It looks like Lady Gaga was able to clear her schedule. Sources say she will sing her Oscar-nominated Top Gun: Maverick at tonight’s Academy Awards ceremony after all.
This afternoon, Variety reported that multiple insiders revealed Lady Gaga will give a surprise performance of Hold My Hand. The news comes only days after Oscars executive producer and showrunner Glenn Weiss confirmed the opposite.
During a press conference, Weiss said Gaga would not appear at the ceremony because she has been too busy filing Joker: Folie à Deux to properly prepare.
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“We have a great relationship with Lady Gaga and her camp,” he said on March 8, per Variety. “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.
Lady Gaga’s song, which she wrote with Bloodpop, is up for Song of the Year. Four other singles are also up for the award, including Dianne Warren’s Applause from Tell it Like a Woman, Rihanna’s Lift Me Up from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, M.M. Keeravani’s Naatu Naatu from RRR, and Mitski’s This Is a Life from Everything Everywhere All at Once.
During the same press conference, Weiss shared that all the other singers had confirmed that they would perform their songs during the event.
Lady Gaga’s Original Song ‘Hold My Hand’ is one of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’s 6 Oscar Nods
Lady Gaga’s nomination is one of six for Top Gun: Maverick. The 2022 blockbuster is also in the running for Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Maverick has been a record-breaking fan-favorite film, which has given it an edge against its competition. However, in recent days, it has come under fire for its supposed ties to a Russian oligarch.
In January, reports broke that Dmitry Rybolovlev had silently funded the film through LA-based New Republic Pictures. Rybolovlev is one of several Russian billionaires sanctioned by Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On Saturday (March 11), The Ukrainian World Congress penned an open letter to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and asked it to pull Top Gun: Maverick’s Oscar eligibility because of the investor. Whether the connection hurts the movie’s chances tonight are is unclear.
The Oscars kick off tonight at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. You can watch the red carpet walk and the results come in live on ABC starting at 5 p.m. PT.
