Lady Gaga Performs "Hold My Hand" In Just A T-Shirt And Jeans At The Oscars
It was a stripped back rendition.
Is it really an Oscars ceremony if Lady Gaga isn't there?
The actress and global superstar made a surprise appearance (and performance) at the 95th annual Academy Awards on Sunday. The Oscar winner was nominated once again in the Best Song category for her record "Hold My Hand" from last year's blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick. It wasn't confirmed until the day of the ceremony that the singer would make an appearance since she's been busy filming the musical sequel to Todd Philipp's Joker film titled Folie à Deux, alongside Joaquin Phoenix. Lady Gaga joined fellow Best Song nominees including Rihanna, Sofia Carson and Diane Warren, Stephanie Hsu, David Byrne and Son Lux, and Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava for memorable performances throughout the night.
For her (champagne) carpet appearance, the superstar wore a fresh off the runway gown courtesy of Versace with bold smoky eye makeup and a vibrant red lip. For the performance however, Gaga stripped back —literally— by removing all her makeup and opting for a plain black t-shirt, ripped jeans, and platform converse, and chose to perform an acoustic rendition of the song.
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Photo: Getty Images
Lady Gaga performing at the 2023 Oscars
“There’s heroes all around us in unassuming places," the singer stated before starting the song. "But you might find that you can be your own hero even if you feel broken inside.” You can watch the performance in full, below.
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The star of Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise, previously praised Lady Gaga for her involvement in the film and helping craft the accompanying soundtrack.
"It just opened up the whole movie. She's amazing," Cruise previously told James Corden, per People. "It just opened those doors to the emotional core of the film that we had ... in that moment, things just came together in such a beautiful way. Her song that she'd written just fell right in and became, really, the underlying score and the heartbeat of our film."
This article originally appeared in Harper's BAZAAR US.
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