Eminem explains why he chose to perform 'Lose Yourself' at the Oscars

The rapper also clarified why he didn't perform it the year it was nominated

The Academy Awards went host-less again this year, which means there were plenty of surprises in terms of the performances, or who was going to show up next.

Among the surprises was Eminem's appearance, who performed his 2002 Oscar-winning song Lose Yourself from the movie 8 Mile.

People in the audience seemed to be loving it, but nearly everyone was confused about why it happened. It is pertinent to point out that the now 47-year-old rapper did not perform Lose Yourself at the Oscars the year the song was nominated. Luckily, Eminem cleared it up for everyone.

In an interview with Variety, the renowned rapper said, "I kinda figured maybe since I didn’t get a chance to do it at the time, maybe it would be cool. 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."

He added, "But then when I found out I won, 'That’s crazy!' That to me shows how authentic and real that award is — when you don’t show up and you still win. That makes it very real to me.'

There’s some conflicting info regarding why the performance didn’t happen, but now Eminem says he wanted to come back and give it a go since he missed his chance the year the song actually won. Per the rapper.

While the Oscars performance aired, there were plenty of reactions about it from the crowd, ranging from a confused-looking Billie Eilish to Gal Gadot and Zazie Beetz happily singing along. Martin Scorsese seemed unmoved by the song and plenty of other non-celebrities reacted from the comfort of their own homes as well.

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