Athens native Brittany Howard featured in powerful Oscars performance

If you tuned into The Oscars last night, you might’ve seen a familiar face performing in tribute to a movie that was one of the night’s big winners.

Brittany Howard, an Athens native and founder of the Alabama Shakes, appeared during a powerful performance at the awards ceremony amongst a star-studded line-up of performers.

Check out what Howard sang and who she performed with, as well as a few more Alabama connections to the 98th Oscars.

Sinners’ Winners

After setting a record for total Oscar nominations, Sinners was one of the big winners last night. The film took home 4 awards: Best Actor (Michael B. Jordan), Best Original Screenplay (Ryan Coogler), Best Cinematography (Autumn Durald Arkapaw), and Best Original Score (Ludwig Göransson).

The film was also up for Best Original Song for its powerful genre-defying anthem, “I Lied to You.” While the song did not win its category, it was performed by the original singer, actor Miles Caton, and songwriter, Raphael Saadiq, alongside a star-studded lineup of other performers.

Brittany Howard at the awards

Brittany Howard was one of the performers, as well as an impressive array of musicians and performers including Misty Copeland, Eric Gales, Buddy Guy, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Bobby Rush, Shaboozey and Alice Smith.

Howard is credited as a co-writer on another song in Sinners. Her song, “Pale, Pale Moon” is featured in the background of a jubilant dance scene and fight sequence in the film’s second act. Howard co-wrote the song with Ludwig Göransson, the Oscar-winning composer of the Sinners‘ original score.

More AL at The Oscars

Howard was not the only Alabama connection at last night’s ceremony; she was one of four connections to the state seen during the broadcast.

The Alabama Solution, a documentary filmed in and about Alabama prisons, was nominated for best documentary feature, but fell to Mr. Nobody Against Putin.

Additionally, Cullman native Channing Tatum appeared in a couple of comedy bits throughout the broadast and Tuskegee’s own music superstar Lionel Richie presented the Oscar for best original song.

We were so proud to see Alabama represented well on the stage last night. Did you catch any of the AL connections in the broadcast?

Want more fun content like this? Follow Hville Blast on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram!