Doja Cat, LISA, & Raye Among Oscars Performers In Lieu Of Best Original Song Nominees

The Best Original Song nominees will not perform at this year’s Oscars. Earlier this year, the heads of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences announced that this year’s broadcast would drop the usual song performances, and the world rejoiced. Finally, we could get through an entire Oscars telecast with no awkward musical performances. This seemed especially crucial once this year’s deeply uninspiring nominees were unveiled — two Emilia Pérez tracks, one Elton John/Brandi Carlile song from a Disney documentary, the joint that Black Puma Adrian Quesada produced for Sing Sing, and the perennial slot reserved for a Diane Warren ballad from a movie that barely exists. But as it turns out, we will get awkward musical performances during this year’s telecast, and at least one of them will come from LISA, Raye, and Doja Cat.

Earlier this month, the BLACKPINK member LISA released “Born Again,” a nice little piece of Dua Lipan neo-disco that features Doja Cat and UK singer-songwriter Raye. (Raye co-wrote the track, and her demo version leaked online years ago.) Now, the Academy announces that those three artists will perform at this year’s Oscars, presumably doing “Born Again.” Good song! But, like, why? It’s not a song from a movie. The three artists involved aren’t even associated with the cinema in general. LISA is on the new season of The White Lotus, which is great, but that’s not a movie. Doja Cat had a cameo as herself in the House Party reboot, and I think that’s the only cinematic endeavor from this trio. (UPDATE: The Academy clarifies that the performance will not be “Born Again,” but “still legendary.”)

This year’s Oscars will also have performances from past nominee Queen Latifah and from Wicked co-stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, both of whom are up for awards this year. I’m not exactly psyched about any of those, all of them at least make sense. This year’s award show goes down 3/2, and it’ll air on ABC and stream on Hulu.