One of the most talked-about moments during Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony wasEminem‘ssurprise performancemidway through the show — and a producer for the show tells PEOPLE how it came about, 18 years after the rapper won for Best Original Song.
The producers wanted to make a show about “impact” and wanted to include the impact of music, says Oscars co-producer Lynette Howell Taylor.
“So we reached out [to Eminem] to see if that was something he might want to be involved in,” Taylor continues. “He said yes.”
“We’ve been holding onto it for a while,” Taylor adds.
“It was nice that we surprised people — we don’t usually get to surprise anybody in this day and age!” she says.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
“We feel really happy,” Taylor adds of how the production teams feels aboutthe Oscarsthis year. “I’m so happy about all the winners, it’s an incredible group of winners, and the performances killed it. I’m just thrilled.”
AfterLin-Manuel Mirandaintroduced a segment that looked through some of the most iconic Best Original Song winners and ended on a scene from Eminem’s8 Mile, the 47-year-old rapper appeared on stage for an energetic rendition of “Lose Yourself” from the movie.
Eminem.Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Barbra Streisandended up presenting the golden statuette for “Lose Yourself” to co-writer Luis Resto that year due to Eminem’s absence.
Eighteen years later, Eminemposted a clipof Streisand announcing the song at the 2003 Oscars, taking the opportunity to thank the Academy for having him perform on Sunday night.
“Look, if you had another shot, another opportunity… Thanks for having me @theacademy,” he wrote in the post, riffing off lyrics from the song. “Sorry it took me 18 years to get here.”
source: people.com
