The BET Awards, which has overtaken the MTV Awards and gaining on the Grammy’s as music’s most-exciting awards show, once again featured all the surprises and appearances that has made the show so memorable.
Right off the bat, BET showed it has its pulse on youth culture by having Bruno Mars, one of the hottest artists of today open the show with a tantalizing performance of “Perm.” Mars would later win the best male R&B/pop artist award.
Comedian Leslie Jones hosted this year’s affair. She brought many laughs with stories from her past, as well as the physical comedy antics that has made her a fan-favorite on “Saturday Night Live.”
Beyonce, who recently gave birth to twins, led all artists with five BET awards – “Best Female R&B/pop Artist, “Album of the Year” for (Lemonade), “Video of the Year” for “Sorry,” which was a tie with Bruno Mars for “24K Magic,” “Video Director of the Year” for “Sorry,” and the Coca-Cola viewers’ choice award. Her sister, Solange, took home the “Centric” Award.
Other award winners of note included Chance The Rapper, who received the “Best New Artist” Award; Migos was named “Best Group,” Kendrick Lamar won “Best Male Hip-Hop Artist,” and Remy Ma won “Best Female Hip-hop Artist,” in the evening’s most surprising win as Nicki Minaj has won the award for the last seven years.
Remy used her acceptance speech to thank her former fellow inmates, her husband, and to recite some of her shadiness lines from her Nicki Minaj dis record “Shether.”
In addition to strong ratings, The BET Awards garnered more than 10 million mentions via Facebook and Twitter for the week of June 19, according to Nielsen ratings.
Among the performances viewers took to social media about include the vibrant tribute to New Edition, which included the group uniting on stage with the actors who played them in their BET biopic for an all-white performance of “If It Isn’t Love.”
TDE’s songstress SZA made her awards show debut with a strong performance of “Love Galore” and “The Weekend.”
Big Sean turned in a subtle, underrated performance that featured a melody of his hits “Sacrifices,” “Moves,” and “Bounce Back.”
R&B fans were treated to the reuniting of 90s group Xscape, who performed together live for the first time in 18 years. The quartet perform fan favorites “Just Kickin It,” “Who Can I Run To” and “Understanding.”
Maxwell followed up Chance The Rapper’s BET Humanitarian Award win with a smooth performance of “Gods.” The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul, Mary J. Blige, also graced the stage to perform “Set Me Free,” and “Love Yourself,” for which she was joined on stage by A$AP Rocky.
Other performers included Chris Brown, Migos, DJ Khalid and El Debarge.
