Ariana DeBose‘s rap highlighting women who were nominated at the BAFTAs on Sunday (February 19th) quickly became the talk of the town. In her opening number, the West Side Story actress named Dolly De Leon, Carey Mulligan, and Michelle Yeoh, among others, as a camera panned to their lackluster responses.
The lines getting the most attention from the song are, “Angela Bassett did the thing, Viola Davis my ‘Woman King,’ Blanchett Cate you’re a genius, Jamie Lee you are all of us.”
People can’t get enough of clip. “ariana debose you’re an oscar winner you don’t have to do this i promise,” one person wrote on Twitter. Another said, “i love ariana debose but this made me cringe out of my skin.”
Following the overwhelming response to her performance, DeBose left Twitter, and one of the show’s producers called the criticism she received “incredibly unfair.” However, DeBose also seems to be having fun with it, as she commented on a collection of memes shared by writer Evan Ross Katz on Instagram Monday (February 20th). “Honestly I love this,” she wrote.