Eminem Has Explained That Bizarre ‘Lose Yourself’ Performance At The Oscars
"I kinda figured maybe since I didn’t get a chance to do it at the time, maybe it would be cool," Mathers said.
Yesterday, to the surprise of pretty much every single human being watching, Eminem emerged from the floor and performed the song ‘Lose Yourself’ at the Oscars.
As we reported at the time, it was a baffling choice with at least some precedent. ‘Lose Yourself’ was written for 8 Mile, a quasi-biopic starring Marshall Mathers, AKA Eminem, telling the story of his rags to riches rise to fame. The song was so well-received, in fact, that it was even honoured by the Academy, winning Best Original Song.
Mathers, however, wasn’t there to receive the award at the time, or to perform it. So when he emerged from the floor yesterday, some 17 years after that win, he was closing the loop on a narrative.
At least, that’s what some people guessed. To everyone else, it was the maddest moment in a defiantly mad ceremony.
Now, Mathers has confirmed that the performance yesterday was a do-over, and has explained his original no-show in an interview with Variety.
“I kinda figured maybe since I didn’t get a chance to do it at the time, maybe it would be cool,” Mathers explained of why he took the Academy up on their offer to perform. “Back then, I never even thought that I had a chance to win, and we had just performed ‘Lose Yourself’ on the Grammys with the Roots a couple of weeks before the Oscars, so we didn’t think it was a good idea. And also, back at that time, the younger me didn’t really feel like a show like that would understand me.”
So there you have it. That puts that to bed… Kinda. It’s still not clear why 17 years later was the time to perform the song, or what it had to do with literally anything that was going on during the actual ceremony.
Still. Glad to know that it was a real thing that really happened, and not just some fever dream.