Oscars 2025: Ceremony’s Musical Performances Revealed

The musical performers for this year’s Oscars have been revealed. Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Queen Latifah, Lisa (of Blackpink), Raye and Doja Cat will take the stage for the 97th Academy Awards.

Erivo and Grande are performing as Glinda and Elphaba after starring in the smash hit adaptation of the musical Wicked, according to Deadline. Even though there were no new songs written for the movie that are eligible for the Oscars’ Best Song category, the musical is now the highest-grossing Broadway screen adaptation of all time and is soon to hit streaming services. But the real story has to do with the other selections.

Oddly, none of the other performers are involved with any of the nominated songs. The nominations for Best Song are two songs from Emilia Pérez (El Mal and Mi Camino), an original Elton John song from his concert documentary Elton John: Never Too Late, the ensemble number Like a Bird from Sing Sing, and Diane Warren’s song “The Journey from The Six Triple Eight.” (Warren is heavily expected to win, according to Variety.) This means that none of the songs performed at this year’s Oscars will be nominated in the 2025 ceremony.

It is a drastic departure from last year’s Oscars, which had performances from Billie Eilish and Ryan Gosling for their songs from Barbie, Jon Baptiste performing his song It Never Went Away from American Symphony, Becky G performing her song The Fire Inside from the Cheetos biopic Flamin’ Hot, and the Osage People performing Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People) from Killers of the Flower Moon. All five songs were nominated for the category in 2024.

The 2025 Academy Awards will be hosted by Conan O’Brien. They will air live on ABC and Hulu on Sunday, March 2 at 7 PM EST.