Ariana DeBose becomes meme for BAFTA opening number
🎶 Angela Bassett did the thing 🎶
Across the country, social media timelines are likely to be riddled with images of actress Ariana DeBose in a hot pink jumpsuit shimmying and singing before a crowd of celebrities.
DeBose, who shot to prominence after playing Anita in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, opened up the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards show Sunday night with a now-viral musical number where she paid tribute to the women up for awards. Responses online called it everything from camp to cringe.
In the days since DeBose’s performance, the Oscar winner has deleted her Twitter account and a BAFTAs producer is speaking out in her defense. Here’s what you need to know — including the full lyrics to DeBose’s rap.
What prompted Ariana DeBose’s performance and what are people saying about it?
DeBose performed a series of songs — including the Eurythmics “Sisters Are Doin’ it for Themselves” and “We Are Family” by Philadelphia’s own Sister Sledge. Then, she transitioned into the rap segment — an awkward, upbeat performance with puzzling lines including the now iconic: “Angela Bassett did the thing, Viola Davis? My woman king.”
It’s unclear to all what the thing Bassett did was and it will likely haunt us all forever.
As the awards show aired, reactions on Twitter called the performance “cringe” and unreal.
One popular tweet reacting to DeBose said “you’re an oscar winner, you don’t have to do this.”
A line about Angela Bassett captures hearts
BAFTAs producer Nick Bullen told Variety Monday that DeBose “put the whole piece together” with her team, working closely with a music director and choreographer.
Each verse nods to different actresses and movies that were nominated at this year’s awards.
The line mentioning Bassett in particular has been clipped, shared, and referenced online en masse.
What has happened since DeBose’s performance went viral?
Sometime after DeBose’s performance went viral, the star deactivated her Twitter account, leading to unverified speculation that she was upset.
Bullen, the BAFTAs producer, criticized the reaction, calling it “incredibly unfair.”
“Everybody I’ve spoken to who was in the room absolutely loved it. She’s a huge star, she was amazing ... the room was clapping, and people were sort of dancing to the music,” Bullen said. “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. And she’s opening the BAFTAs with a song that said so much on so many levels. All of those mentions, I felt, from the moment we were rehearsing it right through to the transmission last night, spoke to what we wanted to do.”
DeBose has not spoken publicly about her performance, but she left an Instagram comment that has fans believing she’s taking it all in stride.
On Instagram, popular fashion columnist and meme curator Evan Ross Katz posted a carousel of memes about the Angela Bassett lyric. One of the top comments is from DeBose’s verified account which wrote, “honestly, I love this.” DeBose could not be reached for comment.
What are the lyrics to DeBose’s BAFTAs rap?
Here are the lyrics in full to DeBose’s rap.