Lady Gaga will not perform her anthemic “Top Gun: Maverick” ballad, “Hold My Hand,” on Sunday’s live Oscars telecast on ABC, according to show producer Glenn Weiss.
According to Deadline, the song will be included in clips for “Top Gun: Maverick” and while Gaga was intending to be available for the movies’ big night, her shooting schedule on Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie à Deux” will not allow her to attend this year’s ceremony.
The last time Gaga performed at the Oscars (in 2020, with “A Star Is Born” costar Bradley Cooper, getting everyone’s bee in a bonnet), she emerged an Academy Award winner for cowriting the high-octane song “Shallow,” and was also a Best-Actress nominee the same evening. But a Best Original Song win could happen all over again this year at Hollywood’s big night.
Ironically enough, fellow Oscar nominee Diane Warren will be performing, who was the cowriter of the tune that landed Gaga her first Oscar nomination, the moving “Til it Happens to You” from the sexual assault documentary “The Hunting Ground” in 2015.
If Gaga were to win for her “Maverick” contribution, she would share the award with super-producer BloodPop (who has worked with everyone from Madonna to Vampire Weekend) and would mark her second Oscar in only four years.
This announcement makes “Maverick” the only nominated movie in the Best Original Song category that will not feature a live-sung performance. The other previously-announced artists for the 2023 Oscar ceremony include Rihanna (for the “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” song “Lift Me Up),” David Byrne and Son Lux (featuring Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu) performing “This Is a Life” from “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Sofia Carson and Diane Warren performing “Applause” from “Tell It Like a Woman,” plus the “RRR” earworm “Naatu Naatu,” with performers still to be determined.
The 95th Academy Awards will take place at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles and will be broadcast Sunday on ABC at 8pm ET/5pm PT.
