Rihanna is back in full force. Just on the heels of headlining the most-watched halftime show in Super Bowl history, the pregnant superstar is slated to perform at the 2023 Academy Awards.
The “Diamonds” singer is set to perform her Oscar-nominated single “Lift Me Up” from Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” at the March 12 awards show CNN reports. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Rihanna’s performance on Thursday.
Rihanna’s “Life Me Up” is nominated for Best Original Song and will be competing against Diane Warren’s “Applause” from “Tell it Like a Woman”, Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick”, “Naatu Naatu” from “RRR” and David Byrne’s “This Is a Life” from “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
It’s the first Oscar nomination for Rihanna who co-wrote “Lift Me Up” with Tems, Ludwig Göransson, and the film’s director Ryan Coogler. It could be a big night for the “Black Panther” sequel as it’s nominated for five Academy Awards including Angela Bassett’s history-making nomination as the first-ever acting nomination for a Marvel film.
If Bassett secures the win, it would be her first Academy Award following her still-debated snub in 1994 for her portrayal of Tina Turner in the singer’s 1993 biopic “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”
Rihanna’s Oscar performance will come less than a month after her record-breaking halftime performance that raked in nearly six million more viewers than the Super Bowl itself. The “Umbrella” singer confirmed her second pregnancy during the performance by coming out with a visible baby bump.
Prior to the halftime show, Rihanna credited her nine-month-old son, whose name has still not been revealed, for motivating her to return to the stage after a four-year hiatus.
“When you become a mom, there’s something that just happens where you feel like you could take on the world — you can do anything,” she said during a press conference.
The 2023 Academy Awards will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and will broadcast live on ABC from the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Sunday, March 12 at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST.