"I Lied to You" is a song by Miles Caton from the soundtrack of the 2025 Ryan Coogler film Sinners. Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson wrote and produced the track, which was released on April 18, 2025. "I Lied to You" received nominations for Best Original Song at the 98th Academy Awards, Best Original Song at the 83rd Golden Globes, Best Song at the 31st Critics' Choice Awards, and Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards but lost all to "Golden" from KPop Demon Hunters (2025).
Background Coogler brought Saadiq onto the project about a week before filming started in New Orleans in April 2024. Saadiq had been sitting on the central lyric for years. As a young man of about nineteen, unable to tell a girlfriend the truth, he came up with the phrase "they say the truth hurts, so I lied to you" and thought it belonged in a blues song. He and Göransson wrote and demoed "I Lied to You" in a single session at Göransson's studio, finishing in roughly two hours. They later cut the final version at Royal Studios in Memphis with producer Lawrence "Boo" Mitchell.
Saadiq noted that the humming on the track drew on "devotion-type singing" from Union Baptist Church, where he grew up. Coogler's team wanted Saadiq to put out his own demo as a companion release, but Saadiq turned the idea down, saying listeners should only hear Caton.
Context in the film In the film, Caton plays Sammie "Preacher Boy" Moore, who performs the song at a juke joint in the Mississippi Delta circa 1932. During the number, spirits from different eras of African-American music begin to materialize in the room. Sammie is a preacher's son who has turned to the blues against his father's wishes, and the lie of the title is his way of sparing his father that knowledge.
Live performances Caton performed "I Lied to You" with Saadiq and Göransson on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in January 2026.
On March 15, 2026, Caton and Saadiq performed the song at the 98th Academy Awards on a replica juke joint stage. They were joined by Buddy Guy (who plays an older Sammie in the film), Shaboozey, Brittany Howard, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, Bobby Rush, Alice Smith, Eric Gales, and Misty Copeland. Only two of the five Best Original Song nominees were performed on the broadcast that year, the other being "Golden" from KPop Demon Hunters.
Accolades Award Year Category Result Academy Awards 2026 Best Original Song Astra Film Awards 2026 Best Original Song Black Reel Awards 2026 Outstanding Original Song Critics' Choice Awards 2026 Best Original Song Golden Globes 2026 Best Original Song Grammy Awards 2026 Best Song Written for Visual Media Guild of Music Supervisors Awards 2026 Best Song Written and/or Recorded for a Film Houston Film Critics Society 2026 Best Original Song Satellite Awards 2026 Best Original Song Society of Composers & Lyricists 2026 Outstanding Original Song for a Dramatic or Documentary Visual Media Production Georgia Film Critics Association 2025 Best Original Song Hollywood Music in Media Awards 2025 Best Original Song – Feature Film Best Original Song – On-Screen Performance (Film) St. Louis Film Critics Association 2025 Best Scene World Soundtrack Awards 2025 Best Original Song Written Directly for a Film
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