Ariana DeBose had the honour of performing at the 76th EE British Academy Film Awards in London, but what should have been a massive moment for her has unfortunately ended with the star deactivating her Twitter due to an onslaught of online trolling.
Why? Well, let's rewind to the few minutes after Richard E. Grant's opening monologue, when Oscar-winner Ariana made her grand entrance on stage, singing away to the tunes Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves and We Are Family. The 32-year-old then unexpectedly transitioned into an original rap in which she shone a light on the all-female nominees of the evening, such as Viola Davis, Ana de Armas and Angela Bassett. "Angela Bassett did the thing, Viola Davis my 'Woman King,' Blanchett Cate you're a genius, Jamie Lee you are all of us," were just some of the fun, toe-tapping lyrics that she belted out.
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The performance was fun, light-hearted and entertainingly camp, and honestly, a far cry from the usual, boring, monotonous and sterile 'comedy' monologues often found on the stages of these award shows. So, it's fair the say that the criticism that the West Side Story star has received has been shocking. Yes, memes and the odd jokes here and there are all innocent, tongue-in-cheek, and nothing we all can't handle. But when the line crosses over to pure evil, we must step back and re-examine how we dehumanise female celebrities in the public eye. Why must people feel the need to hurl such atrocious, pathetic and downright concerning comments towards someone who was merely just trying to entertain us?
It's also important to note that it's highly unfair that Ariana has been attacked to such an extent online for simply singing and dancing to a song with a positive and empowering message while other (male performers) have, yes, faced some backlash, but not to the same extent as Ariana while relaying actual controversial and tasteless jokes at awards ceremonies. Examples are plenty, ie. Chris Rock ruffled feathers at the Oscars as he brought three children of Asian heritage onstage as 'accountants' in 2016. Let's not forget Seth McFarlane, whose horribly sexist musical number "We Saw Your Boobs" at the Oscars 2013, saw him pointing out actresses sitting in the audience who had their breasts visible in movies. Also, there's Ricky Gervais' endless tirade of incredibly arduous, humourless jokes while presenting the Golden Globes. Honestly, the list is endless.
Back to Ariana, the sad thing about social media is that a lot of people lack a sense of online awareness, especially when it comes to making their darkest, most disgusting feelings known publicly, with complete disregard for the feelings of whoever they're criticising online, which in return for the victim, can lead to extensive mental health issues. If you really don't like something, why must you feel the need to make it publicly known at someone else's expense?
Luckily, not all was lost, as among the hate, people were sticking up for Ariana, denouncing the trolling aimed at her and championing her performance. "Apparently, Ariana DeBose was also getting bullied over her performance. I'm not surprised she deactivated her account. Bullying her over that is pathetic regardless of how you feel about the performance. Ariana literally bothers no one. #BAFTAs," one person tweeted. Another added: "I thought the ariana debose thing was a funny, light-hearted moment that landed flat, and insane backlash like this is why award shows are so sterile and boring now."
Others also rightly pointed out that she added some flavour and substance to the usual bland structure of an awards ceremony, with one tweeting: "People are actually *TALKING* about the BAFTA Awards?! They should be giving Ariana DeBose a 👏🏽RAISE👏🏽 and a 👏🏽PROMOTION👏🏽." Someone else added: "I'm honestly excited for Ariana Debose's career. No press is bad press babygirl! Reactivate your account and come get ya flowers sis!! ✨💐 That song has been stuck in my head all damn day. And I love it 😂." Her performance also added an element of relatability between us ordinary folks and stars, with someone commenting: "Hey, if Ariana DeBose can have a bad day at the office, it gives us all hope. for real though, she's mad talented, it really wasn't that bad. #BAFTAs."
BAFTAs awards producer Nick Bullen also came to Ariana's defence, saying in a public statement said the trolling was "incredibly unfair". He said: "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. I think a lot of people don't like change, and there's a view that the BAFTAs have to be this slightly stiff, traditional British, middle-England messaging. But American awards shows have much more razzmatazz, much more showbiz, and perhaps a broader range of people being involved. We felt we're not about revolution, we're about evolution."
And on the back of Nick's words, we just want to add that we should praise Ariana DeBose for stepping outside the box, taking risks, doing something different, and getting people talking. That's brave, and we're totally here for it!
“This is a bad moment,” Troy Kotsur told the BAFTA audience.
