Beyoncé also, unsurprisingly, won big at the awards; collecting four out of her five nominations, including best female R&B/pop artist, video of the year for “Formation”, and Coca-Cola Viewers’ Choice. The triple threat later took to the stage performing the song “Freedom” which was full of theatrics, and when I say theatrics I mean it. Fire, flashing lights, and water people, water! Check out the performance here.
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Beyoncé wore a black leotard which was custom-made for the star by Julien Macdonald for her moment in the spotlight. They really know how to deliver a joke and they find a way to keep the pace of the ceremony moving in a linear direction.
By KRISTIN M. HALL Associated Press Laila Ali paid tribute to her late father, sports icon Muhammad Ali, during the BET Awards on Sunday at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Social activism was a theme of the night, with Humanitarian Award victor, Jesse Williams of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, dedicating his award to black women “who have spent their lives dedicated to nurturing everyone before themselves” and calling for change. Sunday night there were multiple tributes throughout the show to the music legend who died April 21 after an accidental overdose of the opioid fentanyl.
The BET Awards, or the BEY Awards?
After the funnyman’s introduction, Erykah, backed by The Roots, performed a passionate version of Prince’s song The Ballad of Dorothy Parker before R&B singer Bilal impressed the crowd with his passionate rendition of The Beautiful Ones.
Janelle Monae was animated and funky as she danced skillfully and ran through Prince tunes, including “Kiss”, “Delirious” and “I Would Die 4 U”.
After a musician of note passes away, the next few months worth of awards shows usually will feature one tightly-choreographed tribute after another, with maybe one to three tears for good measure.
It was her proud mum Tina Knowles-Lawson who accepted the awards on her daughter’s behalf.
“Freedom” of course felt particularly charged at the BET awards, given the program’s focus on and celebration of blackness in contrast to other prominent other award ceremonies that so frequently erase the contributions of artists of color; Kendrick pointedly added a new line about “Revolution televised”.
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Jackson accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award during the 2016 BET Awards.
