African stars Tems, Wizkid, and Mental Health advocate Sitawa Wafulu, were announced winners at the 2022 BET Awards which was held on Sunday, June 26, 2022, at the Microsoft Theatre, Los Angeles.
The annual melting pot of black culture and entertainment celebrated talent and culture from across all corners of the world.
Tems, who was nominated across three categories — Best International Act, Best Collaboration, and Best New Artiste — was announced the winner in two of the categories. The multi-genre star, who made history on Sunday as the first African woman to win the Best International Award beat her Nigerian contemporary, Fireboy DML; South African sensation, Major League DJZ; British rap queen, Little Simz; Congolese star, Fally Ipupa; French “Solaar,” Dinos; Award-winning British rapper and lyricist, Dave; Cameroonian-French singer, Tayc and Brazilian sensation, Ludmilla who were also nominated for the category.
Receiving her award, she said, “Thank you so much for this, thank you so much. It is an honour, this is my first award show that I’m winning something.” The 27-year-old also won the Best Collaboration Award alongside music legends Wizkid and Justin Bieber, for the global-chart-topping masterpiece, “Essence“.
Scoring a different first, Fireboy DML had the first-ever African performance on the BET stage. The star set the stage ablaze with his fan-favourite, “Peru” and all-new single, “Playboy”.
“The 2022 BET Awards was filled with many proud moments. Cultures biggest night was a true display of our rich and colourful diversity,” said Monde Twala, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Paramount Africa and Peer Lead BET International. “It was such an honour to not only celebrate all nominees and winners, but to also experience their amazing ingenuity and power of creativity. I say a hearty congratulation to all nominees, winners and honorees for the well deserved recognition.”
For her outstanding work with mental health in Africa, Kenya’s Sitawa Wafula was recognised as the Global Good Honouree. Past recipients of this Award include Brazilian activist and writer Djamila Ribeiro, French social justice activist Assa Traoré, and artist and philanthropist Akon.
The night also included a star-studded tribute to Sean “Diddy” Combs who was honored with the BET Lifetime Achievement Award, making the show once again the #1 trending topic on Twitter.
Other significant winners at the Awards include, Jazmine Sullivan (Best Female R&B/Pop Artist), Megan Thee Stallion (Best Female Hip Hop Artist), Kendrick Lamar (Best Male Hip Hop Artist), Latto (Best New Artist), The Weeknd (Best male R&B/Pop Artist), Marsai Martin (Youngstars Award), Naomi Osaka (Sportswoman of the Year Award) and Stephen Curry (Sportsman of the Year Award).
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ABOUT BET:
BET, a unit of Paramount (NASDAQ: PARAA; PARA; PARAP), is the nation’s leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs television programming for the African American audience. The primary BET channel is in 125 million households and can be seen in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, sub-Saharan Africa and France. BET is the dominant African-American consumer brand with a diverse group of business extensions including BET+, the preeminent streaming service for the Black audience; BET.com, a leading Internet destination for Black entertainment, music, culture, and news; BET HER, a 24-hour entertainment network targeting the African-American Woman; BET Music Networks – BET Jams, BET Soul and BET Gospel; BET Home Entertainment; BET Live, a growing BET festival business; BET Mobile, which provides ringtones, games and video content for wireless devices; and BET International, which operates BET around the globe.
ABOUT “BET AWARDS”
“BET Awards” is one of the most-watched award shows on cable television according to the Nielsen Company. The “BET Awards” franchise remains the #1 program in cable TV history among African-Americans