Lady Gaga is expected to make a surprise appearance at the Oscars on Sunday night to perform “Hold My Hand,” the Oscar-nominated song from “Top Gun: Maverick,” according to several insiders who spoke to Variety on the condition of anonymity.
The decision seemed to be a last-minute back-and-forth effort as Gaga was initially reported to be skipping the awards show due to demands on filming “Joker: Folie à Deux.” Oscars executive producer and showrunner Glenn Weiss first stated that Gaga would not be performing during a creative team press conference on March 8.
“We have a great relationship with Lady Gaga and her camp. She is in the middle of shooting a movie right now. Here, we are honoring the movie industry and what it takes to make a movie after a bunch of back and forth… It didn’t feel like she can get a performance to the caliber that we’re used to with her and that she is used to. So, she is not going to perform on the show,” Weiss said.
With Gaga now on the marquee, all of this year’s best original song nominees have been confirmed for performances at the Oscars, including Rihanna (“Lift Me Up”), Sofia Carson and Diane Warren (“Applause”), Stephanie Hsu, David Byrne and Son Lux (“This Is a Life”) and Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava (“Naatu Naatu”).
When she was nominated, Gaga took to social media to share her gratitude. She wrote, “Thank you so much to the Academy for nominating my song ‘Hold My Hand’ for an Oscar this year! Writing this song for the film ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ was a deep and powerful experience that I will never forget. So grateful for the magic of music and cinema.” Giving props to her co-writer Bloodpop, she signed off with, “I’m on set filming now big love to little monsters!”
The Oscars will broadcast live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on ABC on Sunday evening at 5 p.m. PT.
Post source: variety
