On June 25, 2017, Leslie Jones had the extreme honor of being a host for BET's annual Bet Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angles, California. There were many musical artists ranging from Remy Ma to Kendrick Lamar to the recipient of the BET Lifetime Achievement Award to New Edition. We also had a surprise visit from former First Lady Michelle Obama. There were so many great performances that it was so hard to pick which one was the best.
Performances
The show opened up with one of the greatest openings from Bruno Mars with his song 'Perm'.
He was filled with so much sass as he wanted everyone to get pumped for the show as he stopped his performance twice for everyone to get hype #turnup. We also heard from French Montana and Swae Lee, Post Malone and Quavo, Migos, Jessie Reyez, Trey Songz, Chris Brown, Gucci Mane, Mary J. Blige, A$AP Rocky, Big Sean and Khalid
The next biggest musical performance that got the audience on their feet is Xscape as they performed three songs called, "Understanding", "Just Kickin it" and "Who Can I Run To". Is this a sign for a comeback from this amazing musical quartet?
We also heard from many other artists like Maxwell and Tamar Braxton until we got to the one of the main events of the show, Special Tributes.
In this show, BET honor Chuck Berry and George Michael who we have lost this year. The next performance afterwards was the most anticipated one as we honor New Edition as the Lifetime Achievement Award recipients! All 6 member were reunited to perform three of their classic songs: "Mr. Telephone Man", "If It Isn't Love" and my personal favorite, "Can You Stand the Rain".
New Edition blew us all away this classic throwback tune that we either heard from their album or from the amazing movie 'Best Man Holiday'.
What are the biggest moments from the Awards part of the ceremony?
There are a lot of categories from Best Male/Female artists to the biggest awards like the Lifetime Achievement Award, Shine A Light, BET Humanitarian Award and BET Centric Award.
Starting with the BET Centric Award, Solange Knowles for her song "Cranes in the Sky" as in her speech that inspires strong black woman.
The next award, called Shine a Light, when BET shines a light on people who are impacting the community and trying to make improvements to the world to make it a better place for everyone. This year, BET shine a light on Tamika D. Mallory, Martellus Bennett and Michael Bennett. Tamika D. Mallory for her outstanding accomplishments as an esteemed social justice leader, advocate and activist for civil right issues, equal rights for women, health care, gun violence and police misconduct. The Bennett Brothers were awarded for their exceptional accomplishments with the creation of The Bennett Foundation that implements cooking demonstrations, a football camp and the very first O.C.E.A.N Health Fest.
The second to the last biggest award is the BET Humanitarian Award which was awarded to their youngest recipient Chance the Rapper. He gives a moving speech about his life growing up in Chicago and being a young artist that produces his own music. Near the end of his speech, the audience gets a surprise cameo from Former First Lady Michelle Obama congratulating Chance the Rapper on winning the prestigious award.
Lastly, the final award of the evening, the BET Lifetime Achievement Award, was given to New Edition as they have been together through the many ups and downs for 35 years. With all six members on the stage gives the audience that warm nostalgic feeling as they accepted the award as not that long after, came to the main stage to perform their songs.
