Reba McEntire Explains Why She’s Not Excited for Oscar Performance
And the reason will break your heart.
Reba McEntire will take the stage at the 94th Academy Awards on Sunday (March 27), delivering just the second Oscar performance of her long career of country music and hit movies … but she recently made an admission.
Speaking with reporters on Thursday (March 24) about the massive honor, McEntire said she wasn’t really all that excited about it. And the reason why is heartbreaking.
Don’t get her wrong, McEntire knows how much fun it will be to bring some country to Hollywood, performing “Somehow You Do” from the film Four Good Days. The aching, inner-strength ballad was written by master songsmith Diane Warren and is nominated for Best Original Song, and McEntire is looking forward showing the crowd of movie stars (and the whole world) what an amazing song it really is. It’s just the memories she’s been fighting off that are tough.
McEntire’s first Oscar appearance was back in 1991, when the superstar sang “I’m Checkin’ Out” just nine days after the plane crash that killed eight members of her band and crew. Reba explained that she had agreed to do the song before the crash, and then decided that her friends would have wanted her to go on in their honor, so she did. But even now, she can feel herself holding back.
“I was very emotional [Wednesday] about the Oscars, because I said ‘yes’ to the Oscars in ’91 and then the plane crash happened,” McEntire said, bravely opening up her heart. “Then I went ahead and sang the song, because I felt [late road manger] Jim Hammond talking to me saying ‘Do it for us, we’re checked out of this heart heartbreak hotel.’
“[On Wednesday] everybody said ‘Aren’t you excited? Aren’t you excited?’ … but I don’t feel excited,” she went on, speaking quietly but with all the resilience of “Somehow You Do.” “So I finally figured it out — I thought if I got too excited, something could happen.”
That unconscious fear is understandable, and common among those who wrestle with survivor’s guilt like McEntire must have over the years. But according to her, she’s always had something to lean on, and this is no different.
“I said ‘God I’m just gonna give it up to you,'” she said. “I don’t know why I felt this … heaviness … in my heart, so I just said ‘I’m giving it all up to you. Let me have a good time. Let me sing it the way I’m supposed to sing it, the way you want me to sing it — your way not mine.’ And it lifted like 100 pounds [off of me]. We went to rehearsal and I had a great time.”
McEntire lost seven members of her band plus her manager in the 1991 disaster, when the chartered jet she was supposed to be on crashed near San Diego, California. The country star wasn’t feeling well and decided to stay behind to rest, and poor visibility was eventually blamed for the crash. You can watch Reba’s first Oscar performance here, and tune in Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC to see her sing “Somehow You Do.”
