Days after producers said she would not perform at the 95th Academy Awards, Lady Gaga took the stage to perform her Oscar-nominated song "Hold My" from Top Gun: Maverick at the 2023 Academy Awards. "Hand". Considering her number was thrown together at the last minute, Gaga kept it streamlined both musically and aesthetically, and Twitter was struck by how intimate the performance was.
Instead of the host introducing her, the camera panned to Gaga, already seated on the stage, introducing her performance and explaining the meaning behind her nominated song. "This is very personal to me," she said. "We all need each other. We need a lot of love to get through this life. Sometimes we need heroes. We all have heroes around us. ... You may find that you can be your own hero, even if you feel broken inside."
The Oscar winner removed all makeup on the red carpet and wore just a black T-shirt, ripped black jeans and Converse shoes to sing the film's theme song. She begins singing "Hold My Hand," accompanied by a pianist, and the camera provides a very intimate close-up of Gaga's expression, before the rest of her band join in to climax as she hits the high notes.
Gaga's performance look was very different from her red carpet look just an hour earlier. Makeup artist Sarah Tanno gave Gaga a full face before attending the awards show and revealed in an Instagram post that she only uses products from Gaga's Haus Labs beauty line. After walking the red carpet, she removed all of Gaga's makeup. Tanno even posted the results of her transformation on her Instagram Story, sharing a photo liberally using makeup wipes, Q-tips and cotton pads.
The Oscars audience gave her a standing ovation and Twitter was filled with praise for her surprise appearance. As always, there were a lot of memes.
Many Twitter users also poked fun at the camera angle of Gaga's performance, which was reminiscent of her very intimate performance of "Shallow" from A Star Is Born at the 2019 Oscars.
Days after the Oscars, Gaga took to TikTok to share a video of herself rehearsing "Hold My Hand" at the piano, wearing the same gown and glamorous beauty look as she did on the red carpet, pointing out the flaws in her performance. Compared. "No one saw the rehearsal," she wrote. "Love you all and thank you for supporting this song, it means a lot to me."
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Giving you an Oscar nominee who can do both.
