Ariana Grande And Cynthia Erivo Open 2025 Oscars With Wicked Medley — Watch And Grade It!

Eleven years after John Travolta introduced "Adele Dazeem" to the world (if you know, you know), Sunday's Oscars welcomed another pair of Wicked-ly talented performers to the stage — Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.

ABC's broadcast of the 97th Academy Awards opened with a medley of songs from Jon M. Chu's multi-nominated film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, a "what if?" prequel to the events of The Wizard of Oz. Erivo stars as Elphaba, the so-called Wicked Witch of the West, alongside Grande as Glinda (née Ga-linda... it's a long story), who comes to be known as the Good Witch of the South.

The clicking of Dorothy's iconic slippers at the top of the show kicked off an emotional video tribute to the movies, followed by a gorgeous performance of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Grande, dressed in a ruby red gown.

Erivo took the stage next with a beautiful take on "Home," from The Wiz, famously played on the big screen by Diana Ross in 1978. As if that wasn't enough of a gift, the medley ended with a duet of "Defying Gravity" from Wicked.

Wicked entered this year's Oscars with an impressive 10 total nominations, including the coveted Best Picture. Erivo and Grande were also nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. Additional nods included Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design, Best Original Score, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects.

And with an even more dramatic sequel, Wicked: For Good, set to hit theaters on Nov. 21, the denizens of Oz could find themselves right back here again at this time next year.

In other Wicked news, the movie will be available to stream on Peacock beginning Friday, March 21.

Hit PLAY on the video above to watch footage of Erivo and Grande's Oscars performance, then grade the Wicked medley in our poll below and drop a comment with your full review.