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.
forwp-incontent-custom-banner ampforwp-incontent-ad1">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.