At the 88th annual Academy Awards, Lady Gaga stole the show with her performance of “Til It Happens to You” from a documentary called “The Hunting Ground.”
The star was introduced by Vice President Joe Biden, who set the stage for the message embedded within the touching song Gaga was about to sing. He encouraged the audience to change the dialogue that surrounds sexual assault.
Gaga then performed her rendition of the ballad, which is co-written by Diane Warren. She sat at a white piano wearing an all white outfit during her performance. She was able to effortlessly communicate the message of the song as she belted out some of the trickiest notes possible. As the camera swooped through the audience filled with celebrities, many of them were visibly moved by the performance.
As the song was drawing to an end, survivors of sexual assault crimes came onto the stage and showed the audience their arms, which were covered in phrases like “It Happened To Me” and “Not Your Fault.”
Later that evening, Gaga shared a photo of the group to her Instaagram page with a caption thanking them for sharing their story and being so receptive of hers.
After the performance, the audience was so moved that they burst into applause. Before the performance, the singer had tweeted that she would have Ke$ha in mind as she sang the song. Ke$ha has currently been suffering through a legal battle with Dr. Luke, who she claims sexually assaulted her during their working relationship.
The song is from the documentary “The Hunting Ground,” which explores the reality of sexual assault on college campuses across the nation, and Gaga says she has a personal connection to the message behind it. In December, she told the world that she was sexually assaulted when she was a teenager.
She also elaborated on her history with sexual assault at the Producers Guild of America Awards. During a speech she gave during the awards ceremony, she thanked everyone for their support and mentioned that this was an extremely important issue to her family.
She elaborated by saying that the song meant a lot to her parents because her dad’s sister was sexually assaulted when she was in college. The incident impacted her so much that it lead to her death, and it is something that has affected her father his entire life.
Gaga also gave a show-stopping performance at last year’s Academy Awards ceremony when she performed several songs from the Sound of Music.
All of Us after @ladygaga's performance #Oscars https://t.co/ceZR2baU1A pic.twitter.com/raPrbegbcA
— Us Weekly (@usweekly) February 29, 2016