Beyoncé to Perform Live for First Time in 2 Years at 2022 Oscars

The Best Original Song nominees are getting in formation.

At the 2022 Oscars on March 27, Beyoncé will perform live for the first time in two years, singing “Be Alive” from King Richard. Also slated to take the stage? Her fellow nominees in the category, including Billie Eilish and FINNEAS, Reba McEntire and Sebastián Yatra, the Academy accounted March 22. They’ll perform “No Time to Die” from No Time to Die, “Somehow You Do” from Four Good Days and “Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto, respectively. As for Van Morrison—who was recognized for Belfast’s “Down to Joy”—he’ll be sitting this one out due to a scheduling conflict.

Beyoncé hasn’t taken the stage for a live performance since February 2020 when she performed “XO” and “Halo” at Kobe and Gianna Bryant’s A Celebration of Life. Two months later, amid the pandemic, she remotely joined other singing stars on Zoom for The Disney Family Singalong in April 2020 where she sang “When You Wish Upon a Star.”

Her last performance on an award show stage was at the 2017 Grammy Awards where she sang “Love Drought” and “Sandcastles” off her sixth studio album Lemonade, which was nominated for nine categories and won two.

Still, there’s a chance we won’t see her on the red carpet. On March 21, Variety reported that Beyoncé—who nabbed her first-ever Oscar nom for her King Richard song co-written with artist Dixson—may perform from the Compton tennis courts Venus Williams and Serena Williams craned with their dad Richard Williams, who the biopic focuses on.

Will Smith, an executive producer and titular character of King Richard, told Entertainment Weekly in October 2021 that Beyoncé wrote the nominated song after attending a screening of the film.

Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, FINNEAS, Reba McEntire, Sebastián Yatra
Getty Images
“The marriage of a movie and a song is a kind of magic that’s unmatched in entertainment,” Smith said. “I was so happy when Beyoncé called.”

In November 2021, Serena shared on Jimmy Kimmel Live that no one else could’ve created and performed a song for the movie like Beyoncé did. The song connects to King Richard’s central themes of Black pride and family, highlighting the lives of Venus and Serena.

“When the film came out, there was no other person that could do the song except for Beyonce,” she said. “Because I feel like we’ve had a similar path in our lives. We trained since an early age to reach a goal. Her dad was super involved in her career as well as her mom, my dad, my mom, sisters were involved.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *