Cynthia Erivo honors The Wiz with a powerful performance of ‘Home’ to open the Oscars
Tonight, Cynthia Erivo helped kick off the Oscars by paying homage to The Wiz, singing Stephanie Mills’ 1974 hit “Home.”
Wearing a stunning white dress with purple accents, her signature pointy nails adorned with studs, and a shaved head, Erivo belted out the famous lyrics: “When I think of home, I think of a place where there’s love overflowing…” — a song made iconic by both Mills and Diana Ross, who played Dorothy in the Broadway show and the film adaptation, respectively. The song was adapted for “The Wiz” movie in 1978 by the great American musical producer, Quincy Jones, who passed away in November 2024.
Erivo is up for the Best Actress award after her acclaimed performance as Elphaba in the blockbuster hit Wicked, which took the world by storm in the fall of 2024 and is up for ten awards tonight.
What made Erivo’s performance even more satisfying was that leading up to the Oscars, the multitalented singer and actress jokingly denied that she would be performing at the awards show.
“People are asking me if we’re going to be singing at the Oscars,” Erivo said with a serious tone and a hint of slyness. “I don’t know why we would be doing that, since our song is not nominated. That doesn’t happen.”
Just as she defied expectations tonight, Erivo also defied gravity — literally — when she performed Wicked’s “Defying Gravity” alongside her co-star Ariana Grande, bringing the entire crowd to its feet in a rousing standing ovation.
