[5][6] During the announcement, Gaga shared that she was working on the song for years, and "didn't even realize the multiple layers it spanned across the film's heart, my own psyche, and the nature of the world we've been living in" while writing it.

[16][17][18][19] Jazz Tangcay of Variety called "Hold My Hand" a "soaring rock tune with violins and guitar licks that harken back to the power ballads of the '80s.

"[16][21] Lars Brandle of Billboard noted that the song has a close lineage to Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" and Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone", two tracks from the soundtrack of the original Top Gun film.

[22] Music critics from other outlets compared "Hold My Hand" to songs such as "Open Arms" by Journey, "Alone" by Heart, and Gaga's own 2011 single, "The Edge of Glory".

Robin Murray of Clash called the song "a triumph of bombast" which "finds Lady Gaga cutting loose as a vocalist".

"[28] Screen Rant's Benjamin Weiss highlighted Gaga's "soaring" vocals, noting the song "heavily relies on the performance of the singer rather than production or instrumentation.

"[29] In his film review, Peter Travers of ABC News found "Hold My Hand" the "closest" Top Gun: Maverick "gets to passion", with "Lady Gaga belting her feels full out in an Oscar-ready new theme song".

[30] Stephen Thompson of NPR felt, "Lady Gaga gives 'Hold My Hand' every ounce of the fists-plunged-heavenward, writhing-atop-a-piano-on-a-lonely-airstrip grandeur it requires, and then some.

But as experienced against the meta-blockbuster delirium of Top Gun: Maverick, Gaga's thunderous '80s-style power ballad achieves a kind of popcorn nirvana.

"[32] For the Evening Standard's Gemma Samways, the song is a sentimental ballad "so brilliantly overblown you simply can't imagine any other major pop artist pulling it off.

"[34] Stuart Heritage of The Guardian thought that the track is "bombastic and emotional, and includes everything you could possibly want from a Lady Gaga power ballad".

[36] Alexa Camp of Slant Magazine argued that "for a song the artist claims she's been perfecting 'for years', 'Hold My Hand' struggles to take flight".

[37] USA Today's Melissa Ruggieri called it "a middling ballad",[38] while NME's Nick Levine deemed it a "tepid song".

In its fourth week on the chart, following the theatrical release of Top Gun: Maverick, the song climbed to a new peak position of number 24.

It pulls imagery from the 1986 Top Gun in nostalgic flashback form – at one point, the music video emotionally notes Tom Cruise as test pilot Maverick with Anthony Edwards' character, Nick "Goose" Bradshaw, holding him after the character tragically dies – as well as theatrical film edits from Top Gun: Maverick.

The music video embodies Gaga in a theatrical performance, playing a grand piano on a military air-force runway and singing around an airplane hangar.

When the song hits its climax, Gaga switches the tank-top underneath the aviator bomber jacket for a nude gown that explodes off the singer and into the wind.

She appeared on stage without makeup, in a plain black t-shirt and ripped jeans, and began the performance by stating: "We need a lot of love to walk through this life, and we all need a hero sometimes.

[85] The Oscars' director Glenn Weiss explained that "Hold My Hand" is very meaningful for Gaga, and she aimed to give an unadorned rendition of the song, "and do it not as an 'Oscar performance', but as her.

"[86] Thania Garcia of Variety felt "Hold My Hand" received a "surprisingly rootsy, rock-band production" and described it as "stripped-down, yet enormously effective".