As Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel made clear during his 2023 Oscars opening monologue, Rihanna was in the building (as was her nine-month-old son, who Kimmel also said had pooped backstage during rehearsals).

Thanks to the stunning ballad “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the superstar scored her first Oscar nomination alongside Tems, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Göransson. For the song’s live debut, Rihanna — whom actress Danai Gurira introduced as “royalty in her own right” — delivered a soaring performance.

Surrounded by a full band, string section and backup vocalists “Lift Me Up” came to life as Rih sang with palpable passion to honor the late Chadwick Boseman. Standing on a center platform draped in diamonds, when she declared “Lift me up… I need love” the stage obliged, elevating her a few inches into the air (nothing compared to her sky-high Super Bowl performance).

“Lift Me Up” marked Rihanna’s long-awaited return to music and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. As Göransson previously told Billboard, speaking of the film’s final scene in which the song plays: “When you hear her voice and the lyrics, that’s the point where you finally take it all in. You can see what a great filmmaker [director] Ryan [Coogler] is because in the scene right before you hear the song, it’s absolute silence. You see all these flashbacks, all these memories, and then you interrupt that [with] a song honoring Chadwick and [his character], T’Challa.”

The performance was celebrated with a standing ovation while the camera panned to A$AP Rocky, who lifted his champagne flute to the sky.

Composer Volker Bertelmann won the Academy Award for best score at the 2023 Oscars, for his musical accompaniment to the war film remake All Quiet on the Western Front.

Bertelmann’s win marks the second consecutive year that the award has gone to a German composer, following Hans Zimmer’s 2022 win for Dune. Movie and TV stars John Cho and Mindy Kaling presented the award, prompting the house orchestra in performing musical illustrations of some of the emotions from the five nominees.

“Thanks to the Academy for this huge recognition,” Bertelmann began his acceptance speech. “When I was working on the film, I was thinking a couple of times of my mom, because she was telling me every now and then — when you want to change humanity and empathy in the world, you have to start by yourself and your own surroundings. Because you learn by that, and you can show actually… how we all can live together. So by working on a film like that, you always are deeply touched.”

Bertelmann then went on to thank his wife, his kids, his collaborators and his fellow nominees, and “last but not least… all of you for this wonderful evening.”

All Quiet on the Western Front is nominated for nine Academy Awards at the 2023 ceremonies, including best picture, best visual effects and best adapted screenplay. The win for best score was already the film’s fourth on the evening, following earlier victories in the best international film, best cinematography and best production design categories.

TWICE‘s Ready to Be has topped this week’s new music poll.

Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (March 10) on Billboard, choosing the group’s latest project as their favorite new music release of the past week.

Ready to Be brought in more than 58% of the vote, beating out new music from Miley Cyrus, Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding, and more.

K-pop stars TWICE dropped Ready to Be, their 12th mini album, on March 10, after receiving the Breakthrough Artist honor at the 2023 Billboard Women in Music Awards on March 1.

“We are ready to show more of our beautiful inner side to the world and ready to show more of ourselves,” Tzuyu shared with Billboard on the red carpet, chatting about Ready to Be. TWICE will be embarking on a world tour in April.

Trailing behind Ready to Be on the fan-voted poll is Miley Cyrus’ Endless Summer Vacation, with 29% of the vote, and Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding’s “Miracle,” with 9% of the vote.

See the final results of this week’s poll below.