Oscars 2023: 10 Ups & 5 Downs

5. The Strong Musical Performances

Musical performances at the Oscars tend to be a wildly mixed bag, due to both the quality of the songs and the iffiness of the production on the show itself.

And while the performances undeniably padded out the show's runtime, at least the renditions themselves were soulful and memorable, as is more than can be said for most years.

RRR's "Naatu Naatu" was given a spritely, energetic stage performance, Lady Gaga offered up a stripped down version of Top Gun: Maverick's "Hold My Hand," David Byrne donned hot dog fingers to perform Everything Everywhere All at Once's "This Is a Life," and Rihanna gave a typically commanding rendition of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's "Lift Me Up."

The only song that didn't make much of a dent was Diane Warren's inexplicably nominated "Applause" from Tell It Like a Woman, but even then it was totally fine and didn't outstay its welcome.