Ariana DeBose did her homework before taking the stage to open the 2023 BAFTA Awards on Sunday night. The Oscar-winning singer/actress faced an avalanche of snarky criticism and memes after she performed a bit that mixed a high-energy version of a 1985 Eurythmics/Aretha Franklin collaboration with an original rap ticking off some of the famous and nominated women in the room.
And though some commenters dinged DeBose for what they deemed clunky bars, ever the professional, Ariana definitely had the routine down before hitting the stage, as evidenced by a 35-second TikTok video shared by Broadway music director Benjamin Rauhala on Wednesday (Feb. 22).
In the clip, the actress smiled and shimmied in place as her received her final makeup touches, with the on-screen graphics reading, “We did the thing… backstage with Ariana getting ready to… do the thing… We had SO much fun celebrating the brilliant female nominees at the BAFTAs. It was an honour to give love to all these iconic women and to get the party started.”
In fact, DeBose was bristling with energy as she put some extra on certain names and lines, still at it just before going on stage as her team adjusted the tear-away sections of her voluminous magenta gown. And though DeBose has not made an official public statement about the blowback, Rauhala’s TikTok ended with a suggestion that all fair in love and memes.
“We are giggling at everyone who has our campy little number stuck in their head. Thank you for the love and hilarious memes,” read one of the final captions. “She did the thing.”
The producer of Sunday night’s show, Nick Bullen, told Variety magazine earlier this week that the pile-on was unwarranted. “We wanted to open the show with some energy, some fun, and also lay out straight away that this was hopefully going to feel like a different night, but with a familiarity as well, and what Ariana did was exactly that,” producer Bullen said the morning after the telecast. He said that DeBose and her team put the entire bit together in close consultation with the show’s musical director and choreographer and that he didn’t think she deserved the biting reaction.
The highly choreographed bit opened with DeBose singing “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves” as a group of dancers pulled at her dress and removed long pieces of fabric. The performance then flipped into a solo rap in which DeBose did call-outs to a variety of actresses in the audience.
It was the latter bit — specifically her awkward Angela Bassett and Viola Davis shout-outs — that got the Twitterverse revved up. “Angela Bassett did the thing/ Viola Davis my ‘Woman King’/ Blanchett Cate you’re a genius/ Jamie Lee you are all of us,” rapped DeBose in a clip that quickly went viral after the show thanks to what looked like less-than-enthusiastic looks on the faces of some of the actresses she mentioned.
“I think it’s incredibly unfair, to be frank. I absolutely loved it,” Bullen told Variety of the criticism. “Everybody I’ve spoken to who was in the room absolutely loved it. She’s a huge star, she was amazing. The songs she was singing are very familiar songs, the room was clapping, and people were sort of dancing to the music. That rap section in the middle, mentioning the women in the room, was because it’s been a great year for women in film, and we wanted to celebrate that. And here is a woman of color who is at the absolute top of her game.”
DeBose deactivated her Twitter account after the online backlash.
Watch the TikTok below.
