The record was nominated for Best Original Song on at the awards show
Lady Gaga arrived at the 2023 Academy Awards in a silhouetted black Versace gown, but when she took the stage later in the night to perform her Best Original Song-nominated record “Hold My Hand,” she had swapped the dress for jeans and a t-shirt, with her makeup being wiped away, too. In a new TikTok video, the singer gave fans a glimpse into the lead-up to the performance, sharing “the rehearsal no one saw.”
Sitting at a piano in that same Versace gown and full glam with sheet paper spread out in front of her, Gaga ran through the song, which she wrote with Bloodpop for Top Gun: Maverick, with ease. On stage at the Oscars, the singer was only responsible for delivering a stellar vocal performance, with a full backing band taking care of the rest. But maybe it was settling into the song’s groove in a quiet, acoustic setting that allowed her to connect so deeply with it on-stage.
“Love you all, thanks for being so supportive of a song that means so much to me,” Gaga captioned the TikTok.
Before starting the performance on Sunday, Gaga delivered a brief speech to the audience. “It’s deeply personal for me. We all need each other, we need a lot of love to walk through this life. We need heroes sometimes. There’s heroes all around us,” she said. “You might find that you can be your own hero even if you feel broken inside.”
Gaga’s mind has been on introspection lately as she thinks about the value of her own company, whether that’s being her own hero or putting as much energy into a performance alone at her piano as she does on stage in front of thousands with millions more watching at home.
“It’s really nice to just have time to be alone and be expansive and know that you’re enough. I wish I could tell my younger self that,” Gaga told Rolling Stone in a recent interview. “I did it anyway when I was younger. I spent a lot of time alone writing music. But the more successful I became, the more I felt like I needed other people to tell me I was great. There’s something about solitude that really speaks to me.”