Ariana DeBose BAFTA Performance: Is Actress Finally Owning Up 'Angela Bassett's The Thing'?

If you're chronically online or just happened to grace upon social media in the past few days, you would definitely stumble upon the infamous Ariana DeBose's BAFTA performance.

In opening the 2023 BAFTA Film Awards, DeBose gave a high-energy Lin Manuel Miranda-esque performance, recognizing the exemplary female acting nominees in the crowd, including Viola Davis, Dolly De Leon, Cate Blanchett, among many other actresses.

It was certainly a year for women in film, and DeBose wanted to highlight that. However, her performance fell rather flat as whenever she namechecks each artist, the camera pans on them - showing their rather unamused looks to the performance.

"Angela Bassett did the thing. Viola Davis, my 'Woman King.' Blanchett Cate, you're a genius. Jamie Lee [Curtis], you are all of us," the Oscar-winning performer rapped in the tune of Eurythmics' "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves," and Sister Sledge's "We Are Family."

DeBose is a well-known, well-loved, and well-versed actress and singer. She won her Oscar Award last year as "Anita" on "West Side Story."

Shortly after her performance was aired, the backlash on social media ensued - pointing out how "awkward" and "cringy" her performance was. While some are convinced that she was just having a bad day as she was out of breath and the lyrics didn't deliver like she thought they would, some were very unrelenting with their comments, even turning her into a meme.

Meanwhile, BAFTA producers took DeBose's side, defending her performance.

"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," BAFTA producer Nick Bullen told Variety after describing the comments online to be incredibly unfair.

DeBose has since deactivated her Twitter account following the backlash, However, as the days went by, DeBose seemed to have been owning her performance as she laughed it off in a comment already.

When writer/editor Evan Ross Katz posted a carousel of Twitter's best reactions to Angela DeBose's BAFTA performance on Instagram, DeBose commented, saying that she would "Honestly love it."

"When Angela Bassett wins the oscar she must start her speech by saying "and in the words of ariana debose, I did the thing," one of the Tweets reads. Check out Katz's Instagram post below:

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BAFTA Film Awards