Surprise! Lady Gaga Is Performing ‘Hold My Hand’ at the Oscars After All (EXCLUSIVE)

Thania Garcia, Marc Malkin and Jazz Tangcay
·2 min read
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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.

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“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”).

Gaga’s nomination for “Hold My Hand” makes her the first artist to receive three nominations in the category following nominations for “Til It Happens to You” from “The Hunting Ground,” and “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born,” both of which she performed on the telecast. In 2015, she also performed a medley of four songs from “The Sound of Music” to honor that film on its 50th anniversary.

“Shallow” won the award in 2019, granting Gaga her first Oscars win alongside co-writers Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt and Anthony Rossomando. The commercially successful track also won a Golden Globe, a Broadcast Film Critics Association award and a Grammy. That same year, Gaga was also nominated in the best actress category for her performance in “A Star Is Born.”

“Hold My Hand” is one of six nominations that “Top Gun: Maverick” received, including best picture.

The Oscars will broadcast live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on ABC on Sunday evening at 5 p.m. PT.

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