Lady Gaga wanted 2023 Oscar performance to be ‘raw’ as it was a ‘meaningful song’

Lady Gaga surprised the attendees at the 95th Academy Awards with her performance on Sunday, March 12th, 2023, after it was announced that she wasn’t going due to scheduling conflicts.

The Oscar winner, 36, gave a stripped-down performance of her nominated song Hold My Hand from Top Gun: Maverick.

After the show, the executive producers explained that she “wanted it to be raw” in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

“She really wanted to do something. She honestly was shooting her movie [the Joker sequel] — there was no trickery involved. And Thursday, at four-something, we got a text that she wanted to try something, didn’t have time to put together a big performance, but wanted it to be raw and people to see the real Gaga, and, with a voice like that, you don’t need much more than that.”

Showrunner Glenn Weiss explained, “She was really appropriate about the fact that this is a meaningful song to her and she wanted to really strip it down and do it not as an ‘Oscar performance,’ but as her. And that’s exactly what we tried to capture.”

The singer, 36, ditched her full-glam makeup and fancy ripped-from-the-runway Versace gown she wore on the red carpet for a simple black T-shirt, ripped jeans and Converse.

The rockstar seemed to be wearing no makeup at all as she exhibited her exceptional vocals during her set.