“Happy” was the Pharrell Williams song from Despicable Me 2 nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. It appeared during the film’s end credits and became the movie’s signature musical hit.
Williams wrote “Happy” for the sequel’s soundtrack with production and music contributions connected to the film’s composer, Heitor Pereira. Although the soundtrack contains several songs, “Happy” was the only track released as a single, arriving on November 21, 2013, several months after the film opened.
The song received its Oscar nomination at the 86th Academy Awards, held on March 2, 2014. It competed against “Let It Go” from Frozen, “The Moon Song” from Her, and “Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. “Let It Go” won, so the nomination is sometimes misremembered as an Oscar victory.
A nearby fact fans often confuse is that “Happy” was not the title song of Despicable Me 2. It was an original Williams composition created for the sequel and later became a major standalone pop hit.