On Sunday, Feb. 28, at the 88th annual Academy Awards, Lady Gaga performed a legendary performance of her new song “Till it happens to you.” She and Diane Warren were nominated for the track which appeared on the soundtrack for the Hunting Ground.

The song was written in support of standing up against sexual assault on college campuses. The movie The Hunting Ground is a documentary following the incidents of sexual assault on college campuses. It was written and directed by Kirby Dick and premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Although the movie itself and the stories portrayed were highly controversial, the song itself has a very deep and personal message.

Gaga was introduced to the stage by Vice President Joe Biden. Biden called onto the audience saying “Take the pledge. A pledge that says, I will intervene in situations where consent has not or can not be given. Let’s change the culture.” Biden received a standing ovation from the audience as he walked off stage and the camera panned over to Gaga.

Sitting at a white piano, in an all white outfit, Gaga began singing her moving song showing obvious emotion. As the song continued, Gaga was joined on stage by a group of male and female victims of sexual assault. Each one of them had words written on their arms including “It happened to me” and “Survivor.”

As the song concluded, Gaga stood up joining hands with survivors as they all reached up. The singer received a standing ovation from the crowd as you saw many famous faces such as Rachel McAdams shedding a few tears.

Following the performance, highly notable singer Kesha, tweeted a picture saying “Thank you @ladygaga and VP @joebiden for bringing attention to sexual assault at the Oscars. It hit very close to my heart for obvious reasons.” This alluding to her legal battle with producer Dr. Luke who she has accused of sexually assaulting her. She lost the case and is now locked in her musical contract with the producer.

Although this entire subject is highly controversial in our society today, it is still a big issue in many ways. Bringing attention to the subject and pledging against it may just allow for greater actions to take place when another tragic event happens. In the United States alone, there are about 293,000 victims of sexual assault and 68% of them do not report the incident to the police. This is either because of fear of assaulter or fear of nothing being done to take action. This is a scary statistic. This issue is real and actions must be taken to make this a more pressing issue in society instead of just saying “Did you provoke him” or “Oh, she was asking for it.”