Lady Gaga kept fans guessing down to the last minute ahead of the Oscars ceremony this year, originally confirming that she would not perform her number—“Hold My Hand,” a Best Original Song nominee for its inclusion in Top Gun: Maverick—owing to her commitments to Joker: Folie à Deux. But hours before the big night, she settled the debate, as “several insiders” informed Variety that she would, in fact, take the stage.
Despite reports that “it didn’t feel like she can get a performance to the caliber that we’re used to with her and that she is used to,” as Oscars showrunner Glenn Reiss said during a creative team press conference earlier this week, Gaga would indeed go on to squeeze in a performance during the 95th Academy Awards.
Tonight’s show was Gaga’s first time singing live on the Oscars stage since her romantic rendition of “Shallow” with A Star Is Born co-star Bradley Cooper in 2019, and she picked a considerably more casual wardrobe for “Hold My Hand.” She wiped off the bold red lip and thick eyeliner she wore on the red carpet and opted, instead, for a no-makeup look paired with ripped jeans and a plain T-shirt.
Gaga first dropped “Hold My Hand” in May 2022, ahead of Maverick's theatrical debut. “When I wrote this song for Top Gun: Maverick, I didn’t even realize the multiple layers it spanned across the film’s heart, my own psyche, and the nature of the world we’ve been living in,” she wrote on Instagram ahead of its release.
“I’ve been working on it for years, perfecting it, trying to make it ours,” she continued. “I wanted to make music into a song where we share our deep need to both be understood and try to understand each other—a longing to be close when we feel so far away and an ability to celebrate life’s heroes. I’m so grateful to Tom [Cruise] and Hans [Zimmer] and Joe [director Joseph Kosinski] for this opportunity—and it’s been a beautiful experience working with them. Me, BloodPop, Ben Rice and everyone else who worked on it with us are so excited to share it with you. This song is a love letter to the world during and after a very hard time.”
Lauren Puckett-Pope is a staff culture writer at ELLE, where she primarily covers film, television and books. She was previously an associate editor at ELLE.
