Photo: Justin Higuchi

Lady Gaga’s Stripped Down Oscar Performance: Look + Listen

Though she’d previously passed on singing live during the biggest night in movies, Lady Gaga surprises the Oscars audience when she performed her powerful ballad “Hold My Hand” on Sunday (3.12.)

Prior to her stripped down showcase, the superstar singer/actress (born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) stated “It’s deeply personal for me. We all need each other, we need a lot of love to walk through this life. We need heroes sometimes. There’s heroes all around us.” “You might find that you can be your own hero even if you feel broken inside.” 

Supported by a relatively sparse backing band, the singer traded the glamorous attire she arrived in for simple ripped jeans and a t-shirt without makeup.

Nominated for Best Original Song, “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick was written by Gaga wrote with BloodPop and was up against Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up;” Sofia Carson and Diane Warren’s “Applause;” M.M. Keeravani’s “Naatu Naatu;” and Ryan Lott, David Byrne, and Mitski’s “This Is a Life.”

The musician’s third Academy Award nod, Gaga was also nominated in 2019 for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her portrayal of Ally in A Star Is Born, where she won Best Original Song for “Shallow” from the film, alongside co-writers Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt, and Anthony Rossomando. She was previously nominated in 2016 for co-writing “Til It Happens to You” from The Hunting Ground.

The multihyphenate is returning to the big screen for her role as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn, in Joker: Folie à Deux, where Lady Gaga will star opposite Joaquin Phoenix’s titular character. The film is slated to arrive on Oct. 4, 2024.

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Author: Al Denté

Photo: Justin Higuchi