Sorry, Little Monsters: Lady Gaga won’t be singing at this year’s Oscars.
MARCH 12 UPDATE: According to our sister site Variety, Gaga will now perform “Hold My Hand” during Sunday’s Oscar broadcast, following a “last-minute back-and-forth effort” to get her to the show.
Oscars executive producer Glenn Weiss initially said on March 8 that the pop superstar wouldn’t perform her nominated song from Top Gun: Maverick at Sunday’s ceremony. The culprit? Gaga’s packed schedule. She’s too busy shooting her role opposite Joaquin Phoenix in the much-anticipated big-screen sequel Joker: Folie à Deux to prepare a proper performance.
“We invited all five nominees,” Weiss told reporters during a virtual press conference, per Variety. “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.”
The Oscars ceremony traditionally has all five nominees for Best Original Song perform their songs live. This year’s other four nominated songs are set to be performed on Sunday: “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (performed by Rihanna), “This Is a Life” from Everything Everywhere All at Once (performed by Stephanie Hsu, David Byrne and Son Lux), “Naatu Naatu” from RRR (performed by Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava) and “Applause” from Tell It Like a Woman (performed by Sofia Carson and Diane Warren).
Who are you rooting for at this year’s Oscars? Hit the comments to share your picks.
