Sam Smith Is Cringing At His Own Oscars Performance

By Rosie Pentreath

Superstar Sam Smith is nursing more than a sore head after yesterday’s Oscars. The British singer took a battering to his ego after a rather shaky performance of Writing’s On The Wall, which he penned for Spectre.

Anyone who performs in front of dozens of the most famous people in the world is entitled to be a little bit nervous, but powerful performances from contemporaries Lady Gaga and Dave Grohl probably didn’t do much to help Smith feel better about his own.

In Smith’s own words, the performance was “horrible” and he has described it as “the worst moment of [his] life.”

If that all wasn’t bad enough, Smith, winner of the Best Original Song Oscar, has been slammed for his acceptance speech. When he took the stage with fellow winner Jimmy Napes, Smith voiced his delight at being the first “openly gay man” to ever win an oscar.

“I read an article a few months ago by Sir Ian McKellen and he said no openly gay man had ever won an Oscar,” Smith fatally began. “If this is the case – even if it isn’t the case – I want to dedicate this to the LGBT community, all around the world. I stand here tonight as a proud gay man and I hope we can all stand together as equals someday.”

To be fair, he did admit it may not be the case.

Regardless, the community was quick to respond with examples of other openly gay people who have won Oscars. There’s a British dude you guys may heard of called Elton John who won an Oscar for writing Can You Feel The Love Tonight in The Lion King, not to mention Stephen Sondheim (Best Original Song, 1991), Aussie filmmaker Adam Elliot (Best Animated Short, 2004) and, taking one for the ladies, Jodie Foster, who has won two Best Actress awards in her time (although wasn’t openly gay at the time). Just to name a few…

Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who is engaged to Olympic diver Tom Daley, also took to Twitter to remind Sam that he had won an Oscar for Milk back in the day. In response Smith tweeted “Second openly gay man to win an oscar or third or fourth or 100th, It wasn’t my point” saying he only wanted to “shine some light on the LGBT community.”

In his next stumble of the night, Smith was reported as saying, “I should know him. We should date” in reference to gay lyricist Howard Ashman, who Smith was informed won two Best Original Song Oscars. Ashman sadly passed away from AIDS-related illness in 1991.

Ian McKellen, the man who had been misquoted to begin with, took to Twitter later to say Smith’s mistake “doesn’t detract from [his] achievement. Congratulations to him & all others!”

It’s probably best Smith keeps his mouth shut over the next few days and has a go at celebrating his win in silence.

Watch: Sam Smith’s Oscars performance

Rosie Pentreath
Rosie Pentreath

Share article

Must Read
Related
X