Lady Gaga brings down the house with ‘Hold My Hand’ at Oscars 2023
Lady Gaga definitely knows how to make everyone gag.
And she did just that during a raw, stripped-to-the-bone Oscar performance of her nominated “Top Gun: Maverick” tune “Hold My Hand” that was a last-minute surprise.
Dressed in a black T-shirt and ripped jeans and makeup free, she wrung every bit of emotion out of the tune, finding new depth in the song that is no “Shallow.”
“It’s deep and personal for me,” she said before singing the song. “And we all need heroes some time.”
But before her powerhouse performance of the power ballad, she noted that it’s great when “you get to be your own hero.”
After a week during which it was assumed that the Oscar-winning diva would be a no-show to sing “Hold My Hand” at this year’s Academy Awards, the pop superstar pulled a late twist at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Although it was expected that Gaga would not be able to perform due to the demands of shooting the “Joker” sequel “Joker: Folie à Deux” with Joaquin Phoenix, apparently she couldn’t resist the chance to take the stage on Hollywood’s starriest night.
But during his creative team press conference, just four days ago on Wednesday, Oscars executive producer and showrunner Glenn Weiss was singing a different tune.
While making it clear that “we have a great relationship with Lady Gaga and her camp,” Weiss said, “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. So, she is not going to perform on the show.”
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Still, Gaga — who won the Best Original Song for “Shallow” (from “A Star Is Born”) — was thrilled about her third nomination in the category.
“Thank you so much to the Academy for nominating my song ‘Hold My Hand’ for an Oscar this year!” she wrote on Instagram after the nominations were revealed in January. “Writing this song for the film ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ was a deep and powerful experience that I will never forget. So grateful for the magic of music and cinema.”
