Not invited to perform at the Oscars, transgender nominee Anohni, nominated for best original song, denounces the hypocrisy of the US star system in an open letter.
Antony Hegarty, known professionally as Anohni and formerly the voice of Antony and the Johnsons, has decided not to attend the 2016 Oscars ceremony. Anohni is the only transgender artist to have received a nomination since Angela Morley earned two in the mid-1970s. Her song Manta Ray, composed with J. Ralph for the climate change documentary Racing Extinction, secured a nomination for best original song.
All the nominees were invited to perform at the Oscars ceremony on 28 February, from Lady Gaga to The Weeknd and Sam Smith. Everyone except Anohni, for reasons that have not been made public. In response to the Academy's silence, the artist chose to boycott the ceremony and published a lengthy open letter on her official website. It represents a significant snub at this year's Academy Awards, opening up fresh controversy over gender in the wake of the debate over racism sparked by the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.
"I want to be clear: it didn't happen explicitly because I am transgender," she writes. "I wasn't invited because I am relatively unknown in the United States, I sing a song about the destruction of the environment, and I don't sell many advertising slots. It is not for me to decide who performs at the Oscars, and I know I have no right to be invited. But the deeper truth is impossible to ignore: as a trans person, I am subject to an entire system of social oppression that over the years has sought to harm me."
Frustrated by the treatment she received in Hollywood, Anohni goes on to extend her criticism to the degrading policies of the United States: "I live and pay taxes in New York, but that money is spent by the American government on Guantanamo Bay, drones and bombs, surveillance, the death penalty, prisons for whistleblowers, corporate subsidies and bank bailouts."
She concludes: "In the US, only money counts: who has it and who doesn't. That is why I have decided not to attend the Oscars. I don't want to be placated by some reassuring ballad and a bit of old-fashioned tits and ass. They are trying to convince us that they have our interests at heart by waving flags for political identity and false moral issues. But let us not forget that many of these figures are the trophies of billion-dollar multinationals whose sole intent is to manipulate us for our consent, down to the last of our money."