Oscars DJ Mocked For Playing Toto’s ‘Africa’ As Daniel Kaluuya & H.E.R. Walk Onstage

Some viewers were put-off by the 94th Academy Awards having a DJ this year and questioned several song choices that came up when presenters took the stage. The most-mocked choice of the night was when “Africa” by the band Toto played when last year’s winners Daniel Kaluuya and H.E.R. took the stage to present.

There were some who accused the Oscars programmers of racism, but Oscars producer Will Packer actually led the first all-black production team for the awards show this year. That’s not to say the show would be incapable of being racist with all-black producers, but it’s still worth noting that the Oscars crew isn’t as lily-white as it has been in the past. The show was also DJ’ed by the legendary Bronx DJ and producer D-Nice, who has been active in the music industry since the 1990s. Plenty of fans still theorized that other song choices were more intentional than they probably were.

For example, when presenters Jacob Elordi and Rachel Zegler took the stage, D-Nice played “Beggin'” by Måneskin. Some fans saw that as a dig at the West Side Story star, who became a presenter last-minute after she wrote on Instagram that she wasn’t invited to the ceremony.

Viewers also took issue with some songs used to introduce Latin American actors and films that were not culturally accurate. This included “Vivir Mi Vida,” the song by Puerto Rican singer Marc Antony which played when the animated film Encanto won. Encanto is set in the mountains of Colombia. A similar incident happened when Colombian actor John Leguizamo took the stage to the song “Oye Cómo Va,” by Mexican band Santana.

Calling the music choices pure racism may be a bit of a reach, but there’s no denying that there were odd choices made throughout the night. Having a DJ left some viewers nostalgic for, well, an actual orchestra or band providing the music, instead of constant clips of radio tunes for every presenter and winner.