Sam Smith, Beyoncé, The Weekend and Nicki Minaj were among the artists to walk away with a BET Award on Sunday in Los Angeles.
Smith won the Best New Artist award, but did not attend the ceremony held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Co-host Anthony Anderson collected the singer’s award on his behalf and joked: “Sam Smith could not be here tonight because he’s white, and he didn’t think he would win at the BET Awards and he didn’t think he could win, but we showed him that we love him too.”
Beyoncé was named Best Female R&B/Pop Artist at the event, while her video for 7/11 was crowned Video Of The Year and helped her score a third award for Best Video Director Of The Year with Ed Burke and Todd Tourso.
Janet Jackson also attended the BET Awards, where she was honoured with the Ultimate Icon: Music Dance Visual Award. “We began a fantastic journey with a friend we celebrate tonight. She came to us a young woman with a lot to say and boy did she say it. She is Ms Janet Jackson,” said the singer’s long-time friend and producer Terry Lewis. “It’s been a very long journey to this moment,” Jackson said as she collected the award. “My heart is so full. Thank you God for making anything, everything possible.”
Chris Brown also fared well, earning the Best Male R&B/Pop Artist title, as well as the Fandemonium Award and the Coca-Cola Viewers’ Choice Award for featuring on Minaj’s ‘Only’.
Elsewhere, the Best Male Hip-Hop Artist went to Kendrick Lamar, Best Female Hip-Hop Artist to Minaj, Best Group to Rae Sremmurd and Best Collaboration to Common and John Legend.
Meanwhile, the Centric Award was handed to The Weeknd for ‘Earned It’, which the singer performed on-stage with Alicia Keys.
In the movie categories, Terrence Howard was named Best Actor, while Taraji P Henson collected the Best Actress Award and Selma won Best Movie.
Other winners included Lecrae, Mo’Ne Davis, Serena Williams, Stephen Curry, Stonebwoy and Stormzy.
