‘Embarrassment and anger’: Why this Oscar nominee is boycotting the awards

SHE could take home the award for Best Song - but this nominee said “embarrassment and anger” have stopped her even boarding a plane to LA.

Singer Antony Hegarty of New York-based band 'Antony and the Johnsons', who will be appearing at 2006 Sydney Festival in Sydn...

ACADEMY Award nominee ANOHNI has announced she will not attend Monday’s Oscars after she was excluded from participating in the ceremony.

The singer — best-known as the frontwoman for the alternative outfit Antony & The Johnsons — is among the nominees for Best Original Song, but has been axed from performing her song on the night.

Variety reported that performances from ANOHNI and fellow nominee Sumi Jo had been cut from the broadcast for time, despite both being up for Best Original Song (ANOHNI and J. Ralph for Manta Ray from the film Racing Extinction; David Lang and Sumi Jo for Simple Song #3 from Youth). More commercial offerings in the same category from The Weeknd, Lady Gaga, and Sam Smith will be performed on the night.

ANOHNI says “feelings of embarrassment and anger” are keeping her away from the Oscars.

In an open letter posted to the Antony and the Johnsons Facebook page titled ‘WHY I AM NOT ATTENDING THE ACADEMY AWARDS’, ANOHNI wrote:

“I am the only transgendered performer ever to have been nominated for an Academy Award, and for that I thank the artists who nominated me. I was in Asia when I found out the news. I rushed home to prepare something, in case the music nominees would be asked to perform. Everyone was calling with excited congratulations. A week later, Sam Smith, Lady Gaga and the Weeknd were rolled out as the evening’s entertainment with more performers “soon to be announced”. Confused, I sat and waited. Would someone be in touch? But as time bore on I heard nothing. I was besieged with people asking me if I was going to perform.”

She writes that, as the weeks passed, she realised that the producers had decided to omit those nominees who weren’t “deemed commercially diable.”

“It was degrading to watch the articles in Variety, The Daily Telegraph, Pitchfork, Stereogum, etc. start to appear. 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.

Everyone told me that I still ought to attend, that a walk down the red carpet would still be “good for my career”.

Sam Smith is a frontrunner in the Best Original Song category for his James Bond theme. Picture: AP

ANOHNI said she went as far as trying to force herself on to a plane to Los Angeles to start attending pre-Oscars events, but “feelings of embarrassment and anger knocked me back.”

“I imagined how it would feel for me to sit amongst all those Hollywood stars, some of the brave ones approaching me with sad faces and condolences. There I was, feeling a sting of shame that reminded me of America’s earliest affirmations of my inadequacy as a transperson. I turned around at the airport and went back home.”

“So I have decided not to attend the Academy Awards this election year. I will not be lulled into submission with a few more well manufactured, feel-good ballads and a bit of good old fashioned T. and A. They are going to try to convince us that they have our best interests at heart by waving flags for identity politics and fake moral issues. But don’t forget that many of these celebrities are the trophies of billionaire corporations whose only intention it is to manipulate you into giving them your consent and the last of your money. They have been paid to do a little tap dance to occupy you while Rome burns.”

You can read ANOHNI’s full letter on the Antony and the Johnsons Facebook page. With a Golden Globe win for his James Bond theme already under his belt, British singer Sam Smith is frontrunner to take out the award in the Best Song category on Monday.

Originally published as ‘Embarrassment and anger’: Why this Oscar nominee is boycotting the awards