A (vice) presidential presenter! Joe Biden is set to introduce Lady Gaga’s performance of her hit “Til It Happens to You” at the 2016 Oscars on Sunday, February 28, and the pairing is actually a lot more fitting than it might initially seem.
Gaga’s song is nominated for Best Original Song this year, against contenders like The Weeknd’s “Earned It” from Fifty Shades of Grey and Sam Smith’s “Writing’s on the Wall” from Spectre. It was featured in the film The Hunting Ground, a documentary about campus sexual assault.
Biden, 73, helped to launch the White House’s “It’s On Us” campaign against sexual assault last September, and has been a vocal advocate for awareness since he was a senator in Delaware.
“Twenty-one years ago, I wrote the Violence Against Women Act to end the scourge of violence against women and hold perpetrators accountable,” he wrote in an op-ed for the White House last November. “It’s been a great success, but even one attack is one too many.”
Gaga recently took a very public stance with Kesha following the “TiK ToK” singer’s legal battles with music producer Dr. Luke, whom she accused of mental, physical and sexual abuse.
“This is the most upsetting part for me,” Gaga wrote in a screenshot of her reply to a follower on Instagram. “That the very reason women don’t speak up for years is the fear no one will believe them or their abuser has threatened their life of the loved ones/ livelihood in order to keep their victim quiet and under their control.”
This is Gaga’s first Oscars nomination. The “Edge of Glory” singer was also nominated for an award for Best Song Written for Visual Media at this year’s Grammys, but lost the top nod to Common and John Legend for their song “Glory” from the film Selma.
The 29-year-old did, however, make a huge impact on the show with her high-tech tribute to the late David Bowie, complete with orange hair and a sparkling white jumpsuit. Mother Monster cycled through a whole collection of the music legend’s biggest hits, including “Changes,” “Space Oddity,” “Rebel, Rebel” and “Let’s Dance.”
