Take That and Jeff Goldblum to perform at Bafta awards

Take That will perform the single Greatest Day at the Bafta film awards later this month, while the actor Jeff Goldblum will play piano during the in memoriam section.

The British boyband will be singing their 2008 No 1 during the ceremony because it features prominently in the opening of Sean Baker’s sex worker drama Anora, which is up for seven awards including best picture, director and leading actress for Mikey Madison.

The band currently comprises Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen. Better Man – a biopic of Robbie Williams, who left the band in 1995, featuring a version of the singer as a chimp – is nominated for best visual effects.

Meanwhile, Goldblum, who heads up a jazz band as well as starring in films such as Wicked – which is also in contention for seven awards – will perform on the piano as leading lights from the industry who have died over the past year are remembered.

Since Bafta’s long-running collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, who traditionally opened the show, came to a close in 2020, the ceremony has included a number of memorable musical numbers.

In 2023, Ariana DeBose performed a rap about that year’s female nominees, which attracted scorn, mirth and bafflement but has since gone down as a winningly offbeat moment in Bafta history.

DeBose defended her performance, saying: “These lyrics were never meant to be Charles Dickens. They are what they are. On TikTok people were asking about why [one lyric was] ‘Blanchett, Cate?’ It’s literally a play on Madonna’s Vogue rap.”

This year’s Baftas will take place on 16 February in a ceremony overseen by returning host David Tennant. Papal thriller Conclave leads the pack with 12 nominations, followed by Emilia Pérez with 11 and The Brutalist with nine.