hear ‘Yellow’ the same way again.

Claw Machine — Sloppy Jane ft. Phoebe Bridgers (I Saw The TV Glow)

Another one from a film featured in our top 20 movies of 2024, Sloppy Jane and Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘Claw Machine’ fits perfectly into the woozy, liminal world of Jane Schoenbrun’s queer psychological horror I Saw The TV Glow. Played in a bar called The Double Lunch that has more than a little bit of a Buffy vibe about it, ‘Claw Machine’ is a luscious, melancholic piano ballad filled with the kind of angst-addled lyrics (“I think I was born / Already missing you”) that cut to the core of isolated teens Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy’s (Brigette Lundy-Paine) strange, beautiful bond. In fairness, any TV Glow track could’ve been a contender for this list though, so treat yourself and add the whole thing to your listening rotation.

Space Oddity — David Bowie (Venom: The Last Dance)

Picture the scene: You’re watching Venom: The Last Dance. Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock/Venom, trying to process learning that one of them must die in order to stop nefarious symbiote god Knull, find themselves accompanying a hippy family headed up by Rhys Ifans on a camper van road trip. Suddenly, hippy Ifans decides it’s high time for a singalong, and within moments you’ve got a group rendition of David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ going, complete with Venom on backing vocals. It’s bizarre. It’s out of place. It’s arguably time that could’ve been better spent on literally anything else. And yet — and yet — what’s this? Tears? Running down our cheeks? How? We may never know. Onto the list it goes.

Where Is My Mind? — The Pixies (Thunderbolts* Trailer)

It wasn’t just the dysfunctional anti-hero team-up conceit that was giving us James Gunn vibes when the trailer dropped for Jake Schreier’s MCU movie The Dark Ave— er, Thunderbolts* (although that certainly didn’t hurt.) Rather, it was the impeccably placed needledrop on alternative rockers The Pixies’ ‘Where Is My Mind?’ that really got us hyped for a Guardians Of The Galaxy, The Suicide Squad tier ‘getting the team together’ flick. And while the trailer’s grounded action and array of elsewhere underserved characters finally getting their moment in the sun definitely got the pulses up here at Empire HQ, it was the Pixies power that sent our hype for this one through the roof.

Kiss The Sky — Maren Morris (The Wild Robot)

DreamWorks Animation’s adaptation of Peter Brown’s beloved children’s book The Wild Robot stole all of our hearts when it arrived in cinemas back in October. The touching tale of domestic droid Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), who crashlands on a remote island and — in the process of rewilding — learns to become a mother, Chris Sanders’ film isn’t short on weepy moments of astonishing visual and narrative beauty. But it’s the montage sequence in which Roz teaches gosling Brightbill (Kit Connor) to fly, set to Maren Morris’ lilting folk-inflected tune ‘Kiss The Sky’, that really put a lump in our throat. “Oh, my darlin', if you try / You just might kiss the sky.” *Sobs*