The Weeknd performed his Oscar-nominated smash "Earned It" alongside a small platoon of dancers, gymnasts, and trapeze artists at tonight's Academy Awards, a performance that had a lot in common with the song's official music video. The Canadian pop star (aka Abel Tesfaye) and co-writers Belly, Stephan Moccio, and Jason Quenneville are nominated for their contribution to last year's BDSM blockbuster Fifty Shades of Grey. If "Earned It" manages to take home the prize, it'll be the second major award the song has won in recent weeks: Tesfaye won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance earlier in February.
"Earned It" is the most commercially successful song nominated tonight by a wide margin. It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard charts after being released in December 2014, the first in a series of hits that vaulted Tesfaye from minor stardom to a place among pop's elite. His stripped-down, glamorous performance of "Can't Feel My Face" and "In the Night" at the Grammys a few weeks ago served as a field test for tonight's similar turn on stage. We still have to wait a while to find out if Tesfaye will take home a prize tonight as well.
