He played the ceremony in 2018, when 'Mystery of Love' was nominated for Best Original Song
Sufjan Stevens's performance at the Oscars ceremony in 2018 felt like a nice little shout-out to the indie fans watching - particularly since it's rare that we see someone of his ilk playing such a huge gig.
Yet while it might have been fun to watch, it certainly wasn't fun to perform, according to the Detroit-born musician.
Stevens' song 'Mystery of Love', from the soundtrack of 'Call Me By Your Name', was nominated for Best Original song and he performed in accompanied by St. Vincent and in a rather dazzling Gucci suit. However, in a new interview with The Guardian, he described the whole thing as "Honestly, one of the most traumatising experiences of my entire life."
He went on to specify that it was the ceremony itself, rather than his performance that he took umbrage with. “I didn’t want to have anything to do with that world and that culture,” he said. “I don’t want to be part of any room full of adults hemming and hawing over plastic trophies.”
He went on to describe the Oscars as "a horrifying Scientology end-of-year prom" that sums up "everything I hate about America and pop culture.”
Yikes.
You can probably guess that he didn't win (the Oscar went to 'Remember Me' from 'Coco'), but as for whether he ever earns another nomination...