The BET Awards — or “The Prince Tribute Show” — featured emotional and energetic performances from Sheila E., Stevie Wonder and Jennifer Hudson honoring the Purple One, along with political statements on issues ranging from racial injustice to the U.S. presidential election.
Sheila E., jamming on the drums, singing and dancing without shoes, closed the three-hour-plus show at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles with “Let’s Work,” ”A Love Bizarre” and “The Glamorous Life.”
Hudson, rocking a white-hooded blazer, and Wonder, clad in a purple suit, sang “Purple Rain” — a month after the piano-playing icon performed the song with Madonna at the Billboard Music Awards, which BET dissed on Twitter. This time, Hudson was a vocal powerhouse, delivering screeching vocals while Wonder played piano and Tori Kelly was on guitar while a photo montage of Prince appeared on the purple-lit stage.
Janelle Monae was animated and funky as she danced skillfully and ran through Prince tunes, including “Kiss,” ”Delirious” and “I Would Die 4 U.”
@iJesseWilliams's acceptance speech #BETAwards https://t.co/9j8Uj5ewDv
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Bilal was sensual and passionate during “The Beautiful Ones,” even lying on the floor while singing near the end of the performance. The Roots backed Bilal, and the band was also behind Erykah Badu as she performed “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker,” singing softly as she grooved in place.
After singing an original song, Maxwell went into “Nothing Compares 2 U,” changing some of the lyrics while honoring Prince.
Though the BET Awards were heavy on honoring the icon who died on April 21, the show went from Prince to political throughout the night.
“Grey’s Anatomy” actor Jesse Williams, who earned the humanitarian award for his efforts as an activist, gave a fiery, nearly six-minute speech that brought the audience to its feet and earned a rousing applause.
“We’re done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil, black gold, ghettoizing and demeaning our creations then stealing them; gentrifying our genius and trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies,” he said onstage.