Los Angeles: Singer Lady Gaga’s number ‘Hold My Hand’, from the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack, is nominated for Best Original Song at the ceremony but she will be unable to join the other shortlisted artists at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theater due to scheduling conflicts with Joker: Folie a Deux, in which she plays Harley Quinn.
Oscars producer Glenn Weiss said during the Oscars Creative Team press conference: “We have great relationships with Lady Gaga and her camp (but) she’s in the middle of shooting a movie right now, and here we are honouring 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, that she’s used to and all that stuff.”
“So she is not going to perform on the show, however, this is all, from our point of view, about someone making a movie and us completely understanding that that’s what is a priority in this business, especially when we are honouring movies.”
While Gaga, who performed at the 2019 Oscars with Bradley Cooper, when Shallow from their movie A Star Is Born won Best Original Song, won’t be singing at this year’s ceremony, the other nominated acts are all confirmed to perform, including Rihanna (‘Lift Me Up’ from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Sofia Carson and Diane Warren (‘Applause’ from ‘Tell It Like a Woman’), David Byrne, Son Lux and Stephanie Hsu (‘This Is a Life’ from ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’, and Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava (‘Naatu Naatu’ from RRR).
In addition, Lenny Kravitz will sing during the In Memoriam segment.