The 17th BET Awards was held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California on June 25, 2017. The ceremony celebrated achievements in entertainment and honors music, sports, television, and movies released between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017. The nominations were announced on May 15, 2017; Beyoncé led the nominees with 7, followed by Bruno Mars with 5. Beyoncé won the most awards with 5, including Album of the Year and Video of the Year.1
Sunday night’s live broadcast of the BET Awards offered up some promising young influencers of culture, with a Leslie Jones cocktail chaser thrown in for contrast, raw outrageous humor and texture. It offered about panoramic glimpse into what the future holds for blackbculture and society, and particularly in the r&b, soul, RAP,genre-bending and Hip-Hop music scenes. If all the activists awarded can be multiplied to the nth power, we will be in good ha no nds. If Chance the Rapper’s honor for his humanitarian efforts so far is any indication, our prospects look bright.
From the Beautiful While Being Black Award honorees to the Humanitarian of the Year award, it was refreshing to witness so many fresh talented voices picking up the relay baton, expressing their awareness of the social climate through music, poetry and art, while being recognized for their inspiring contributions to community. The panoply of baby stars was balanced out by such established artists as P. Diddy, Maxwell, Mary J. Blige and Chris Brown. Bruno Mars and New Edition also brought the house down. See videos of rehearsals and lead ups to the show here.
It was a great broadcast from start to finish.
1 www.wikipedia.org
