Ariana DeBose shuts down her Twitter after her BAFTA 2023 rap became a meme

Antonio Resines went down in Goya history when, at the 2012 gala, he appeared on the gala stage wearing sunglasses and a hat and rapped accompanied by “El Langui”, Javier Gutiérrez, Juan Diego and Tito Valverde. You won’t remember who won the bobblehead that year, but that moment is hard to forget. Fast forward to 2023 and the city of London where the BAFTAs took place on Sunday 19th. Ariana DeBose, Oscar winner for “West Side Story,” was commissioned to open the ceremony with a musical number in which she performed “Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves” and “We Are Family.” But at one point he went down to the audience and began rapping a series of verses dedicated to this year’s nominated actresses.. That moment went viral during the following hours:

The sisters are doing it themselves! The amazing @ArianaDeBose opens 2023 #EEBAFTA with an iconic performance! ? pic.twitter.com/G9YgKN2e1t

? BAFTA (@BAFTA) February 19, 2023

The faces of those quoted came into focus on camera and phrases like “Angela Bassett did the thing” became memes, and the performance itself ended up being quite abused by viewers at home. The producer of the gala, Nick Bullen, assures that the atmosphere in the theater was very different from the feeling we could have at home: “Everyone I spoke to who was in the room loved him. He’s a big star, it was amazing. The songs he sang are very famous, the whole room was clapping and dancing. The rap section in the middle, mentioning to the women in the room, it was because it was a big film year for women and we wanted to celebrate that.And there was a black woman in the prime of her career who opened the BAFTAs with a song that speaks volumes about so many levels. I felt that all the mentions, from rehearsals to the broadcast, spoke about what we wanted to do”. He explains that rap was not just a matter of his interpreter, but it was “a team effort”. c.believes all criticism of Ariana DeBose is “incredibly unfair”.

The actress, for her part, shut down her Twitter account following the gala, but on Instagram she responded to a roundup of memes about her ‘Angela Bassett did the thing’ by commenting: “honestly, I love it”. The producer continues to defend his proposal, telling Variety that the BBC and the BAFTAs have asked him to organize the gala “more energy, more heat and a wider range in terms of age and diversity”. He was looking for the BAFTAs to take away that formality and make it look like a ceremony “different, but familiar at the same time”. You are aware that changes usually cost a lot: “I think a lot of people don’t like the changes, and there’s the prospect that the BAFTAs have to send that traditional slightly stuffy British message. But the American awards have far more color, more spectacle, and perhaps a wider range of people involved. It was not about revolution, but about evolution. Let’s evolve, let’s move forward with subtle changes to what this event should be and where we should be with it. Because we want to connect with all audiences. Not just with the traditional audience of a British awards gala. Social media presence is incredibly important to us. Reaching young people is important to us. We want the message to pass that we are a gala for the whole world. And I think some people don’t like change, but you know what? They will have to get used to the idea because other changes are on the way”.

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The “La La Land” moment by Carey Mulligan and Kerry Condon

Although the producer continues to stress that he received much praise from those in attendance at the ceremony, which was hosted by Richard E. Grant, it was not an easy evening for him as he had to deal with a mistake in announcing one of the winners Troy Kotsur was in charge of presenting the award for Best Supporting Actress, and a mistake translating the winner’s name, Kerry Condon for “The Banshee of Inisherin,” into sign language, made it appear for a moment that he had mentioned Carey Mulligan for ‘Discovered’. American Sign Language and British Sign Language are not the same, the translator mixed up the names and said Mulligan is in the microphone. Since much of the ceremony is delayed, the error was fixed and not shown on television. Since her screen name was Kerry Condon, the mess was short-lived and the actress was able to go on stage to collect her statuette without reaching the ‘La La Land’-‘Moonlight’ Oscar ladder. Nick Bullen says Troy Kotsur said the correct name and that it was simply “one of those unfortunate moments that no one could have foreseen”.