History was made when Antony Hegarty, aka Antony of Antony and the Johnsons as well as Anohni, received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for her collaboration with composer J. Ralph, "Manta Ray," becoming the first transgender performer to be named an Oscar nominee. Unfortunately, due to a situation that Hegarty has deemed "degrading," we won't be seeing her at the ceremony. In a new essay published on Pitchfork, the songwriter explained why she won't attend the Oscars and why she's appalled at the Academy.
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Make sure to head over to our previous coverage of the Best Original Song Oscar category, and listen to this year's nominations.
While "Manta Ray," which is off of the soundtrack to the documentary Racing Extinction, is up for the coveted award this year, Antony, who goes by the stage name Anohni these days, was not asked to perform the song at the ceremony. Meanwhile, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters was recently announced as an Oscars performer, despite not even being nominated for any music this year.
Did the Academy knowingly decide not to involve the transgender performer this year? It sure seems like it - especially to Anohni.
In a new essay explaining her decision to skip the Oscars, Anohni spoke about her excitement about receiving the nomination, but then her confusion about not being invited to perform her song, despite other nominees like Lady Gaga, Sam Smith and The Weeknd being announced as performers this year.
While she waited for the invitation, Dave Grohl was announced as a special performer at the ceremony, which was even more confusing since he wasn't nominated this year. According to UPROXX, this really hurt the songwriter, leading to her decision to not attend this momentous ceremony.
Anohni wasn't the only nominee slighted by the Academy. Composer David Lang's song 'Simple Song #3' performed by South Korean soprano Sumi Jo was also omitted," she explained.
"It was degrading to watch the articles in Variety, The Daily Telegraph, Pitchfork, Stereogum, etc. start to appear," Hegarty said in her new essay. "Eclipsing earlier notices of congratulations, now the papers were naming me as one of two artists to have been 'cut' by the Academy due to 'time constraints.' In the next sentence it was announced that Dave Grohl, not nominated in any category, had been added to the list of performers."
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