Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ Sees Huge Sales Increases Following Oscars Performance

Plenty of fans were shocked to see Eminem take the stage at the Oscars on Sunday night. The rapper performed “Lose Yourself” at the ceremony, a song that won Eminem an Oscar in 2003 after it was featured in 8 Mile. Following the performance at the Oscars, the rapper is seeing sales for the song skyrocket, Forbes reports.

The song reportedly sold 4,000 downloads on Sunday, which was a 1,894 percent jump from the day prior. “Lose Yourself” also rose to the number one position on the iTunes Top Songs chart.

Sales were also up for the rapper’s recently released album, Music to be Murdered By, following the ceremony, as the album also topped the iTunes charts. Music to be Murdered By charted in the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart when it was first released in January.

In addition to writing “Lose Yourself” for 8 Mile, Eminem also starred in the film. When the song was announced as the winner of Best Original Song at the 2003 Oscars, Eminem wasn’t in attendance to pick up the award. Because he did not attend the ceremony, his performance at the 2020 Oscars finally gave him a chance to showcase the song at the event. The rapper’s performance came at the end of a montage designed to pay tribute to songs that had played prominent roles in movies.

Following his performance, the rapper spoke with Variety about how it came together and why he didn’t attend the 2003 ceremony.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvSx_1WVWiM

“I kinda figured maybe since I didn’t get a chance to do it at the time, maybe it would be cool. Back then, I never even thought that I had a chance to win, and we had just performed ‘Lose Yourself’ on the Grammys with the Roots a couple of weeks before the Oscars, so we didn’t think it was a good idea,” Eminem said.

The rapper also said that, at the time, he didn’t think that a ceremony like the Oscars would really understand him or his appeal. When he found that he had won, Eminem said that he was shocked. In the interview, he said that it proved that the award was really authentic — even though he hadn’t shown up to accept it, the Academy was still willing to give him the top prize.

This year’s Best Original Song prize went to Elton John and Bernie Taupin for a song they wrote for Rocketman. After his performance, Eminem got a chance to reunite with Elton, who he famously performed “Stan” with at the Grammys 19 years ago.