The Oscars wasted no time in getting to the musical performance everyone wanted to see: The stars of the hit movie Wicked belting out the song’s signature track.
That was Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, of course, singing “Defying Gravity.” The pair also honored previous movie versions of The Wizard of Oz; Grande sang a beautiful rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and Erivo delivered a soaring version of “Home” from The Wiz.
You can watch Erivo and Grande’s full performance below
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The Wicked tribute was not the only lavish musical number on the Oscars telecast this year. In honor of the James Bond franchise’s longtime producers, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, receiving this year’s Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy, the Oscars also included a lengthy tribute to 007 — and I do mean lengthy — which included several current performers singing the Bond themes of yesteryear.
Despite the terrific performance, Wicked was not up for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards this year. The film’s songs are, after all, not original; they come from the Broadway musical of the same name. (The Best Original Song award was won by Emilia Perez.) The film is nominated in the Best Original Score category.
You can see the full list of the year’s Academy Award winners here. As of this writing, Wicked has won two awards, for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. It was a well-designed movie and it sounded pretty great too.
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