A.M.P.A.S.(r)/Michael Yada(LOS ANGELES) — If recording a Grammy-winning album of jazz duets with the legendary Tony Bennett didn’t convince the world that Lady Gaga can really sing, her show-stopping performance at the Academy Awards on Sunday night certainly did.
Going into the ABC telecast, fans knew that Gaga would perform a tribute of some kind, but nobody knew the details. Turns out it was a salute to the 50th anniversary of The Sound of Music, and featured the star, wearing a frothy white sleeveless gown, minimal makeup and long flowing blonde hair, belting out a medley of songs from the beloved musical. Kicking things off with the movie’s title theme, Gaga opened her mouth and shocked everyone by singing the song flawlessly, sounding every inch like a Broadway star, with a hint of a British accent.
She then moved on to “My Favorite Things,” “Edelweiss” and “Climb Every Mountain,” hitting every note perfectly, as Twitter exploded with compliments. As one Twitter user put it, “OMG so, am I the only one who didn’t know @ladygaga could FRIKKIN sing like that?!?!”
After receiving a standing ovation for her performance, Sound of Music star Julie Andrews walked onstage and embraced Gaga, saying that her performance had “warmed my heart.”
According to Twitter, the most tweeted-about moment in the show, as measured in Tweets per minute was Lady Gaga’s performance.
There were plenty of other musical performances during the lengthy telecast as well:
- Maroon 5 performed an extremely low-key rendition of the nominated song “Lost Stars,” which Adam Levine sang in the movie Begin Again.
- John Legend and Common received a standing ovation and moved some audience members to tears with their performance of “Glory,” from the movie Selma. The two performed a song in front of a recreation of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led his famous march. It went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song, making Common the third rapper ever to win in that category, following Eminem and Three Six Mafia.
- Jennifer Hudson sang “I Can’t Let Go” after the “In Memoriam” segment paying tribute to those we lost in the past year.
- Tegan & Sara and The Lonely Island — including a rapping Andy Samberg — teamed up with The Roots’ drummer Questlove and Mark Mothersbaugh of ’80s new wave icons Devo for an insane performance of the nominated song “Everything Is Awesome,” from The Lego Movie. The frenetic, technicolor performance included break dancing construction workers, Batman, Oscar statuettes made of Legos, streamers and more.
- Country superstar Tim McGraw sang the nominated song “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” written by country legend Glen Campbell, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and was unable to perform.
- Rita Ora sang “Grateful,” the Diane Warren-penned Oscar nominated song from the movie Beyond the Lights.
Follow @ABCNewsRadio
Copyright © 2015, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
