Is Cynthia Erivo an EGOT winner? Wicked fans criticise Oscars for Best Actress snub

3 March 2025, 12:57 | Updated: 3 March 2025, 16:44

By Sam Prance

Cynthia Erivo was just one award from becoming an EGOT winner at the 2025 Academy Awards.

Wicked fans are devastated after Cynthia Erivo didn't win Best Actress at the Oscars for her performance as Elphaba.

Fans of Cynthia Erivo will already know that the actress is one Academy Award away from becoming an EGOT winner. To date, she has won Best Leading Actress in a Musical at the Tonys, Best Musical Theatre Album at the Grammys and Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program at the Emmys - for her work in The Color Purple.

As a result, fans were hoping that Cynthia would take home the Oscar for Best Actress at the 2025 Academy Awards and become the youngest EGOT winner ever. Nevertheless, the prestigious award went to Mikey Madison for her critically-acclaimed performance in Anora, meaning Cynthia is yet to reach EGOT status.

• Read more: Wicked's Cynthia Erivo has co-written an original Elphaba song for Part 2
• Read more: Did Wicked win any Oscars? Here's how many it won

A day in the life of Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo

Reacting to the Best Actress result on social media, a person tweeted: "I believe that this industry takes advantage of Cynthia's talents but doesn’t give her the awards she deserves in film. It might sound wild since she's just one award shy of achieving EGOT status, but it’s surprising that she didn't win anything this award season."

Another wrote: "The only reason I watched the Oscars was to see Cynthia Erivo get EGOT. She was most definitely robbed". Someone also said: "cynthia erivo deserved that youngest egot title....sorry."

Despite receiving Best Actress nominations at the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs, the SAG Awards and the Critic's Choice Awards, Cynthia didn't win the award at any ceremony this year.

And it wasn't just Cynthia who missed out on awards last night. Wicked only won 2 of it's 10 nominations with Ariana Grande losing Best Supporting Actress to Zoe Saldaña in Emilia Perez and the Wicked losing Best Picture to Anora. Like any year, there were multiple deserving winners.

Cynthia was nominated for Best Actress in a competitive category including Demi Moore for The Substance, Karla Sofía Gascón for Emilia Pérez, Fernanda Torres for I'm Still Here and, of course, Mikey Madison for Anora.

Cynthia also opened the Academy Awards with Ariana Grande, receiving a standing ovation for their renditions of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow', 'Home' and 'Defying Gravity'.

As for Wicked, it took home Best Costume Design for Paul Tazewell's work and Best Production Design (Nathan Crowley and Lee Sandales).

Who do you think deserved Best Actress at the Oscars this year?

Read more Wicked news here:

• Who is playing Dorothy in Wicked Part 2? The Alisha Weir rumours explained
• Wicked completely changed Elphaba, Glinda and Fiyero's love triangle from the book
• Wicked's Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande say Elphaba and Glinda are queer
• Wicked's Michelle Yeoh drops Part 2 spoiler in viral Golden Globes clip
• Wicked's deleted scenes explain why Glinda can't do magic

WATCH: Wicked cast vs. 'The Most Impossible Wicked Quiz'

Wicked Cast vs. 'The Most Impossible Wicked Quiz'

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