Tony Awards 2025: Cynthia Erivo opens ceremony with song

Cynthia Erivo made her mark at Tony Awards 2025 with her singing chops.

The Tony Awards host who herself is a Tony award as well as Emmy and Grammy winner too was pepped up backstage by Oprah Winfrey.

In surprise interaction with the American television personality, Erivo questioned the reason for the talk show host's presence there.

The Academy Award-nominated actress revealed that she had to be there.

Taking opportunity to pep herself up, Erivo enquired the 71-year-old, "What do you do when everybody is telling you what you need to do?"

Winfrey replied, "Forget about them babe, the only thing you need to do is just be yourself."

The short interaction ended with Erivo grabbing Winfrey's finger mimicking the iconic scene from the press tour of Wicked.

The 38-year-old took the stage to kill it turning heads with her 'shimmering long, red gown with white accents'.

The Colour Purple star sang the musical introduction to the power of Broadway; the chorus sang in the backup, "Sometimes all you need is a song."

During the performance she also got into the audience to let Kristin Chenoweth, Aaron Tveit and Adam Lambert to join the chorus.

The British actress and singer ended her performance with singing, "When the world is looking gloomy, let that curtain rise. Broadway is a place we all belong."

For the unversed, Erivo followed the opening song with a brief opening monologue in which she gave Wizard of Oz (Wicked) reference.