2015 BET Awards
The 2015 BET Awards were broadcast live for the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis were hosting partners again and it was an incredible show.
The broadcast opened with a full stage of performers with a very large American flag in the background as Kendrick Lamar performed Alright.
Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis said, “Tonight we celebrate the conquerors.” Tracee came out in a 
harness and was raised in the air as they sang Conquerors. They then welcomed everyone to the show and introduced Gabrielle Union and Laverne Cox. They came out in the same dress and had to resolve the issue with a trivia question. The loser had to go and change. Gabrielle conceded and said she would change. They introduced the nominees for Best Actor and the award went to Terence Howard. The audience shouted, “We love you!” as he took the stage.
Terrence started his acceptance speech by shouting, “To the Empire” three times as the audience cheered. He thanked Fox, Taraji P. Henson, and his wife.
Anthony brought Janelle Monae to the stage to perform Yoga followed by Jidenna performing Classic Man.
Sanaa Lathan, Michael Ealy, and Morris Chestnut the stars of The Perfect Guy were the next presenters for the category of Best Female Hip Hop Artist. The BET Award went to Nicki Minaj. She came to the stage holding her mother’s hand and said, “I wanted to bring my Mommy up” and told her “I love you so much.”
The stars of The Perfect Guy premiered a clip of their new movie.
The cast of the BET Series The Game were the next presenters and announced that their finale is August 5th. They also announced the nominees for the Best Male Hip Hop Artist, and the BET Award went to Kendrick Lamar. He thanked Jesus Christ and gave ‘the glory’ to God.
Tracee then introduced Tyga and Chris Brown’s performance of Ayo and the audience couldn’t stay seated, and Omarion joined in performing Post To Be.
La La Anthony was the next presenter and she announced the BET Music Matters performer. Avery Williams was given an opportunity to perform his music on the BET stage.
Anthony introduced the next performance by The Weeknd performing The Hills followed by Earned It.
Kelly Rowland was up next to announce BET’s 15th birthday and brought out Charlie Wilson singing one of his hits Outstanding. He kept dancing a bit even after the music stopped. He threw to the nominees for the Best New Artist, and the BET Award went to Sam Smith.
Anthony pretended to be Sam Smith and said, “Sam Smith is not here tonight because he’s white,” and he probably didn’t think white people win. Anthony accepted the award for Sam and told him he can come and get it from his house.
Donnie McClurkin brought the gospel to the stage in memory Andrae Crouch.
And the program came back from a break with P. Diddy performing for Bad Boy. He surprised the audience by opening 2015 BET Awards with performing with Mase.
P. Diddy and Mase kicked off the celebration of 20 years of Bad Boy. They were joined by Faith Evans and French Montana. Notorious B.I.G.’s music was part of it too. It looked like Diddy fell off the stage for a moment, but he was caught by the fans.
Then they brought Lil’ Kim out by raising her out of the floor. Watch the rerun to see this group of performers. Mase and Diddy continued with a video section of Notorious B.I.G.
Next came Pharrell Williams performing with Diddy. Really this performance was the jam. You will want to watch the rerun for this if you missed it.
Anthony and Tracee came back and said give it up for Bad Boy and that incredible performance. And they brought the kids from their show Blackish to dance to Whip Dance, Nae Nea, Stanky Leg.
Terrence Jenkins from E-News brought out the Nissan contest winner. Rebecca got a 2016 Nissan Maxima. She was surprised, so that’s nice. She said, “I can’t think of anything to say. What do you say, thank you!”
The next Music Matters performer was Andra Day. She got a chance to bring her music to the stage.
Sean Puffy Combs came back as a presenter of the Lifetime Achievement Award to Smokey Robinson. He stumbled a bit and asked the audience to forgive him and let him start over again for Smokey Robinson. And he added, “Without Smokey light skinned brothers wouldn’t have had it on lock for 20 years.”
After a quick montage featuring a string of performers discussing the triumphs of his career, and a performance by Tori Kelly of the song Smokey Robinson wrote for the Jackson Five, Who’s Loving You, Robin Thicke continued with a performance of Ooh Baby, Baby.
Ne-Yo came next with a performance of Tears of a Clown. Smokey looked good as he took the stage to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. He asked Sean to hold the award while he began his acceptance speech. He thanked Debra Lee and BET for many years of friendship and support. He thanked God for his blessings in the music world, “You keep making it brand new.” “And I thank you BET and Debra Lee for making it so special.”
He thanked God for Berry Gordy as well and said he is his best friend and is always there for him. He thanked his wife. He called her his goalie and said, “She’s got my back.”
His speech was lengthy, but he received a standing ovation and people continued to stand as he told them, “So don’t be so full of yourselves.”
“I thank you and I love you all of you. Thank you very much.” And then he performed Tears of a Clown. He followed up with a performance of Cruisin and My Girl.
Tracee and Anthony came out with Tori Kelly and Buster Rhymes took a picture of them from the audience.
The next performance was Meek Mill performing All Eyes on You with Chris Brown and Nicki Minaj.
Keyshia Cole and Monica were the next presenters for the BET Centric Award, and the Centric Award went to The Weeknd. He had already left, but they accepted the award for him. Keyshia made sure to mention twice that her next album will come out independently.
Donald Glover of Magic Mike XXL showed a sneak preview of the movie soon to heat up theaters everywhere.
For the Empire segment, Tracee and Anthony pretended to be Cookie and Luscious. The real Luscious joined them and took the honor of introducing the performance by the Empire crew. Yazz performed Drip Drop and Jussie Smollett sang You’re So Beautiful. He mentioned the victory of Gay marriage in the middle of the performance and ended by saying, “Stand for love. Thank You.”
The 2015 BET Awards continued with a tribute to ESPN’s Stuart Scott followed by a performance of When a Man Loves a Woman in memory of Percy Sledge. Stand by Me was performed in memory of Ben E. King, and a performance of The Thrill is Gone honored B. B. King.
Michael B. Jordan was next to send prayers and strength to the people of Charlestown, South Carolina. He also shined a light on the people who participated in the Black Lives Matter protests. He ended his speech by saying, “We applaud your unbreakable, unshakable strength.”
Big Sean took the stage and performed One Man Can Change The World and Blessings. He thanked the audience for the best year of his career and broke into a performance of I Don’t F*** With You.
Tracee and Anthony came out to welcome President and Chief Operating Officer of BET, Debra Lee to present the Humanitarian Award to Tom Joyner. Debra Lee said, “Educating our future is what this man does.” After the video celebrating his career and contributions of the Tom Joyner Foundation, Tom Joyner came to the stage to accept the honor.
Tom said, “Thank you Debra Lee and the BET family.” He also said we must save our Black colleges, newspapers radio, etc. “We shouldn’t rely on mainstream media to tell our stories.” He ended his speech by saying, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, I love you, thank you.”
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were next. We haven’t seen them for a long time. They thanked Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy for showing them the way and then introduced Janet Jackson.
After a montage of some of her performances, a stage full of dancers performed several steps Janet made famous to a medley of her songs across two stages.
Janet Jackson finally took the stage in front of the dancers as the audience went crazy.
No one has seen Janet for several years. Her mother and father were in the audience as she received the Ultimate Icon, Music, Dance, Visual Award. She thanked Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for the incredible history they share. Her album, Rhyme Nation is 25 years old. She ended her acceptance speech by thanking her ‘loving husband’ and all the fans. “Thank you, BET.”
The next award went to Chris Brown. The Fandemonium Award. He said, “I ain’t good with speeches. A lot has changed in my life … I am most grateful for my daughter.”
K. Michelle performed next followed by Tamar Braxton. They performed together and with Pattie Labelle, If Only You Knew. Pattie Labelle always gives you the Pattie experience.
The Coke Cola Viewers Choice Award went to Niki Minja. In the middle of her acceptance speech, she said, “What was this award for I’m sorry.” “Viewers Choice? I’m, sorry.” She couldn’t keep up with it all. But she thanked BET and ended with, “Follow your dreams cause one day you will wake up and your dreams will be gone and you will be mad, but be mad at your God damn self.” She then flipped her hair and dashed off the stage.
Rihanna came out next as the audience went wild to show a little of her new video for, “Bitch Better Have My Money.” It was certainly a teaser because it only lasted a minute, but she left you wanting to see more.
Next up was a special performance by of Trap Queen by Fetty Wap.
And Anthony and Tracee said their goodbyes and brought the broadcast to a close.
The 2015 BET Awards was long at over three hours and forty-five minutes, but the performances were priceless.
See You Next Year!
Tanya Hart
