The Oscars stage transformed into a juke joint Sunday, blending music of the past and the present during the 98th Academy Awards.
Miles Caton and Raphael Saadiq performed “I Lied to You,” a musical centerpiece of “Sinners.” Caton plays a preacher’s teenage son in the movie who risks his soul to sing blues music.
The duo was accompanied on stage by various artists “in an homage to the film’s singular visual style,” the academy said in a statement earlier this week. Buddy Guy, a blues guitarist who played an older version of Caton’s character, took the stage alongside “Sinners” actors Jayme Lawson and Li Jun Li.
Sammie, an emerging blues singer, penned the piece as a confession to his pastor father and his performance was powerful enough to send the roof a juke joint on fire.
A group of break dancers waltzed through the stage as rapper Shaboozey joined Caton in the vocals, who used a guitar similar of the one his character used in the movie.
Jack O’Connell, Lola Kirke and Peter Dreimanis — the actors who terrorized the juke joint as blood thirsty vampires in the movie — also snaked their way onto the stage.
Also on stage were ballet dancer Misty Copeland and guitarists Eric Gales and Christone Ingram. Musicians Brittany Howard, Bobby Rush and Alice Smith were part of the performance as well.
The song is only one of two from this year’s nominated original songs that was performed live. The singing trio Huntr/x from Netflix’s “KPop Demon Hunters” will also perform the breakout hit “Golden.” The movie took home an Oscar for animated feature earlier in the night.
During the performance, similar to the famous scene in the movie, Black music artists across eras appear all around Sammie, which composer Ludwig Göransson said is a moment when “time and space disappears.”
“Sinners” broke Oscar records, snagging 16 nominations, including for best picture. The film was a stunning box office success, earning $45.6 million during its opening weekend and $369.3 million to date.
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