Ariana DeBose Shares First Comments Since Viral BAFTAs 2023 Performance

Ariana DeBose is addressing her viral 2023 BAFTAs opening performance in a new interview.

If you didn’t see, the 32-year-old Oscar winner was supported by a crew of dancers while she rapped about some of the stars in the audience for the awards show. The clip quickly went viral and fans could not stop pointing out lines that included “Angela Bassett did the thing,” and “Viola Davis, my Woman King.”

While chatting with Zoe Ball on her BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show, Ariana shared her first comments about the performance.

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After Zoe said she really enjoyed the performance, Ariana said, “You know what, you might be one of the few. I’ll take it because you’re my people.”

Zoe went on to call the performance a “woman singing and dancing, being magnificent celebrating women,” and Ariana said that’s exactly what she “wanted to do.”

“Honestly, it’s not like I’m like, ‘Hey BAFTA, let me in!’ They actually called me, believe it or not,” Ariana explained. “But that was the assignment. Like, ‘Come celebrate women,’ and I was like, ‘Absolutely!’ We did that and it was fun. Not gonna lie, I had a blast.”

“[It was] so awesome, and then I spent the rest of the night, you know, cutting a rug. Which, is that something you say here? Cutting a rug with Emma Thompson,” Ariana continued, referring to dancing with the fellow Oscar winner. “It was fabulous. I had a great time.”

Ariana also said that Baz Luhrmann, who was in attendance at the awards show, was a fan of her performance.

“He was like, ‘No, I think you’re great, that was fun. I had fun.’ And I was like, ‘werk,’” Ariana shared. “That’s a win, you guys. And apparently, gay Twitter seemed to like it? So that’s good, I’ll take it. I told you, my people.”

Ariana recently reflected on making Oscars history.