Lady Gaga Provided The Highlight Of Oscar Night With Her Emotional Performance Of ‘Til It Happens To You’

Lady Gaga provided the highlight of Oscar night, from her white Brandon Maxwell jumpsuit featured on the New York Daily News to her heart-wrenching wake-up call against rape, introduced by none other than Joe Biden. The song was written by Lady Gaga together with Diane Warren, for the movie “Hunting Ground.” Though Lady Gaga did not win the Oscar for best song, which she was nominated for, her music was still tremendously appreciated by the applauding Oscar audience.

Lady Gaga provided a flawless, yet uniquely emotional, highlight performance on Oscar night with “Til It Happens to You.” Gaga fans were all anxiously awaiting the performance and wondering what exactly Mother Monster would do to set this performance apart from previous performances of the song, but none guessed it would be set apart by the very real tears in a brave woman’s eye, as she expressed her rage, her confusion, and her pure vulnerability on the topic. Her performance was moving, because we all know it is true.

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Lady Gaga was once victimized in this way, as explained in Rolling Stone, and she stood proud tonight, as she lifted herself from the piano seat, joined by a host of young people holding their arms out and joining hands in solidarity with the theme. Her Oscar night performance was very dramatic, and everything we have come to expect from one of the greatest performers of our time, though in a different way than anything we usually see from her. We know we can always expect a flawless performance, we expect that her performances will be larger than life, with as many exciting effects as the venue will allow, but the raw emotion seen on Oscar night was personal.

Lady Gaga provided a secondary highlight theme on Oscar Night, as well. The major theme of racial diversity was being driven home by Chris Rock, but another theme emerged in the subject matter of many nominated movies. The Oscar-nominated Spotlight revealed the Boston clergy sexual abuse scandal. The Hunting Game was also about rape, and the short documentary Girl in the River was about the honor killing of women, which can include fathers murdering daughters who have been raped, among other possible reasons a man might not be able to deliver his daughter as a virgin bride, and thus lose honor. So sexual abuse, rape, and murder of women was also an underlying theme at the Oscars. “Til It Happens to You” drove home that theme well.

Lady Gaga, of course, shares other highlighted interests and themes expressed on Oscar night. Among those were climate change, Black Lives Matter, racial and cultural diversity, and the sexual abuse of the Catholic Church scandal, just to name a few issues driven home by various award winners, presenters, and the movies themselves. There was an overreaching sense of worthy causes in this year’s Oscar night, including the Girl Scout fundraising of over $65,000 at the event. Social consciousness was at an all time high last night, as one social topic after the other was highlighted.

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Lady Gaga provided the highlight of Oscar night, though, mostly because of her incredible musical performance. Other musical performances including Sam Smith’s “Writing on the Wall,” and the Weeknd’s performance of “Earned It” from Fifty Shades of Gray, also provided much appreciated highlight moments for the evening. Smith’s voice was flawless, and Weeknd’s performance was quite exciting, as well. Musical performances provided much-needed breaks in the tension for those involved in the steady stream of award presentation. Breaking up the evening with a little music allows an anxious audience to relax and enjoy as well as anticipate which name will be called next.

Lady Gaga provided the highlight of Oscar night, and together with Sam Smith and the Weeknd, broke up the tension of announcing Oscar awards.

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]