Janelle Monáe opened the Oscars on Sunday night with an epic fake-out. She passed the mike briefly to Billy Porter, who did a bit of Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing” while Monáe accompanied him on a sparkly piano festooned with flowers. She led folks in the audience — Leonardo DiCaprio and a very game Brie Larson among them — in a finger-snapping call-and-response sequence. “I’m proud to be standing here as a black queer artist,” Monáe proclaimed to finish her address (which went over great inside the Dolby, according to those who were there). Then, she stuck the landing with a lung-busting vocal flourish.

Source: Los Angeles Times February 10, 2020 01:36 UTC