Eminem Slept Through His Historic Oscar Win

On the night "Lose Yourself" made history, Eminem was fast asleep in Detroit.

The Song That Changed the Oscars

"Lose Yourself" was written for the 2002 film 8 Mile, a semi-autobiographical story about a rapper trying to make it out of Detroit. The track was raw, urgent, and built around a single high-stakes moment. It became one of the biggest songs of Eminem's career - and one of the most celebrated tracks in hip-hop history.

At the 75th Academy Awards on March 23, 2003, it won Best Original Song. No rap or hip-hop song had ever done that before. Eminem became the first hip-hop artist to win an Oscar in that category.

Why He Skipped the Ceremony

Eminem did not attend. He explained in a 2020 interview with Variety that he simply never believed he had a shot. He felt rap rarely got a fair shake at major awards shows, and the younger version of himself just didn't feel like a show like that would understand him. He had protested previous Grammy ceremonies for similar reasons.

The night of the ceremony, Eminem stayed home in Detroit with his daughter, Hailie Jade. She had school the next morning, so he was in bed early. He did not watch the broadcast.

The Phone Call

His longtime collaborator Luis Resto - the keyboard player who helped write the track - attended in Eminem's place and accepted the award from Barbra Streisand. Then Resto called Eminem to tell him what had happened.

Eminem's reaction, recalled in the Variety interview: "That's crazy!" He said it proved how real the award was - that you could still win even when you weren't in the room.

The Return - Seventeen Years Later

In 2020, Eminem finally performed "Lose Yourself" at the Oscars - 17 years after skipping the ceremony. He told Variety he figured since he never got to perform it there at the time, it finally felt like the right moment to come back. The audience gave him a standing ovation.

He had been home with his daughter. The rest could wait.