16 OSCAR NOMINEES – OVER 10 ARTISTS ON STAGE – AND 3,000 STANDING SILENT AUDIENCE MEMBERS. The Academy Awards stage unexpectedly transformed into a Sinners’ world as the artists recreated the “Pierce the Veil” scene with an explosive performance of “I Lied to You.” Raphael Saadiq opened with guitar before handing the stage back to Miles Caton, and just minutes later, the stage erupted as artists like Brittany Howard, Alice Smith, and ballet dancer Misty Copeland appeared. With a setting recreating Club Juke from the film, the performance left the more than 3,000 guests in the room breathless before erupting in applause — a moment many called “a scene from the movie come to life on the Oscar stage.”
The stars of “Sinners” recreated the “Pierce the Veil” segment from the film at the 98th Oscars with a stirring rendition of “I Lied to You” from an all-star cast of musicians led by Miles Caton and Raphael Saadiq.
Caton and Saadiq paid homage to Ryan Coogler’s film alongside an impressive array of musicians and performers including Misty Copeland, Eric Gales, Buddy Guy, Brittany Howard, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Bobby Rush, Shaboozey and Alice Smith. The performance was billed ahead of time as a tribute to the film’s “singular visual style.”
Saadiq set off the segment by strumming on the guitar before passing it to Caton, who sang the first verse with support, at one point, from Shaboozey. On a set resembling the film’s Club Juke, the subsequent all-star cast joined in — Brittany Howard on guitar, Alice Smith singing, and Misty Copeland dancing ballet as she came together with the ensemble to finish off the song.
Caton, who played the young version of Sammie in “Sinners,” has performed the song alongside Saadiq and composer Ludwig Göransson several times since the film’s release, including renditions on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and the American Cinematheque Awards. “I Lied to You,” of course, earned an Oscar nod for best original song, one of the record-breaking 16 nominations that “Sinners” achieved.
The “Sinners” soundtrack and score played an integral role in the film, inspired by music from the 1930s and ’40s and blues artists like Robert Johnson. “I Lied to You” is played in one of the defining scenes in “Sinners,” where Sammie sings the song at a juke joint as Black music’s lineage swirls around him. It was one of two “Sinners” songs submitted for Oscar consideration alongside “Last Time (I Seen the Sun),” a soulful duet performed by Smith and Caton and co-written by Smith, Caton and Göransson.
Outside of original song, “Sinners” was nominated for a record-breaking 16 awards, including best picture, director, actor, supporting actor, supporting actress and original screenplay, among several others.
Watch the performance below:
