Lady Gaga won't perform at the 2023 Oscars ceremony

The singer and actress, who is nominated for Best Original Song for her work on Hold My Hand, the soundtrack to the film Top Gun: Maverick, will not perform at this year’s 95th Academy Awards ceremony.

Despite rumours that she has refused to take the stage at the Awards to sing “Hold My Hand”, Oscars executive producer and showrunner Glenn Weiss said: “We invited all five nominees. We have a great relationship with Lady Gaga and her camp. She’s shooting a movie right now. Here we are honouring the film industry and what it takes to make a movie. And after a lot of back and forth, it didn’t seem like she could get a performance of the caliber that we’re used to with her and that she’s used to. So she’s not going to perform on the show.”

Lady Gaga has performed at the Oscars before. In 2015, she sang a medley from “Sound of Music” for the film’s 50th anniversary alongside Julie Andrews. In 2016, then-Vice President Joe Biden performed her rendition of “Til It Happens to You”, her emotional ballad from the sexual assault documentary “The Hunting Ground”. And in 2019, she performed a duet with her “A Star Is Born” co-star Bradley Cooper, the same year the song won Gaga her first Academy Award.

It is unclear whether Lady Gaga will attend Sunday’s show at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. However, the pop superstar shares a nomination for “Hold My Hand” with musician BloodPop. They face off in the original song field against “Applause” from “Tell It Like a Woman”, “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”, “Naatu Naatu” from “RRR” and “This Is a Life”. from “Everything Everywhere, All at Once”.

“Lift Me Up” singer Rihanna was the first to be announced as a performer for this year’s ceremony. Her announcement was followed by Sofia Carson, who, accompanied by songwriter Diane Warren, will perform “Applause”. David Byrne of The Talking Heads, also an Oscar winner, will take the stage to sing “This Is a Life” with nominated supporting actress Stephanie Hsu and musical trio Son Lux. And “Naatu Naatu” singers Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava will debut their song.