No best song nominee performances? No problem.
The 97th Academy Awards didn’t have the traditional best original song performances in a rare but not unprecedented move. But producers didn’t skip music entirely in this year’s ceremony.
“El Mal” from “Emilia Pérez” nabbed the best original song Oscar over songs recorded by Elton John and Brandi Carlile, H.E.R., Adrian Quesada and Abraham Alexander and Selena Gomez.
And with spotlights turned to “Wicked,” the James Bond franchise and a tribute
to the late Quincy Jones, the 2025 Oscars were as heavy as in recent years when it came to uniting music and movies.
Here are the best and worst musical moments from the 2025 Oscars:
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Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, ‘Over the Rainbow,’ ‘Home,’ ‘Defying Gravity’
Not only did Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo defy gravity during their spectacular opening performance, but defied every conceivable expectation.
Following a brief homage to Los Angeles, still suffering the fallout from devastating wildfires, Grande emerged from a puff of gray smoke, luminous in a sparkly ruby-red gown.
Her hair in a bun, her eyes shaded with glitter and her voice a crystalline wonder, Grande unspooled a graceful rendition of “Over the Rainbow.”
As she waltzed through an ocean of dry ice, her doe eyes capturing the camera’s every twitch, Grande filled the timeless ballad with vocal curlicues that never overpowered.
As she finished the song in front of a backdrop with an illuminated moon and, of course, rainbow, Grande stepped aside for her “Wicked” co-star, the striking Erivo.
In a souffle of a white gown adorned with a sprig of flowers, Erivo beamed her way through “Home,” the tender ballad from “The Wiz,” another offshoot of “The Wizard of Oz.”
Erivo’s Broadway-bred pipes made a lovely match with the “Wiz” classic, but it was the moment when she and new bestie Grande clasped hands and sang the opening lines of “Defying Gravity,” the signature song from “Wicked.”
There is no questioning the authenticity of the friendship between them as they locked eyes while trading verses and Grande sweetly kissed Erivo’s hand as she backed into the shadows to watch her buddy with obvious pride.
Erivo nailed the wallop of a finale of “Defying Gravity” while being raised on a small platform. The audience could barely wait for her voice to close the final note before launching upright to rightfully heap praise on an already classic Oscars performance.
James Bond medley: Lisa, ‘Live and Let Die’; Doja Cat, ‘Diamonds are Forever’; Raye, ‘Skyfall’
As Halle Berry mentioned in her introduction of a tribute to the James Bond franchise and producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, “every generation has their Bond.”
Such was the sentiment with the complementary medley of three Bond theme songs.
While Blackpink’s Lisa, singer-rapper Doja Cat and upstart British soulstress Raye landed their assignments with pluck and passion, it felt like a moment lost to not have at least one artist associated with some of the most famous Bond songs present.
Instead of Paul McCartney leading a fiery rock version of “Live and Let Die,” we had Lisa slinking through the 1973 hit. While it lacked gravitas, the performance was perfectly watchable.
Doja Cat detoured from her wheelhouse to croon “Diamonds are Forever,” the Shirley Bassey classic from the 1971 Bond movie of the same name, belting the song as lasers slowly rotated behind her. It’s a tough song to tackle, and Doja, in a gown dripping in the song’s namesake, showed viewers her chameleonic abilities.
And while recent best new artist Grammy nominee Raye possesses the vocal chops to adroitly swoop through the song, it’s hard to hear “Skyfall” and not recall Adele’s superior original (which won the best original song Oscar in 2013). Raye brought the song to a powerful close with commendable verve, but the entire production sagged more than soared.
Queen Latifah, ‘Ease on Down the Road’
To suitably salute the legacy of Quincy Jones, the Oscars would have needed a 20-minute segment.
Instead, a reverent Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey – stars of “The Color Purple,” which the multifaced Jones co-produced – introduced Queen Latifah for a vivacious, yet all-too-brief homage to Jones with “Ease on Down the Road,” famously performed by Michael Jackson and Diana Ross in “The Wiz,” a film on which Jones worked on the musical adaptation.
Enveloped in a billowing silver cape, Queen Latifah romped through the frisky tune that kept with a vague theme of all things related to “Wicked” on Oscars night. Surrounded by dancers in pleated skirts and prep school blazers, Queen Latifah broke into a few of her own dance moves while an eager Colman Domingo, Grande and Erivo got into the groove in the front row.
Jones, a 28-time Grammy winner who was also the first Black film composer nominated for an Oscar in 1967 for “In Cold Blood,” engineered a brilliant career of skyscraper proportions. His memory deserved more.
