Kendrick Lamar & SZA Won’t Perform “All The Stars” At The Oscars
The Best Original Song performances have been the source of a lot of drama for this year’s Oscars. Typically, all of the songs nominated are performed at the ceremony, but last month, multiple sources reported that most of the performances were being cut for time. Only Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born duet “Shallow” and Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s Black Panther single “All The Stars,” the two biggest hits amongst this year’s slate of nominees, were to be performed.
After facing significant backlash for that decision, the Motion Picture Academy quickly changed its mind. Less than a week later, they sent out offers to have all five songs performed at the ceremony, with all the performances limited to 90 seconds each. But now, Variety is reporting that Kendrick Lamar and SZA won’t be performing at all.
According to a source close to the situation, Kendrick Lamar will be unable to perform at the Oscars due to logistics and timing constraints. (He also turned down an invitation to perform at the Grammys.) The Academy confirms that the song will not be performed by SZA alone or by another act.
All four of the other nominated songs — “Shallow,” Gillian Welch and David Rowlings’ “When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” from The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs, Bette Midler and Marc Shaiman’s “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from Mary Poppins Returns, and Jennifer Hudson’s “I’ll Fight” from RBG — will be performed. Queen will also perform with Adam Lambert.
The Oscars air this Sunday, 2/24 at 8PM ET.