Eminem seems to keep surprising us. After the surprise release of his album Music to Be Murdered By on Jan 17, he appeared this past Sunday at the Oscars for a surprise performance of his song “Lose Yourself.”
Audience members were stunned by the unexpected appearance and performance by the rapper. Idina Menzel‘s facial expression (which has become a viral meme) said what we were all thinking: Why?
Well, now we’ve got some answers.
The rapper took the stage to perform “Lose Yourself” which won him an Oscar for Best Original Song 17 years ago. The song is from the film 8 Mile, which Eminem also stars in. Eminem was not present at the 2003 ceremony, and instead had his colloborator Luis Resto accept the award from Barbra Streisand.
In an interview with Variety, the rapper explains that he was told that the Oscars would be paying tribute to past Best Original Song Winners, with 8-Mile being part of a montage introduced by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
“I kind of figured maybe since I didn’t get a chance to do it at the time, maybe it would be cool,” he told Variety. “Back then, I never even thought that I had a chance to win, and we had just performed ‘Lose Yourself’ on the Grammys with the Roots a couple of weeks before the Oscars, so we didn’t think it was a good idea. And also, back at that time, the younger me didn’t really feel like a show like that would understand me.”
The event was a major secret, and the rapper was given the option to cancel if news of the performance had leaked. The Dolby was put under lockdown during the rapper’s rehearsals.
When asked whether he enjoyed his belated Oscar spotlight he responded, “Absolutely, I got to hug Salma Hayek!”