The BET Awards 2022, an epic celebration of Black culture, honored this year’s biggest stars in music, television, films, and more on Sunday (June 26) at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California.
This year, BET gave Sean “Diddy” Combs his flowers with the prestigious Life Time Achievement Award. JAY-Z opened up the tribute with an opening monologue before Jodeci kicked off the musical performance with “Come & Talk to Me” followed by Mary J. Blige who graced the stage with “I’m Going Down.
Diddy emerge for his “Victory” before bringing out Shyne for a performance of “Bad Boyz”. Lil’ Kim hit the stage with her verse from “It’s All About the Benjamins” and Busta Rhymes and Spliff Star rocked the crowd with “Pass The Courvoisier” changing the lyrics from “Pass the Ciroc this way”. Diddy then performed his latest single “Gotta Move On” alongside Bryson Tiller and capped off the performance with “I’ll Be Missing You” with Faith Evans which they dedicated to The Notorious B.I.G., Andre Harrell, and Kim Porter.
Legendary singer Babyface honored Puff and brought out Kanye West who gave a surprise speech before they presented Puff his award. Diddy gave a heartfelt speech and shared his acknowledgements for all his peers. He also announced his $2 million donations towards HBCU’s Howard University and Jackson State University.
Other highlighted performances including Lizzo’s opening performance of “It’s About Damn Time”. Jack Harlow was full of surprises and brought out Lil Wayne for “Poison” and Brandy who joined him for “First Class”. Latto brought the “Big Energy” to the stage with her surprise guest Mariah Carey, and Chance The Rapper and Joey Bada$$ gave their first televised performance of their new single, “The Highs & The Lows”.
Ella Mai was accompanied by both Babyface and Roddy Ricch for her performances of “Keeps On Fallin” and “How”, Chloe gave a sultry medley featuring her new single “Surprise” and “Treat Me”, and Giveon performed
“Heartbreak Anniversary”, “For Tonight”, and “Lie Again”.
Other performers including Kirk Franklin with Maverick City, Fireboy DML, Muni Long, Doechii, and more.
Big wins of the evening included Silk Sonic’s Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak who won Best Group, Best Album (A Night With Silk Sonic) and Video Of The Year (“Smoking Out The Window”). Anderson.Paak also won Video Director Of The Year.
Nigerian superstar Tems won Best International Act as well as Best Collaboration for her appearance on WizKid’s hit “Essence” and Mary J. Blige received this year’s BET Her Award.
Latto was dubbed this year’s Best New Artist, Kendrick Lamar was crowned Best Male Hip Hop Artist, and Megan Thee Stallion was named Best Female Hip Hop Artist. Jazmine Sullivan took home Best Female R&B/Pop Artist, while The Weeknd was honored as the Best Male R&B/Pop Artist.
