Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper’s ‘Shallow’ Just One Of Many Notable Oscar Performances
The Academy Awards is all about movies, but this year’s ceremony sounds like it will be Grammy-worthy. Four out of five of the Best Original Song nominees are scheduled to be performed during the 2019 awards show, and a wide array of musical superstars will grace the Oscars stage for the 91st edition of the annual broadcast. There will be something for everyone, from classic rock to Disney classics.
Of course, the performers getting the most pre-Oscars buzz is Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. The duo will perform the song “Shallow” from the Academy Award-nominated A Star is Born. But fans of the movie should know that Cooper has already admitted he won’t be performing in character as Jackson Maine, the mentor of Lady Gaga’s Ally in the hit film.
Bradley Cooper told late-night host Stephen Colbert that when he recently performed “Shallow” onstage with Gaga at her Las Vegas show, he realized that “Jackson’s gone.”
“This guy certainly isn’t a rock star,” Cooper said of himself, per Entertainment Tonight. “I watched the video back… and I just sort of look like this idiot from Philadelphia singing with Lady Gaga… but I was like, ‘Oh, Jackson’s gone. I’m not gonna try to get him back. But it will be me singing [at the Oscars].”
In addition to Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, other highlights at the 2019 Oscars will include Jennifer Hudson performing the Diane Warren song “I’ll Fight” from RBG, the powerful film about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Not-so-fun fact: Warren has never won an Oscar despite her nine previous nominations, so fans hope the 10th time is the charm.
Better Midler will fly into Emily Bunt’s shoes to sing a rendition of “Where The Lost Things Go” from Mary Poppins Returns. The track was written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. After it was announced that Midler would be singing his song at the Oscars, Shaiman posted to Facebook to reveal that his heart was “exploding” over the news.
Midler, who was previously nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress for her starring roles in The Rose (1979) and For the Boys(1991), previously performed her signature ballad “Wind Beneath My Wings” from her movie Beaches during the In Memoriam tribute at the 2014 Oscars, according to People.
At the 91st Academy Awards, songwriters Gillian Welch and David Rawlings will perform their ballad “When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” from the opening segment of the Coen Brothers’ western anthology The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs. The song is performed by Tim Blake Nelson in the film.
And if that dynamic duo isn’t enough for you, maybe this team-up will be: American Idol alum Adam Lambert will hit the stage with Queen for a special performance. The top-secret song choice is still TBA, but the Freddie Mercury-themed film Bohemian Rhapsody did not score a Best Song nod, which means any Queen song could be on the roster—or maybe even a medley of the glam rock band’s hits.
And here’s the kicker: The Lambert/Queen performance will actually kick off this year’s hostless Oscars ceremony. According to USA Today, producers of the awards show invited Queen to open the show and shake things up this year.
“If you’ve ever heard Queen’s music, I think this will be something that will invite you in in a really great way,” producer Glenn Weiss told USA Today. “The music is so well-known that this to us became a really great way to open the show and not be traditional like a normal awards show and depend on things like a monologue.”
The 91st Academy Awards airs Sunday, February 24 at 8:00 p.m. on ABC.
