Skip to Content
Eminem's Oscars 2020 Performance of 'Lose Yourself'

Eminem's Oscars 2020 Performance of 'Lose Yourself'

By Steve Dove
Feb 11th, 2020

On Sunday night, Eminem surprised the world by showing up at the Oscars 2020 ceremony to perform his Oscar-winning song "Lose Yourself," some 17 years later. No one saw it coming—it wasn't previously announced, and there are reports that Eminem could have bailed on the performance if it leaked in advance—but it blew pretty much everyone away. At the Oscars 2003, Eminem and his co-writers Jeff Bass and Luis Resto won an Oscar for Music (Original Song) for "Lose Yourself," from 8 MILE (which also starred Eminem). Eminem did not attend the ceremony that year, so his co-writer Bass accepted the award on his behalf—and that also meant that a young Marshall Mathers didn't perform the song at the ceremony either. In a tweet posted Sunday night, Eminem signaled he'd reconsidered that decision, and was excited to finally perform at the Oscars.

So 17 years later, after a montage of past Oscar-winning songs, Eminem took the stage to play "Lose Yourself" in person at the Oscars for the first time:

UPDATE: This clip has expired.

Eminem performs "Lose Yourself" at the Oscars 2020

The crowd's reaction to Eminem's 2020 performance began with stunned shock, but the crowd definitely got into it:

And the standing ovation he received at the end of his performance was proof that the hip-hop legend still commands a great deal of respect in Hollywood.

The OscarsNewsMusic MomentsEminem's Oscars 2020 Performance of 'Lose Yourself'