Check out all of the winners from the 2025 Academy Awards hosted by Conan O’Brien.
Originally appeared on E! Online
Count the audience at the 2025 Oscars among those who took great satisfaction in seeing Mick Jagger onstage.
Especially since he wasn't on the evening's program!
Instead, the 81-year-old Rolling Stones frontman surprised the crowd with his appearance to present Best Original Song. Not, presumably, because he was a last-minute replacement for that other guy, but because some living legends are better left to provide unexpected delights.
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With the strains of "Sympathy for the Devil" preceding him, Jagger was announced to great fanfare, the obviously jazzed crowd rising to their feet as he preened and peacocked accordingly. (Even Elton John gave husband David Furnish a wide-eyed OMG look as they joined in the appreciation.)
"You're so kind, thank you so much," Jagger said, hand to heart. "Thank you so much, everyone. Very kind of you, my goodness."
Then it was back to the business of presenting. "I'm very honored to be invited to give this award for the Best Original Song tonight. As much as I love doing it, I wasn't the first choice to give this award out. The producers really wanted Bob Dylan to do this." (See the whole list of 2025 Oscar winners.)
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Dylan was the absentee butt of a number of good-natured jokes since the biopic "A Complete Unknown," starring Timothée Chalamet as the revered but enigmatic artist, was nominated for eight Oscars.
"Bob didn't want to do it," Jagger continued, "because he said the best songs this year were obviously in the movie 'A Complete Unknown.' Bob said, 'You should find somebody younger.' I said, 'OK, I'm younger! I'm younger than Bob, I'll do it.' So here I am."
And Jagger is, indeed, two years younger than Dylan.
He ended up presenting the honor to "El Mal" from "Emilia Pérez," written by Clement Ducol, Camille and the film's director Jacques Audiard.
The song topped fellow "Emilia Pérez" contender "Mi Camino," as well as "The Journey" from The Six Triple Eight, "Like a Bird" from Sing Sing and "Never Too Late" from "Elton John: Never Too Late."
But the octogenarian icon didn't call it a night after that. He may have enjoyed a cozy cup of tea at some point, but he ended up at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party with partner Melanie Hamrick. They share 8-year-old son Deveraux Octavian Basil Jagger, the youngest of Jagger's eight children.
The Rolling Stones were on a world tour as recently as last year, yet this marked a rare red carpet event for the Englishman in Los Angeles. And while he's on this side of the pond, he's been making the most of it, also attending Chanel and Charles Finch’s annual pre-Oscars dinner March 1 at the Beverly Hills Hotel's Polo Lounge.
