Rihanna will follow-up her soaring Super Bowl halftime show with a performance at the Super Bowl of movies — the Oscars.
Producers of the telecast said Thursday that the music superstar will sing "Lift Me Up" from "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."
"Lift Me Up," with music by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Göransson and lyric by Tems and Ryan Coogler, is nominated for original song. It is Rihanna's first Oscar nomination.
Earlier this month, the Barbadian superstar, dressed in a bright red jumpsuit, plowed through 12 of her hits in 13 minutes, at the Super Bowl at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The performance doubled as an announcement to the world that she was pregnant with her second child.
Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the 95th Oscars will air live on ABC and broadcast outlets worldwide on March 12.
Among Oscar competitors that Rihanna faces is Lady Gaga, who was nominated for "Hold My Hand" from "Top Gun: Maverick." Lady Gaga co-wrote the song with BloodPop and it's her fourth nomination; she won an Oscar in 2019 for "Shallow" with Bradley Cooper.
Another nominee is Diane Warren, who received her 14th Oscar nomination through her song "Applause" from "Tell It Like a Woman." The prolific songwriter was recognized with an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards last year.
Other best original song nominees are M.M. Keeravaani's "Naatu Naatu" from "RRR," which was written by Chandrabose, and "This is a Life" from "Everything Everywhere All at Once." The latter track was created by Mitski, David Byrne and Ryan Lott, who along with his band Son Lux was also nominated for best original score.
ABC will air 6 additional “Monday Night Football” games starting this week with Bills-Jets
ABC will simulcast six more ESPN "Monday Night Football" games, including Monday's AFC East matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets.
The addition of the six games means ABC will air 17 this season — 14 simulcasts with ESPN (including two playoff games) and three games exclusively on ABC.
The decision to simulcast more games was a joint decision between the NFL and Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC and ESPN.
The other added games are Baltimore at Tampa Bay (Oct. 21), Tampa Bay at Kansas City (Nov. 4), Houston at Dallas (Nov. 18), Baltimore at Los Angeles Chargers (Nov. 25) and New Orleans at Green Bay (Dec. 23).
The only two Mondays the rest of the regular season where ABC will not have a game are Nov. 11 and Dec. 2.
ABC had games all 18 weeks last season due to an agreement with the NFL since there was no new original fall programming due to the Hollywood writers and actors strikes. With more games on network television, "Monday Night Football" averaged 17.36 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, a 29% increase over 2022.
It was the best audience numbers for the league's seminal prime-time package since 2000. The Super Bowl 57 rematch between Philadelphia and Kansas City averaged 29.03 million.
Coming into the season, ABC had eight scheduled simulcasts, including two Saturday Week 18 games and two playoff games, and three exclusive MNF games when there were doubleheaders.
It also continues Disney's move toward putting more sports programming back on ABC. Super Bowl 61 from Los Angeles in 2027 will be on the network and the College Football Playoff championship game will also move to ABC the same year.
More games on ABC will also boost the ratings. Kansas City's 26-13 victory... Read More