Super Bowl, Oscars, and a tour? Well, two of those predictions are on the books. Today Oscar telecast producers Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner announced that megastar Rihanna will perform her nominated song “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” at the ceremony next month. Word is ABC and The Academy have known for weeks, but they officially could take a sigh of relief that one of the world’s biggest stars will perform on the show with today’s confirmation.
READ MORE: Rihanna enters the Best Original Song race with “Lift Me Up”
After not performing for years, Rihanna headlined the Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 12. Her performance was the second most-watched halftime show of all time as the broadcast peaked at 118.7 million viewers. The SavageXFenty billionaire revealed she was pregnant during the pregnancy. After not attending the Oscar Luncheon the next day, many questioned whether she would perform at the Oscars. Clearly, it was always in the cards.
“Lift Me Up” has been a substantial hit for Rihanna. Co-written by Ludwig Göransson, “Wakdana Forever” director Ryan Coogler and Temilade Openiyi, the song reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at publication has over 206 million streams on Spotify alone.
Looking to generate hype, the Jimmy Kimmel hosted ceremony will continue to announce performers in the weeks to come. Expected to grace the Dolby Theater stage are Best Original nominees such as Lady Gaga (“Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick”), the stars of “RRR” (“Naatu Naatu”), Sofia Carlson (“Applause” from “Tell it Like A Woman”) and Son Lux, Mitski and David Byrne (“This is A Life” from “Everything Everywhere All At Once”).
We can only hope last year’s Supporting Actress winner, Ariana DeBose, brings a new version of her now legendary BAFTA Awards rap to this year’s ceremony.
The 95th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 12 and broadcast live on ABC beginning at 5 PM PT/ 8 PM ET.