Queer Oscar winner forced to try and stop speech being cut: ‘So disrespectful’
‘Golden’ songwriter Mark Sonnenblick tried to stop his co-writers from being cut off at the Oscars. (Getty)
Oscars viewers were left raging during last night’s ceremony (15 March) after the musical team behind KPop Demon Hunters hit “Golden” were cut off mid acceptance speech.
“Golden”, performed by fictional K-pop group Huntrix, won in the Best Original Song category, while KPop Demon Hunters took home the Best Animated Feature accolade. It’s the first time either accolade has been won by someone of Korean descent in the Oscars’ 98-year history.
While the award for Best Animated Feature was accepted by the film’s directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans without a hitch, the historic Best Original Song win was overshadowed somewhat by ceremony organisers opting to cut the team behind it off before they had all had a chance to speak.
After presenter Lionel Ritchie announced “Golden” as the winner, the track’s songwriters EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, Teddy Park, IDO (YUHAN, ZHUN, and NHD), and 24 (Jeong Hun-seol) arrived on stage to accept the Oscar.
Yet only EJAE, who sings the song alongside Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami, managed to share her thanks.
“Thank you so much to the Academy for this insane award,” EJAE said as she wept. “Growing up, people made fun of me liking K-pop but now everyone is singing our song and all the Korean lyrics. I’m so proud. I realise this award is not about success, it’s about resilience,” she continued, thanking her family and the team behind KPop Demon Hunters.
Lee Yu-han, known as YUHAN and one of the producers in music production group IDO, then unfolded a piece of paper and began to share his speech. “I’d like to thank…” he said, before the ceremony music started playing over him.
Gay songwriter Mark Sonnenblick, who also won the shared award for his work on “Golden”, attempted to call for the stage crew to allow them to continue speaking. In a clip of the speech posted on YouTube by ABC News, Sonnenblick is seen jumping up and down and waving his hands about, seemingly frustrated.
The music continued to play, and the group were whisked away into the press area. The crowd in the room at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles appeared to boo following the incident.
There, YUHAN was asked to finish his speech by a reporter, and Sonnenblick also managed to say a few words, thanking his husband.
YUHAN thanked his fellow IDO members and his loved ones, dubbing the accolade “an incredible honour”.
As the press room host attempted to move on to the next question, Sonnenblick jumped in and asked them to “hang on” so he could share his thanks.
“I also want to thank my people too. My family, some of whom are here tonight, my husband Isaac who is here tonight, but also just to say everybody who worked on this movie, all the animators, it was a real collaboration across the board,” he said.
“It’s a movie where part of the movie is looking at someone you have been taught to hate and to fear, and starting to trust, maybe even love them. That’s part of what the movie is about.”
Online, viewers of the Academy Awards were left equally as enraged as those in the room appeared to be.
“The entire point of the award show is people getting their awards and doing their speeches and that production kept cutting people off. So disrespectful,” one person wrote.
“Why did they cut them off like that?” questioned a second. “They earned that moment of time.”
“YES! They win 2 Oscars!!” a third celebrated, before adding: “However, cutting their acceptance speech short by playing loud music over them was unprofessional, disrespectful to the winners, and rude.”
A fourth agreed, writing on social media that the organisers should have cut some of the intermittent commentary in the ceremony, rather than the winners of the awards.
“Y’know, if the Academy wanted to save time on the Oscars (that still ended up running shorter than other years), they probably should’ve just cut some of the painfully-long and painfully-unfunny comedy bits instead of cutting off award-winner speeches,” they wrote.
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