Rihanna set to perform tear-jerker Black Panther song at Oscars and we’re already crying-Alicia Adejobi-Entertainment – Metro

Rihanna is already a highlight of the Oscars 2023 (Picture: Rex Features)

Rihanna will take centre stage at this year’s Oscars with the popstar set to perform during the show. 

Fresh from her epic Super Bowl halftime show set, Rihanna, 35, will be returning to the stage sooner than many expected with the Academy Awards taking place on March 12. 

It will be the first time Rihanna has ever performed at the Oscars and will also see the singer give her first live performance of Lift Up Me, the ballad she recorded for the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack. 

Lift Me Up, performed and written by the powerhouse team of Rihanna, Ryan Coogler, Tems and Ludwig Goransson, is also nominated for best original song. 

Black Panther director Ryan recently revealed how he managed to entice Rihanna to return to music for the soundtrack, as she had not released anything new since her 2016 album Anti. 

Sharing how the tear-jerking lullaby-sounding ballad came about, the filmmaker said at a press conference in October: ‘I can’t take sole credit for that. We got an incredible composer, Ludwig Goransson, who is also a music producer, he’s got a great reputation. He made This Is America with Childish Gambino. 

Rihanna will bring us all to tears with her performance of Lift Me Up (Picture: FilmMagic)

After seven years away, it’s hard keeping RiRi away from the stage now (Picture: Rex Features)

‘The movie was a major factor, big thanks to Jay Brown, Roc Nation and Jay Z who’s a friend and made the connection.’ 

He continued: ‘Look, Rihanna has given us a whole career, a whole catalogue of music and now she’s given us make-up and clothing and I think the world would understand if she hung up her mic, and I completely understand because I love her music and I feel that she’s given all that [we] could ask for. 

‘But the truth is we were looking for a great artist who could tell the story of the film, embrace the themes of the film and present them to the audience in a different packaging.’ 

Rihanna can’t keep away from the stage these days as she just headlined the NFL’s Super Bowl halftime show in Arizona, her first live show in over six years. 

She dished out the hits including Umbrella, Work, Rude Boy, Where Have You Been and Diamonds, and – even more importantly – announced she is pregnant with her second child with boyfriend A$AP Rocky. 

The couple welcomed their first child, a baby boy, in May 2022. 

The Oscars will air live from the Dolby Theatre in California on March 12.

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