The Academy continued its slow rollout of Best Original song performers for the 95th Academy Awards today. After already announcing Rihanna, Sofia Carlson, Dianne Warren and David Byrne, executive producers and showrunners Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner and executive producer Molly McNearney revealed that “Naatu Naatu” from “RRR” will also grace the Oscars stage. It will be the first Teluguwood (not Bollywood) song to be performed on an Oscars telecast.
READ MORE: Rihanna first performer announced for the 2023 Oscars
The song will be performed by Indian playback singers Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava who recorded the vocal track for the film. This may be a surprise for some viewers who were expecting stars Ram Charan and N. T. Rama Rao Jr. who actually lip-synced the song in the film. It’s unclear whether they will be part of the performance in some manner. We can report, however, that the number will have a ton of dancers doing the “Naatu” dance.
At this point, only one of the Oscar-nominated songs has not been announced yet. That is expected to change tomorrow or Wednesday with the revelation of Lady Gaga returning to the Dolby Theater stage to sing “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick.”
The 95th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 12 at 5 PM PT/ 8 PM ET and broadcast live on ABC.
