Rihanna’s Super Bowl LVII performance may have sparked quite a few (unjustifiable) compliments to the FCC, there’s no one complaining about her performance during tonight’s (March 12) 2023 Oscars ceremony. Gleaming with immaculately jeweled costuming and pregnancy bliss, performed “Lift Me Up” from Wakanda 2: Wakanda Forever.
The moving tribute track to the late actor Chadwick Boseman brought the entertainer out of musical retirement. With her baby bump on full display, Rihanna took the stage built out to resemble the breathtaking nature shots shown in the film. Backed by a full orchestra and a host of background singers, the singer belted out the emotional lyrics to the song, which was rewarded with a standing ovation after her conclusion.
When asked about what went into creating the tribute track, co-writer Tems said, “After speaking with [director Ryan Coogler] and hearing his direction for the film and the song, I wanted to write something that portrays a warm embrace from all the people that I’ve lost in my life. I tried to imagine what it would feel like if I could sing to them now and express how much I miss them. Rihanna has been an inspiration to me so hearing her convey this song is a great honor.”
Rihanna performed her song, “Lift Me Up,” from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack at the 95th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday night. It was her first live performance since taking the stage at Super Bowl LVII, earlier this year. On stage, she rocked a black bra embellished with crystals over matching black pants. Her partner, A$AP Rocky, watched on from the audience.
“Lift Me Up” was nominated for Best Original Song, alongside Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick, “This Is a Life” from Everything Everywhere All at Once, “Naatu Naatu” from RRR, and “Applause” from Tell It like a Woman. “Naatu Naatu” ended up taking home the award.
Rihanna On Stage At The Oscars
Barbadian singer-songwriter and actress Rihanna performs “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” onstage during the 95th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on March 12, 2023. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Black Panther director Ryan Coogler previously spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about convincing Rihanna to take the job. He said that her experience with becoming a mother made her a perfect fit. “It’s her experience with loss in there, and her being a mother,” he said. “She’s a new person now. [Parenthood] changes you to your core. I hear it in her voice. It’s her, but it’s a new her.”
Composer Ludwig Göransson also reflected on working on the song with Rihanna during an essay for Variety. “For the first time in six years, Rihanna returned to the studio, and I had never heard her voice sound like this before. There was a new kind of conviction and softness in her sound. She took the chorus of the song to a new level,” Göransson said. “I imagined Shuri (Letitia Wright) singing to her brother the same way Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) sang to her son. After three weeks of meticulously fine-tuning every word, the feeling and melody line that Rihanna added to the chorus was a feeling of timelessness. It felt like the past, present and future all came together at the same time.”
Halle Bailey gave fans watching the Oscars their best look yet at her upcoming film, The Little Mermaid, on Sunday night. During the 2023 Academy Awards ceremony, Bailey shared new footage from the live-action reimagining of the classic Disney movie. She rocked an aquamarine-colored gown designed by Dolce & Gabbana. Speaking with Laverne Cox on E!’s red carpet pre-show, Bailey said of the film: “I was just really excited to sing the original songs that I loved so much. The new ones I think people will just embrace and really love and I hope they do.”
On stage, she was joined by Melissa McCarthy, who is also featured in the upcoming movie. In addition to Bailey and McCarthy, the cast is rounded out by Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Jonah Hauer-King, Art Malik, Noma Dumezweni, Javier Bardem, Simone Ashley, and Lorena Andrea. Rob Marshall serves as the film’s director.
Halle Bailey At The Oscars
HOLLYWOOD, CA – MARCH 12: Melissa McCarthy and Halle Bailey at the 95th Academy Awards in the Dolby Theatre on March 12, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
When Bailey was first cast as Ariel, a vocal swath of social media users shared racist remarks in response with the hashtag, #NotMyAriel. Bailey explained to Variety afterward that she turned to her grandparents for support at the time. “It was an inspiring and beautiful thing to hear their words of encouragement, telling me, ‘You don’t understand what this is doing for us, for our community, for all the little Black and brown girls who are going to see themselves in you,’” Bailey told the outlet. “What that would have done for me, how that would have changed my confidence, my belief in myself, everything. Things that seem so small to everyone else, it’s so big to us.”
The Oscars is currently airing on ABC. Earlier in the night, Ke Huy Quan took home the award for Best Supporting Actor for Everything Everywhere All At Once. The Little Mermaid will hit theaters on May 26. Check out the new trailer for the film below.
All eyes are on the 2023 Oscars for several reasons. The first, of course, is the potential history to be made depending on who walks away with the winner. The second is whether or not and in which ways this evening’s host Jimmy Kimmel will address last year’s infamous. Well, during Kimmel’s opening monologue, the television host and comedian held nothing back, starting with the slap.
But as the monologue continued, a few other public figures caught a few strays, including television host, actor, rapper, and comedian Nick Cannon. Cannon and his eleven children were on the receiving end of Kimmel’s throwaway jokes.
When poking fun at Avatar: The Way of Water and just how much money the film had to earn in order to break even, Kimmel pulled in Cannon’s large family. “Avatar: The Way of Water was the most expensive movie ever made. Disney spent 2 billion dollars to make this movie. Just to break even, all of Nick Cannon’s children had to see Avatar four times,” joked Kimmel.
Cannon hasn’t commented on the joke just yet. However, he, himself has used his love of procreation as a punchline in his own works. In fact, earlier this week, Cannon filmed a mock game show skit titled, Who’s Having My Baby, with Kevin Hart.
Ke Huy Quan brought the crowd to tears with his emotional acceptance speech at the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday night. Quan received the award for Best Supporting Actor in honor of his work on Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. Quan began his speech by thanking his mother who was watching from home.
“My mom is 84 years old and she’s at home watching. Mom, I just won an Oscar!” he said while fighting off tears. “My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp. And somehow I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage. They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I cannot believe it’s happening to me. This, this is the American dream.”
Ke Huy Quan On Stage At The Oscars
HOLLYWOOD, CA – MARCH 12: Ke Huy Quan accepts the award for Actor in a Supporting Role at the 95th Academy Awards in the Dolby Theatre on March 12, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
From there, Quan thanked his “Goonies brother for life,” Jeff Cohen, with whom he appeared in the 1985 film, The Goonies. He also thanked his wife, Echo. “I owe everything to my wife, Echo,” he said, “who, month after month, year after year, for 20 years told me that one day my time will come. Dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine. To all of you out there, please keep your dreams alive.”
Other actors nominated in the category included Brendan Gleeson for The Banshees of Inisherin, Brian Tyree Henry for Causeway, Judd Hirsch for The Fabelmans, and Barry Keoghan for The Banshees of Inisherin. Later in the night, Quan’s co-star, Jamie Lee Curtis, took home the award for Best Supporting Actress. By the end of the night, Everything Everywhere All at Once will compete for the highly-coveted Best Picture award. Other nominees include All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, The Fabelmans, Tár, Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness, and Women Talking.
Angela Bassett became a Twitter trend as users anticipate her Oscars win for her role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Moreover, many fans online really want her to win the Best Supporting Actress award, especially after she won the Golden Globe. In fact, it’s quite the stacked year with a lot of stellar performances and great films to watch. Furthermore, the other nominees in this category are Kerry Condon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Stephanie Tsu, and Hong Chau. Overall, Bassett was already nominated for an Oscar before, but this might just be the year.
In other awards show news, Bassett recently accepted the award for Entertainer of the Year at the NAACP Image Awards. During her acceptance speech, she referenced a highly criticized performance from Ariana DeBose during the BAFTA Awards where she rapped about the female nominees. “I guess Angela Bassett did the thing,” she joked referencing DeBose’s bit. Earlier that night, she said she actually DM’d DeBose to check in on her after people clowned her. Queen Ramonda is as gracious and kind off-screen as she is on.
Twitter Trends Try To Manifest Angela Bassett’s Oscars Win
“I DM’d her last night,” she told Variety on the red carpet. “I did. It was beautiful. I just wanted to make sure she was OK because, you know, it’s a lot of attention. And she is A-OK.” She continued her thoughts during an Extra red carpet interview at the SAG Awards. “I saw her that night, and I gave her a big hug,” the 64-year-old revealed. “She, my daughter, and I have pictures together. So, we were really thrilled. And then, when I saw [the performance] come out and really take flight, I DM’d her. I said, ‘I hope you’re not at all bothered by the attention we’re generating, my dear, because you’re fierce, and I adore you.’”
“We love how everyone is having fun with it now!” she added. “Just having fun.” Now, it seems like all those people that went crazy over DeBose’s display seem to be concentrating their viral energies into manifesting an Academy Award for the acclaimed actress. Regardless, come back to HNHH for the latest news and updates from the Oscars and Angela Bassett.
Will Smith is working hard to get his career back on track. Ever since the public incident at the 2022 Oscars awards show, people have been hesitant to work with him. At last year’s ceremony, Smith approached the stage and slapped Chris Rock in the face in front of the entire audience. The violent act was in response to Chris Rock making an offensive joke about Smith’s wife. Immediately following the exchange, Smith was promptly criticized and blacklisted by many.
As a result of all of the chaos, the rest of 2022 was a quiet one for Smith’s career. One year later, he is hopeful that his upcoming projects will allow him to turn over a new leaf. The actor, who chose to remain nearly radio silent last year, has two new movies in the works. He will star in both Bad Boys 4 and Fast and Loose. Originally, Fast and Loose was scheduled to begin production at the start of 2022. After the slap, the project took a break to let the tension around Smith settle down.
Will Smith’s Earnings For “Bad Boys 4” And “Fast And Loose”
Both of Will Smith’s upcoming films will be action movies, a genre the actor specializes in. Timing is everything, and Smith is making a wise choice by announcing his future projects so close to the anniversary of the Oscars. The legend will also be receiving $50 million total for both movies, at $25 million per film. Smith is not the only person speaking up about the Oscars incident. Chris Rock recently made a jab at the man who assaulted him during his recent Netflix comedy special. It is safe to assume Rock is not too excited to see Smith come back to the big screen.
Fans of Smith, however, are eager to see what lies in store for the previously outcasted actor. Many people are still in support of the man who was offended on his wife’s behalf. Regardless of the giant stain on the actor’s professional career, it is likely he will continue to be successful with his new work. Tune back in after the 2023 Oscars ceremony to see any new drama that may occur.
After receiving a 10-year ban from the Academy, actor Will Smith will be breaking an Oscars tradition. The 54-year-old actor, who won his first Oscar at the 94th event last year, is leaving the Academy in a dilemma as to who will present the Best Actress award. For decades, the Oscars has kept a tradition of having the previous Best Actor winner present to the current year’s winner for Best Actress. During the award show last year, Smith famously hit host Chris Rock with a slap when the latter had picked on Smith’s wife with one of his jokes.
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 27: Will Smith accepts the Actor in a Leading Role award for ‘King Richard’ onstage during the 94th Annual Academy Awards at Dolby Theatre on March 27, 2022 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)
Equally, some are wondering if this year’s Oscars host, Jimmy Kimmel, will feel free to make do with the audience or if he’ll travel outside the event hall for his jokes. How free will Kimmel be to allow his mouth to lighten up the occasion?
Although he won the Best Actor category, Will Smith will not be handing the award to any of the Best Actress nominees, which include Michelle Yeoh and Cate Blanchett. Bill Kramer, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) CEO hinted at precautions being taken to curb any such occurrences in the coming weekend during an interview with Time Magazine. “Because of the slap last year, we’ve opened our minds to the many things that can happen at the Oscars,” he said. The Emancipation star isn’t just inspiring a crisis team, but also stopping a longtime tradition.
For now, The Academy hasn’t mentioned who will be replacing Will Smith to present the Best Actress award this Sunday, leaving a handful of Oscars fans wondering. How do you think the academy will work around Smith’s absence? Let us know in the comment section below.
Did you know that the guys responsible for one of the most beloved and zany videos of 2014 are nominated for several awards at the upcoming Oscars? Because I sure didn’t.
Actually, let me back up. Somewhere in the recesses of my pop culture-addled brain, I was aware that the 2014 video for the DJ Snake and Lil Jon collaboration “Turn Down For What” was directed by 35-year-old director tandem
But somehow, my brain failed to connect the dots in any meaningful way until my editor pointed out to me that I’ve been talking about that movie pretty much nonstop since it came out last year, and that this was exactly the sort of connection that would allow me to do so in the music section. Also, it’s pretty darn nifty that Daniels were able to earn all those Oscar nominations by essentially just doing all the same things they did in their music video on a larger scale.
The track record for music video directors who turned to film has some truly wild variation. Sure, directors like Francis Lawrence (“Bad Romance,” “I’m A Slave 4 U”) went on to direct blockbusters (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Mockingjay) while Spike Jonze (“Buddy Holly” and “Sky’s The Limit”) garnered critical acclaim for his arthouse films (Being John Malkovich, Her). But you also have Michael Bay and Hype Williams. The less said about Belly, the better.
But if you’d told people in 2014 that the people behind the unhinged “Turn Down For What” video would ultimately bring their transgressive commitment to chaos to the big screen – and earn 10 Academy Award nominations in the process – they might not have believed you. But in viewing Everything Everywhere All At Once, they’d see that all of the hallmarks of Daniels’ style remain intact. Which means that even after all their success, “Turn Down For What” might remain their greatest accomplishment yet.
In case you need a refresher on just how wild DJ Snake and Lil Jon’s video gets, here it is. The video opens on the rooftop of an apartment building, with a man staring into the camera as the beat builds. He leaps into the air in an apparent belly flop that smashes through the roof as the beat drops, landing in the apartment below. He proceeds to twerk on and/or hump practically every piece of furniture, terrifying the apartment’s occupant. She phones the police, and at this point, you’re likely expecting the story to proceed from what is an unusual but still altogether believable standpoint.
You’re wrong, though. So wrong. Not only does the phone officer’s face melt off a la René Belloq in Raiders Of The Lost Ark – one of many pop culture callbacks throughout Daniels’ work – but the dancing affliction of patient zero turns out to be somewhat contagious. After the lady’s clothes get blown off with a pelvic thrust, she joins in the debauchery, dropping her derriere right onto the first man’s face and once again crashing through the floor into the next apartment. This time, they disturb a family sitting down for dinner, leading to looks of horror and dismay as the process starts all over again.
The dance moves this time run the gamut of provocative Caribbean and South American styles (my favorite is the Brazilian Surra de Bunda, in which the female dancer rests her legs on her partner’s shoulders and then repeatedly smashes her posterior into his face… it’s so ridiculous) until the family gets into it too. The mother’s mammaries move of their own accord, the dad and daughter start headbanging, and before you know it, yet another apartment is practically demolished. And yes, they once again end up in the unit below, where at least an actual party is taking place.
The unsuspecting partygoers stare at the newcomers for a bit, and then things get really out of hand. A police officer sent over for the noise joins the party (of course), more furniture and flatware gets destroyed, and in the end, everyone ends up slumped over. That doesn’t stop the first guy’s sweatpants from twitching ominously as the video cuts to black.
When the video was first released, it was a phenomenon, leading to thinkpieces in Vox and on music interest sites, memes, and edits that made it even more ridiculous than it originally was. The internet couldn’t get enough; the song itself was licensed for use in films like 22 Jump Street, Furious 7, and the second Angry Birds movie, appeared in comedic sketches on The Tonight Show, and was even used in political campaigns like Rock The Vote and Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” initiative.
But that video was a huge part of the reason it stuck – people couldn’t get enough of it (to date, it’s accumulated well over a billion views on YouTube). And it established many of the signature flourishes of Daniels’ direction style, from irreverent and downright vulgar humor to the prominently Asian cast – which was as revolutionary in its day as that of the multiverse-hopping Oscars multi-nominee. Much like the dancing contagion from the video, Everything Everywhere features a sort of “everybody was kung-fu fighting” plot element in which one character suddenly displays outsized combat proficiency before nearly every other character becomes a drunken master.
Slow-motion butt drops figure prominently into both works, both for comedic purposes and plot advancement. Even the concept of each apartment being its own little ecosystem before the dancers crash through its ceiling is echoed in the use of the multiverse, where each timeline is encroached upon by Michelle Yeoh’s Evelyn as she seeks the means to defeat the “villainous” Jobu Tupaki. The film is littered with the same sort of pop culture references that led Daniels to nod to Indiana Jones; a song lyric absent-mindedly inserted into some dialogue by Kwan winds up leading to the song itself becoming the connective tissue between worlds.
Even the song’s title seems to reflect Daniels’ maximalist philosophy. As the multiverse shenanigans get nearly overwhelming, as so many plot points converge that you wonder how they’ll keep track, just when you think Everything Everywhere can’t possibly get any bigger, louder, funnier, more obnoxious, heartbreaking, or poignant, Daniels ask themselves, “Turn down for what?” and go even harder. As it turns out, that could be a winning strategy.
