After Kenough of a back and forth, Ryan Gosling has finally agreed to perform “I’m Just Ken” at the 96th Oscars on March 10.
On Tuesday, February 28, the show’s executive producers Molly McNearney, Katy Mullan, and Raj Kapoor (who is also the showrunner this year) announced that all five tracks nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar will be performed live during the ceremony.
That means joining Gosling on stage will be Oscar-winning music producer Mark Ronson, who co-wrote the music and lyrics to nominee “I’m Just Ken” with his co-composer on the film Andrew Wyatt.
Fellow contributors to the “Barbie” soundtrack Billie Eilish and Finneas will also be back on the Dolby Theatre stage just two years after they won the same Oscar category for their Bond theme “No Time to Die.” This time, the sibling songwriting duo will perform “What Was I Made For?,” the climactic “Barbie” track that scored millions of tear-jerking TikToks.
For the 15th time, honorary Oscar recipient Diane Warren is up for Best Original Song, this time for “The Fire Inside” from Eva Longoria’s feature directorial debut “Flamin’ Hot.” Joining her to sing it is Latin pop superstar Becky G, who also performed at the 2022 ceremony when the show remixed “Encanto” hit “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” the most recent original song from a film to top the Billboard Hot 100.
Rounding out the usual suspects is Jon Batiste, a recent Best Original Score winner for Pixar’s “Soul,” now set to perform “It Never Went Away” from the Netflix documentary “American Symphony,” which profiled the Grammy winner as he experienced a massive peak in his career simultaneously with his wife’s cancer returning. The song, which closes the film, was written with Dan Wilson, best known as the frontman of Semisonic and co-writer of 2007 Song of the Year Grammy winner “Not Ready to Make Nice” by The Chicks, then known as The Dixie Chicks. He also won Grammys for Oscar winner Adele’s “21” album.
Finally, the only nominee without any statuette yet from the Academy is Scott George, who wrote the music and lyrics for “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” The esteemed Native American singer and composer will perform the song backed by the Osage Singers on Oscars night.
Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the 96th Academy Awards will air live on ABC and broadcast outlets worldwide on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the new time of 7 p.m. EDT/4 p.m. PDT. The producers will also announce talent joining the show in the coming weeks.
