During the Academy Awards, (a.k.a. The Oscars), we’re used to seeing musical performances. It’s tradition for all the songs nominated for Best Original Song to be performed throughout the awards show. What’s not tradition is for a song that won 17 years ago to be performed.

The Oscars were moving along nicely without any huge surprises. Then Lin-Manuel Miranda walked out on stage and talked about how integral music is to movies. We turned our eyes to a montage of movies through the years. The montage included films like Back to the Future, The Breakfast Club and Risky Business.

What nobody saw coming was how the montage would end. The montage ended with the beginning notes to the song “Lose Yourself” from the movie 8 Mile. Then, suddenly, Eminem was on stage performing the song live.

 

Eminem won an Oscar for Best Original Song for “Lose Yourself” back in 2003, but he wasn’t there to accept the award. In an interview, he said that in 2003, he didn’t think he had a chance of winning. He thought he had “a snowball’s chance in hell” of winning, so what did he do instead of attending the awards show? He was sleeping.

Look, if you had another shot, another opportunity… Thanks for having me @TheAcademy. Sorry it took me 18 years to get here. pic.twitter.com/CmSw2hmcZo

— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) February 10, 2020

Apparently, in 2020, Eminem now understands what awards mean, and he wasn’t going to miss a second chance to take the stage during The Academy Awards.

The reactions of the audience mirrored those of us at home. At first it was a mix of confusion and delight. Then, many audience members (a.k.a. celebrities nominated for Oscars) could be seen singing along and dancing in their seats.

the reactions to that Eminem performance were so good #Oscars pic.twitter.com/981WiI8mix

— Jarett Wieselman (@JarettSays) February 10, 2020

Were you surprised to see Eminem at the Oscars?