Barbra Streisand Says She Was 'Looking Forward' to Handing Eminem His Oscar Before He Bailed
Even Barbra Streisand was disappointed when Eminem decided to skip the 2003 Oscars.
The rapper, who was 30 at the time, won the Best Original Song category at the show, which Streisand, 77, was presenting. But to the surprise of the crowd, his cowriter Luis Resto was the one who accepted the award for the hit “Lose Yourself,” leaving attendees — including Streisand — miffed over missing out on seeing the rapper after the success of his movie 8 Mile.
“@eminem I had voted for your song too! Was really looking forward to handing you the award. Next time!” Streisand, 77, tweeted after the rapper, now 47, apologized for not attending on Sunday, 17 years later.
His apology came after he made amends for his absence by surprising the crowd at this year’s show with a performance of “Lose Yourself.”
His performance came after Lin-Manuel Miranda introduced a segment that looked through some of the most iconic Best Original Song winners. The montage then ended on a scene from Eminem’s 8 Mile, which then cut to the stage and a rising platform that revealed the rapper and a live orchestral band.
@eminem I had voted for your song too! Was really looking forward to handing you the award. Next time! 😜#Repost @eminem
・・・
Look, if you had another shot, another opportunity... Thanks for having me @theacademy. Sorry it took me 18 years to get here. pic.twitter.com/NyBBbgdm3N— Barbra Streisand (@BarbraStreisand) February 11, 2020
Most nominees tend to perform their songs on the stage, but Eminem skipped the 2003 ceremony altogether. Instead, the Detroit rapper was dozing at his home in Michigan with the TV tuned to cartoons for his daughter, Hailie, The Detroit Free Press reported at the time.
The rapper had earlier opted to sit out the swank ceremony, deciding it “wasn’t his sort of gig,” the paper noted.
“Look, if you had another shot, another opportunity… Thanks for having me @theacademy. Sorry it took me 18 years to get here,” Eminem wrote on Instagram Sunday, sharing a clip Resto accepting the award without him.
Last month, the Grammy-winner, 47, dropped an unannounced album titled Music to Be Murdered By.
“It’s your funeral…” Eminem wrote on Twitter, announcing the release and revealing the Alfred Hitchcock–inspired album art that depicts himself holding an ax and gun to his head. A second bloody album cover shows Eminem holding a shovel while wearing a suit and tie.
Across 20 tracks, the rapper’s 11th studio album taps into the star’s dark side, with songs like “Never Love Again,” “Lock It Up” and “Darkness,” which also came with a new music video that puts viewers in the POV of a mass shooter. At the end of the video, Eminem watches as a plethora of mass shooting headlines flash across several TV screens before asking the viewers: “When will this end?”
The video then includes a voting register link with the words, “Make your voice heard and help change gun laws in America.”
