The 24th annual BET Awards took place this past weekend, hosted by Taraji P. Henson and featuring an all-star cast of women who left it all on stage. It was a night to remember and here are some of the night’s biggest moments.

 

Teyana Taylor and Victoria Monet’s Steamy Usher Tribute

Back in 2004, Beyoncé and Usher performed a steamy routine to Bad Girl and it has remained one of the top performances to have ever graced the stage at the BET Awards. So this year, when Teyana Taylor and Victoria Monet gave their rendition of that performance as a tribute to Usher, the bar was unbelievably high. They managed to pull it off AND, according to a post about the performance on Teyana’s Instagram, they got the routine down in under 48 hours.

The tribute was hot and horny and for me, there are two reasons it was such an incredible performance. The first is that from a chemistry perspective, these two really had it. They were in tune with each other and they were totally committed to the performance. It actually felt like you were watching Usher and Beyoncé. In fact, since the performance aired, people have been lauding Victoria Monet’s Beyoncé-esque stage presence, and Teyana’s ability to maintain control of her vocals while dancing. That’s likely due to her insane athleticism and unreal physique.

But the second reason is that for this to have taken place on the last day of Pride month, and feature two women that have spoken candidly about their attraction to women and their bisexuality, I thought it was such an amazing way to showcase Black members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community on a grand stage, which, if we’re being honest, is rare. 

 

I was so thrilled to see that the comments were not full of bigots or homophobes suggesting that two women shouldn’t engage with each other in the way they did, but instead, full of people celebrating their ability to execute something very challenging – and to do it in a way that paid homage to R&B royalty.

 

Will Smith and Kirk Franklin’s performance

When Will Smith started singing gospel in a very dramatic performance including being surrounded by fire and a choir, it seemed a bit out of character for a guy who mostly only really rapped, to say the least. But when Kirk Franklin made his appearance, everything made sense. This kind of pomp and circumstance is so on brand for Kirk.

 

The more Will sang, the more apparent the topic of the song became. Will was singing about his growth. A lot of people are speculating that he’s subliminally referring to his life since the Oscars slap in 2022, but for those following his career for a while, they’re speculating that he’s talking about how he’s grown over the course of his life. 

 

Both scenarios make sense, but given that his separation from Jada Pinkett-Smith has been confirmed, which I wrote about here, and the last two years have been a phase of transition not only for him, but for his family, he likely is talking about this chapter in his life. Then, he shared this post on X, teasing at a “comeback”.

Whatever the case, I am thrilled to see Will stepping back into his power, post-divorce, post-slap. With Bad Boys 4 bringing in roughly $300 million worldwide, there’s no denying that Will is a legend, an icon. He’s got talent and a loyal fanbase and it’s always nice to see a man committed to working on himself and it’s clear he’s far from finished.

 

Cory Hardrict’s red carpet interview

During Cory’s appearance on the red carpet, which he walked with his and Tia Mowry’s son, Cree, he gave an interview to ET and had some interesting things to say about life post-divorce, which was finalized in April of last year. I wrote about that here.

 

When it comes to what keeps him going since the divorce, he had this to say:

"God's grace and a lot patience and just being still. And just leading by example. I'm just very determined and inspired to keep moving forward and keep taking care of my beautiful children."

So while he may have been hinting at having had to put some sort of routine in place to help him get through the days, he also had this to say about where he, Tia and the kids stand:

"Everything is fine. Everyone loves everybody. We're one big happy family. We're still a family everything is great." 

I’ve written a lot about coparenting and the celebrities who get it right – but I get the sense that Cory is making it out to appear that things are better than they actually are. In the past, when Cory and Tia have crossed paths at award shows, their encounters have been so awkward that they’ve made headlines. To me, that’s okay. It’s okay for it to be awkward. These two have been officially divorced for just over a year after a 14-year marriage. It’s okay to take some time to figure out what it looks like.

We’ve all heard of toxic positivity, where there is no room for anything but happiness, sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows. And to be honest, I think toxic positivity creeps into coparenting, particularly among celebrities who want to appear like they’ve got it all figured out. But they don’t. And that’s okay. In fact, I think we’d all be better for it if we heard celebrities admit to just how hard it is sometimes. I know I certainly would be.

Usher’s very pointed (and muted) speech

With Usher being the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, it was no surprise that the night was mostly centred around him in the form of tributes and camera time. But fans were upset when it finally came time for him to accept his award and most of his speech was muted.

Upon accepting his award, Usher delivered a 13-minute speech, but much of it was omitted. Usher spoke at length about having an absent father, and the father figures he came to know throughout his career in music. It was at this point in his speech that he let the first curse word drop, prompting an almost permanent censor on the rest of his speech, save for a few words at random.

 

When clips of the full, uncensored speech started circulating online, people began speculating that he indirectly addressed Diddy at points during his speech. And due to the censorship, BET issued an apology, saying:

“Due to an audio malfunction during the LIVE telecast, portions of his speech were inadvertently muted,” the statement read. “Celebrating global icon Usher on our stage with a star-studded tribute and having him accept his award with a heartfelt speech was an honor… We extend our sincere apologies to Usher as we couldn’t be more grateful for his participation in Culture’s Biggest Night.” 

Fans are still understandably pissed at the disrespect, but I suppose the apology and the posting of the full, uncensored speech does a bit to ease the tension. If there’s one thing that's certain, it’s that BET made a huge mistake giving the award to Diddy in the past, which I touched on here. But giving it to the much-deserving Usher is one way to slowly start making up for it.