Film

Janelle Monáe Kicked Off The Oscars With An Extremely Bizarre Musical Number

Monae's song and dance routine paid tribute to a bunch of wonderful films... that weren't nominated for awards.

by Joseph Earp  10 February 2020
Janelle Monae

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Listen, we love Janelle Monae as much as the next person. She’s smart, funny, extremely talented, and basically kills anything that she puts her mind to. But it’s hard to explain exactly what was going on with the musical number that she performed at the start of the 2020 Oscars ceremony.

Striding across the stage dressed as children’s tv star Mr. Rogers, Monae launched into a throwback Busby Berkley-indebted number complete with back-up dancers and choreographed moves.

But something seemed off from the very beginning. Notably, the routine paid tribute to a bunch of films that weren’t even nominated. Midsommar, the 2019 horror masterpiece, was referenced in the form of flower crowns and white dresses, despite the fact that it got snubbed in literally every category.

And a line about “Parasites and Dolemites” felt like salt in the wound, given that Eddie Murphy missed out on a Best Actor nomination for his role in Dolemite Is My Name, an omission that feels particularly pointed given contemporary debates about representation.

In fact, presenter Chris Rock later made fun of the snub, giving the whole Oscar’s opening a slightly skewiff and off-centre vibe.

Things got even weirder when Janelle Monae hopped down into the audience and started inviting celebrities to sing along with her. It seemed like proof that no matter how rich and famous that you might be, getting a microphone shoved in your face is a discomfiting experience for literally everybody.

Hell, even Brad Pitt tried to join in, only to have the microphone pulled back away from his face just as he started, ‘la la la-ing’ along.

Basically, it was like a big budget version of something you’d see down on a local pub’s trivia night. It was weird, is what I’m saying.

Watch the entire routine in full here: