Sunday night’s Oscars telecast on ABC may be able to boast a performance by Rihanna, but unfortunately, Lady Gaga will be a no-show.
Oscars EP and showrunner Glenn Weiss told reporters on Wednesday that Gaga, nominated for Best Original Song for her Top Gun: Maverick song “Hold My Hand,” wouldn’t be performing at the ceremony.
“I would love to say, ‘No I can’t confirm,’ but y’know what? I’m gonna tell ya,” Weiss told reporters. “So here’s where we are: We actually invited all five nominees — we have great relationships with Lady Gaga and her camp — [but] she is in the middle of shooting a movie right now, and here we are honoring the movie industry and what it takes to make a movie.”
Some had suspected that Gaga wouldn’t be able to make it due to her filming the movie Joker: Folie à Deux. But the irony of Gaga not being able to attend a ceremony honoring movies because she’s busy making one isn’t lost on Weiss, either.
“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,” Weiss explained. “So she is not going to perform on the show.”
“However, this is all from our point of view of somebody making a movie and us completely understanding that that’s what’s a priority in this business,” he noted. “Especially when we’re honoring movies.”
In addition to Rihanna, who’ll be performing “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, viewers will see performances of songs from the movies Everything Everywhere All At Once, Tell It Like a Woman and RRR.
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