The stars of Sinners performed a stirring rendition of ‘I Lied to You’ alongside a host of special guests at the 2026 Oscars – check it out below.
- READ MORE: Oscars 2026 winners – see the full list
Led by Miles Caton and Raphael Saadiq, the performance was an homage to one of the film’s most impactful scenes, in which musicians bridge the veil between past and present with their sound.
It saw a host musicians and performers – including blues legend Buddy Guy, retired ballerina Misty Copeland, Eric Gales, Brittany Howard, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Bobby Rush, Shaboozey and Alice Smith – join the Caton and Saadiq for the segment, which was billed beforehand as a tribute to the film’s “singular visual style”.
Saadiq kicked things off by strumming a guitar before passing it to Caton, who sang the first verse with support from Shaboozey. On a set resembling the film’s Club Juke, the all-star cast later joined them, with Howard on guitar, Smith singing, and Copeland dancing ballet as she came together with the ensemble to finish off the song.
Many on social media took the addition of Copeland at the end of the performance as a dig towards Timothée Chalamet.
The full performance of “I Lied To You” from ‘SINNERS’ at the Oscars.
See the full winners list: https://t.co/2LO8EZqZIM pic.twitter.com/hKN7g6PkmN
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) March 15, 2026
Chalamet was nominated for Best Actor at yesterday’s Academy Awards for his role in Marty Supreme, with the trophy ultimately going to Sinners‘ Michael B. Jordan.
Chalamet attracted a sizeable backlash earlier this month when he questioned the popularity of ballet and opera, saying “no one cares about this anymore”, which cropped up at the ceremony with a quip from host Conan O’Brien.
“Security is extremely tight tonight,” he told the audience at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. “I’m told there’s concern about attacks from both the opera and ballet community.”
When asked about this on the red carpet by Variety, Copeland said her focus was on “educating people on its importance in our society”.
Misty Copeland on Timothée Chalamet’s ballet comments: “It’s really about educating people on its importance in our society.” pic.twitter.com/PpoB8eHnyQ
— Variety (@Variety) March 16, 2026
As for ‘I Lied To You’, the track itself earned an Oscar nod for Best Original Song, one of the record-breaking 16 nominations that Sinners achieved.
NME’s four-star review of the film nodded to the impact of the sequence soundtrack by the song, with James Mottram writing: “Sinners really comes to life via the musical numbers… Coogler uses it to prove just how influential the genre is via a spellbinding sequence that tracks through the juke joint, whirling around Preacher Boy and showcasing a hip-hop DJ, an MC and an electric guitarist.
“Such anachronisms add to the film’s feeling of fantasy but Coogler also tackles serious themes such as the oppression of Black Americans by white folk during this period.”
Coogler and longtime creative partner and composer Ludwig Göransson have also opened up on the film and its music in NME‘s Friends Like These interview series – check out the full chat here.
Outside of Original Song, the vampiric blues flick was nominated for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay, among several others.
Recently, Sinners star Wunmi Mosaku said she couldn’t celebrate her first Oscar nomination because of the “truly dystopian” political unrest in US. “There’s a very strange American psyche where terrible things happen and people still can go to work the next day,” she remarked.