The pianist at the Golden Globes became a target over cue music
Chloe Flower Photo: Jon Kopaloff (Getty Images)
As we head into awards season, here’s a reminder: There will always be cue music to tell winners when it’s time to call it quits. No matter how many times we go through this process, there are always people who pretend to be shocked by the closing music with exclamations like “How dare you!” Last night’s Golden Globes were no exception, with award winners and viewers alike expressing outrage at not getting unlimited speaking time.
Many winners didn’t take kindly to the game offstage, and Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Michelle Yeoh was no exception. As piano music flowed quietly during her speech, she said curtly, “Hush, please. I can beat you, OK? It’s so serious.” (Austin Butler also quipped that they could “at least play ‘Suspicious Minds'” during his speech.)
We want to give Yeoh the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe she was talking to the off-screen producers and not the pianist. However, viewers quickly took to social media and railed against the poor woman whose job it was to play the intro music after the commercial breaks.
The woman sitting at the piano throughout the evening was Chloe Flower, a 37-year-old popular pianist discovered by Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds. During the Globes, she played renditions of “Take My Breath Away” from Top Gun, “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid, and themes from Sex And The City, M*A*S*H, and The Exorcist—all of them. of which she arranged herself.
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After viewers took to social media to express their dismay at interrupting the honorees’ speeches – passing the blame on to Flower – she tweeted: “I would never play the piano over people’s speeches!! I play only when you see me on camera!”
Midway through the evening, host Jerrod Carmichael took a moment to defend Flower, telling the audience that it was a pre-recorded song used as a cue to end the speeches and not live music coming from Flower.
Even if she did play the cue music, it’s highly unlikely that Flower would make the calls when it comes to how much time the winners were given for their speech. People love to yell at people who are just trying to do their prescribed job, but this misdirected anger should be channeled to those at the top. It makes one wonder where else this idea could be applied. Hmm.
