Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo opened the 97th Academy Awards on March 2, 2025, with a medley linking three Oz stories: The Wizard of Oz, The Wiz and Wicked. Grande sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” Erivo followed with “Home,” and the pair closed with “Defying Gravity.”
What songs did Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo sing?
The medley moved through the songs in this order:
- “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” — performed by Grande and associated with The Wizard of Oz.
- “Home” — performed by Erivo, from The Wiz.
- “Defying Gravity” — performed together, from Wicked.
ABC’s Good Morning America and The Associated Press reported the same sequence.
How the opening connected the Oz stories
The number was an Oz-family tribute, not a set made up solely of Wicked songs. Its selections reached across different works and adaptations: the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, the musical The Wiz, and the stage musical and film Wicked. The latter draws on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, which reimagines characters from L. Frank Baum’s Oz stories.
Grande told Vogue, “We wanted it to be a tribute to Oz, and to the beautiful women and witches who have come before us.”
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The Los Angeles tribute before the music
A visual package celebrating Los Angeles came before the first song. The Associated Press and Vanity Fair described the tribute in the context of the city’s recent wildfires. Vanity Fair reported that the montage featured films set in Los Angeles and ended with the words “We <3 you LA.”
Why Grande began with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”
Grande told Vogue that the song had mattered to her since childhood: “The Wizard of Oz, and especially ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ has been a very special to me since I was a little girl. My grandpa always asked me to sing it, and it has always been a part of my life, becoming even more meaningful to me over the years.”
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For the performance, Grande wore a red gown designed by Daniel Roseberry for Schiaparelli. Vogue reported that it featured more than 150,000 beads, sequins and Swarovski crystals, with a three-dimensional stiletto on the back as an Oz reference. Grande told Vogue she wanted to pay tribute to the ruby slippers and Judy Garland.
How the performers approached the number
Choreographer Mandy Moore described the staging to the Associated Press as a chance to keep attention on the singers: “It’s everything you want it to be. It’s simple. It’s them. It’s their voices and it’s just them as artists, you know? And I will say, I just got out of the way,” she laughs. “I just told them where to stand on stage and do their thing.”
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When and where the performance took place
The medley opened the 97th Oscars on March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The Academy’s advance announcement said the ceremony would air live on ABC and stream on Hulu, with the planned telecast reaching more than 200 territories worldwide.
At the time of the ceremony, Wicked had 10 Oscar nominations, including best picture; Erivo was nominated for lead actress and Grande for supporting actress, according to ABC’s Good Morning America. Those were the film’s and performers’ nominations for the 2025 ceremony.
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