At the 2023 Oscars in Los Angeles on Sunday night, Son Lux, Stephanie Hsu, and David Byrne performed the acclaimed Everyone Everywhere All at Once song “This Is a Life,” a contender for best song (March 12).
In front of a backing band and snippets of the movie’s Raccacoonie character, the singers gave a coordinated performance of the soundtrack song while wearing all-white outfits and being accompanied by a swarm of similarly attired backing dancers. The scene finished with Hsu and Byrne in the spotlight, the latter displaying his lengthy fingers in a manner reminiscent of the hot dog fingers shown in one of the movie’s many alternate realities.
The original “This Is a Life” was co-performed by renowned indie rock singer-songwriter Mitski and Talking Heads frontman Byrne; however, Byrne was not present for the performance. For the brief “Life” performance, Hsu, who played both the villain Jobu Tapaki and daughter Joy Wong in Everyone Everywhere All at Once, stood in for Mitski.
With Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su, David Byrne previously won an Oscar for co-composing the soundtrack for The Last Emperor, which won the award for best film in 1988. Jamie Lee Curtis won the prize for her role in the same movie, despite Hsu’s nomination for best supporting actress in this year’s ceremony. The movie Everyone Everywhere All at Once received the most nominations that night with 11 in total, including one for best picture.
The likes of Lady Gaga (for Top Gun: Maverick) and Rihanna (for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), as well as regular candidate Dianne Warren, will be tough opposition for “This Is a Life” in the best original song category.