ABC/Image Group LA In Music City, the saying goes “There’s always a country connection” — and that’s even true of last week’s history-making mix-up at the Oscars.
Keith Urban was in the front row next to his nominated wife, Nicole Kidman, as La La Land was mistakenly announced as the Best Picture winner, instead of Moonlight.
“It was a bit surreal…” Keith says of the whole experience.
The man behind “The Fighter” goes on to explain what it was like to watch the entire scene unfold.
“We were only feet from the stage, and I’m watching them talk, and I saw one of the guys come out with the clipboard,” he recalls. “I was like, ‘This is a live TV show. I’m not sure if he’s in camera shot.’ And I looked around at where they had the teleprompter and it was black and there was a guy doing this,” he says, as he makes the universal sign to indicate you should stop.
“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, have we lost transmission?’… And then you had the feeling like, ‘Mmm, that might be the wrong…’ ’cause everyone’s looking at envelopes close and this sort of thing. And I thought, ‘They’ve brought out the wrong name.’ Extraordinary!” he adds.
The Aussie superstar was quick to find the humor in the mishap.
“I was sitting next to Octavia Spencer and we were walking out, and I said, ‘Octavia, do you want to wait a beat to see if Hidden Figures actually won?’” he laughs. “You’ve got a shot!”
Keith looked back on the events of the week as he celebrated the #1 success of his hit “Blue Ain’t Your Color” Friday afternoon with a party and a performance at Basement East in Nashville.
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