Oscars In Memoriam Tribute to Be Performed by Lenny Kravitz

The 2023 Oscars ceremony will (finally)be held this week, and there will be a memorial tribute during the ceremony like none other, as rockstar Lenny Kravitz will take to the stage to perform the musical number that is played during the "In Memoriam" tribute.

Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner serve as executive producers and showrunners for the 95th Academy Awards, along with executive producer Molly McNearney. The trio announced Lenny Kravitz's participation at the Oscars today. No word on what song Kravitz will be playing, but his presence alone will speak volumes. 

Also confirmed for the Oscars are musical performances from some of this year's biggest nominated films. The international hit RRR will see its breakout hit song "Naatu Naatu" performed by singers Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava. Another international breakout film, Everything Everywhere All at Once will have its hit song "This Is A Life" performed by David Byrne, Stephanie Hsu, and Son Lux; Diane Warren and Sofia Carson are performing "Applause" from the American-Italian film Tell It Like a Woman, and Rihanna is performing her track "Lift Me Up" from Marvel's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

This year's Oscars are certainly a talking point after the worldwide scandal of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage at last year's Academy Awards. With almost pin-point timing Rock maintained his silence about "The Slap Heard 'Round The World" for an entire year – until his latest comedy special aired as Netflix's first LIVE event this past weekend:

In "Selective Outrage", Chris Rock ended his act with a tirade against Will Smith, calling out the movie star for (as the title implies) having selective outrage about where and when to get upset about his wife Jada Pinkett and their 'marital honor':

"Everybody in the world called him a b****. Everybody! Everybody! And who's he hit? Me. A guy he knows he can beat. That's some b**** a** s***," Rock said.

Now the Oscars will have a "crisis team" in place at this year's ceremony... in case more fights break out? As usual, the response seems exaggerated – but it will be all the more fun for host Jimmy Kimmel to take all the awkwardness surrounding the elephant in the room and turn it into comedy gold. 

On a more serious note, Hollywood has seen a hard year of losses across many lanes of entertainment. Most recently was actor Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan) who died at just 61. Musician David Crosby, Lisa Marie Presley, Robbie Knievel, Barbara Walters, soccer legend Pele, comedian Gallagher, Queen Elizabeth II, Olivia Newton-John, Paul Sorvino, and Ray Liotta are just a handful of the names of truly famous and/or iconic entertainers who passed between the 2022 and 2023 Academy Awards. 

Via: Variety