Ryan Gosling, Billie Eilish, Jon Batiste set to perform at the Oscars
By LINDSEY BAHR
AP Film Writer
The Oscars just got an infusion of Kenergy.
Ryan Gosling will sing the pop power ballad “ I’m Just Ken ” at the show on March 10, the show’s producers announced Wednesday. Others set to perform their nominated original songs include Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, Jon Batiste, Scott George and the Osage Singers and Becky G.
Gosling is also nominated for best supporting actor that evening. While in character as Ken in a promo for the show with Jimmy Kimmel, he shrugged that he’s not going to win. In fairness, even if it was a joke, he might not be wrong: His fellow nominee Robert Downey Jr. has been sweeping the season.
“I’m Just Ken,” written by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, still has a chance, however, even if the other “Barbie” song, Eilish and Finneas’s soulful “What Was I Made For” seems to be the clear awards favorite to date, having already won a Grammy. But the Ken ballad is also the one everyone has wanted to see on the Oscars telecast, which will mark Gosling’s first time performing at the show.
As Ken might shout, hiding behind a corner that he believes is somehow soundproof: “Sublime!”
The other nominated songs include Diane Warren’s “The Fire Inside,” from “Flamin’ Hot,” Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson’s “It Never Went Away” from “American Symphony,” and Scott George’s “Wahzhazhe” from “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
The 96th Oscars will be broadcast live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 10 with the show beginning at 7 p.m. EDT.
