The 2009 BET Awards aired last night live from The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. The event was totally revamped in less than three days after the unexpected passing of singer Michael Jackson. Many of the artists scheduled to perform either totally scrapped their original performance plans or found a way to pay tribute to the singer by either invoking his name during their performance (Maxwell) or dressing like him (Keri Hilson). There were few standout performances in my opinion. However those that do get Kudos include Ne-Yo singing “Lady In My Life”, The tribute to the O’Jays, Ciara singing “Heal The World” and the always fabulous Maxwell.
Considering the show was billed as a tribute to Michael, I expected better performances and the rumor that Beyonce, Justin Timberlake and Chris Brown had been tapped to give performances in his honor was clearly a lie. Still, the show had it’s moments and pics from the red carpet, show and backstage can be seen below.
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- Meagan Good
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- Amerie
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- Elise Neal
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- Alicia Keys
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- Teairra Mari
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- Tyra Banks
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- Toccara Jones
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- Tatyana Ali
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- Keri Hilson
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- Taraji P. Henson
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- Estelle
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- Keke Palmer
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- Beyonce
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- Lil Mama
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- Keyshia Cole & Monica
is that balmain bee’s wearin? n she did a pretty gud performance coulda been better but i kno she felt it n good first speech 2, n alicia’s speech was nice
bee’s performance was aight coulda been betta but she was feelin it so it strait but her speech was nice n so was ak’s n is dat balmain bee’s wearin?
All of the ladies looks fab…it’s too many to make. Damn they make me proud! :grin:
…the only issue I have st Bey’s dress & shoes…NOT hot for the usually fashion forward lady.
I’m must say Keri Hilson performance was really good.
keyshia cole performance was soooooo much better than last year.
I thought everyone looked great. The show overall was ‘okay’. I think BET bamboozled a lot of us. It turned into the Jamie Foxx show LOL. I love Jamie, but I expected more performances in honor of MJ.
BET awards 2009 was worth watching it
everyone was looking great
nice tribute to the king MJ
for a last minute change, I think that it was amazing
Beyonce looked a bit tired
Jaime Fox was hilarious…
Keri surprised me..her performance was good.
Monica & Keyshia tore that song up!
The tribute to the O’Jays was off da chain!
Bey looked a hot mess (on & off stage)..Just because you’re wearing a wig doesn’t mean you don’t comb it. shake & go is not your friend girl.. I expected a better & unique performance from her..instead we got the recycled performance from her concerts :|
Ne-Yo & New Edition did the best tribute to MJ.
The final performance of the show was str8t disrespectful. All that profanity was soooo unnecessary. No way that bs was a tribute to MJ.
Watching Janet try to put her thoughts & feelings into words hurt me to my heart. You could see how much she missed her brother.
Bamboozled is right…I was saddened by what was supposed to be a “revamping” in which I read “thrown together” not worthy of the king of pop imo….If that was “revamped” thean the original was gonna be a hot low budget mess…..Keri Hilson did real well (proud of her)…
:| Ok this is just my opinion but the BET awards last night, sucked ROYALLY!!!!!!!!!!
The Good:
Keri: Her performance started off great but I’m not sure what happened at the end of her set but she didn’t sound good. I’m glad that she won an award though, there’s no love loss here Keri!!!!
Beyonce’s performance was nice but wishes she would’ve actually performed, and yes she did look a HOT mess!!!!!!!!!
Jay-Z got a haircut!!!!
Ne-Yo’s tribute (both times) absolutely beautiful
The tribute to the O’jay’s was really nice (Tyrese, you betta work it)!!!!!!!!
Alicia Keys was beautiful and so was her speech!!
Maxwell (there are no words)
Keyshia & Monica did alright (I expected more but they are cool with me)
The surprise of Janet at the end, my thoughts and prayers are with the family :cry:
The Bad:
Jamie: Wasn’t funny (IMO) and was trying waaaaaaaay to hard, but I guess he did the best he could given the circumstances
Tyra & Beyonce’s wig
Watching Johnny Gill sing (although he sounded nice) but his facial expressions with that mouth, OH BOY!!!!! ;-)
Don Cornelius with that long a** speech
The Ugly:
Lil Wayne at the entourage on stage at the end, what was that about???? And can somebody please tell that that wasn’t some little girls on stage while he was saying “I wanna love all the girls in the world”. That was beyond disrespectful not only for the type of event he was performing at but everyone esp us females. Disgusted
Tiny doesn’t ever need to open her mouth to speak b/c she can’t talk for nothing.
The Funny:
***** Robbers (Hilarious) If they do make a movie I will be there to see it!!! :lol:
B looks H.A.M as usual she can never get it right and her wig is just ridiculous…she looks very tired and her performeence OMG WTF!! :shock: Lil Mama please (stop it) I won’t comment on her thats all I’ll say mostly everyone else looks pretty good, Monica totally outshined Keykey
Sorry but to me the show sucked. I live in France so it was the first time for me ever to watch it in its whole. The other years I just caught the performances on YouTube but I heard about the tribute and I had to see all the show. It took me the entire day to figure out how I will be able to watch it. I found a site where I was able to see it in poor quality (people’s heads were missing of the screen so all I saw was bodies) and I was extremely disappointed.
First, they should have started the show with a minute of silence even the CONGRESS did it.
Second, they reduced Michael’s carrer to the Jackson 5 and Thriller (except for Heal The World). The pictures they showed were only Jackson 5 pictures, the songs they played were only Jackson 5 songs (except Jamie at the beginning ). I know they had only 4 days to prepare it but they shouldn’t have to lie about the guests and stuff.
The only moment I liked was when Janet arrived, she made me cry. I don’t know where she found the strength to make it. I couldn’t have stand to hear all the applause, the noise and stuff.
Well, it was 5 a.m in France when the show finished and I can’t believe I stayed up all the night for that. NKOTB did a better tribute.
I thought Alicia looked very pretty. I also hope that the Grammy’s or maybe even MTV will have a real tribute Michael Jackson because he definatly deserved better than that mess last nite. Maybe because it was so last minute and they had to put it together, but, that was terrible.
The BET awards is nothing more than garbage.
One thing is for sure, Michael Jackson’s death, his music and groundbreaking videos and the O’Jays music has shined a light on how bad the music industry has become. Black music has lost its soul and class.
my girl came through and tried to add a little class to this Ghetto show.. i was crying through the micheal jackson tribute.. Very sad and i agree totally with the disrespectful lil wayne to use profanity in the show, i was very disappointed in him and his whole camp!!! BET should have know better and i cant believe that did not let Chris Brown perform he would have torn the roof off the building. It wasn’t about chris or riri it was about Micheal (besides look at the other ABUSERS they had in the show, Don Cornelius, Diddy, Tyrese, and the list goes on and on)
I think everyone except Beyonce and Taraji looked great. Beyonce should’ve performed in a different outfit, and Taraji should’ve did something better with that hair. I didn’t care for Keyshias outfit either.
Performances:
Letoya Luckett. Letoya has really stepped up her live performance game, but she damn near let those back up singers up stage her.
Keri Hilson. I think she rocked it. Her voice got a little shakey from time to time, but overall I think she did good. And she came off very humble accepting her award, more points for Keri.
Beyonce. I was bored as all hell. I appreciate what she tried to do, but I feel she should’ve song one of MJ’s songs.
Ciara. Ciara Ciara Ciara. I don’t blame her. Why did they let her sing that song, it was flat, it was nasaly, and pitchy the whole way through. It was terrible. She should’ve totally danced, even if she couldn’t pull off singing one of his fast songs she could’ve done a routine at least.
Mary Mary didn’t tickle my fancy. Queen Latifah definately did her thing.
Keyshia and Monica. Keyshia gets some serious props. The girl has really stepped her performance game up. However, Monica upstaged the hell out of her.
Other Sistas in the show:
Janet Jackson. That wack a55 performance by that wack a55 Drake and Lil Wayne is the reason I missed her. But I caught a glimpse of her, and she looked beautiful.
Keke Palmer can really sing, and a lot of grown people could learn something from her.
Zoe Saldana looked great.
I loved Tarajis dress.
Tocarras hair was fabulous.
I thought that Tyra looked cute.
Keke Palmer is adorable.
I am not going to type a long review, The ojay’s, ciara ,jamie fox’s jokes damn keri hilson and Maxwell made the show,this was supposed to be a michael jackson tribute? what a joke even MTV did a better job at honoring him it was whack and if those 4 people didn’t step in i would have fell asleep, that **** was boring, I am happy alicia and wyclef get recognition because unlike others who do it for publicity they are heart deep into the cause and god bless their soul.
and JAnet is definitely the female version of her brother hands down
Yeah I have to agree with most that Bey looked tired and the performance just didn’t fit the night. I was bored and ready for her to get off the stage.
The show was a bit disorganized but because it was last minute they did what they could and with who they could get , like Usher was overseas and couldn’t make it back in time but he said they did contact him and he will have to do a tribute later. Jamie said they wanted to focus on the music and good times because the media is focusing on so many negatives. Of course other channels will do tributes that might turn out better but they will have more time so BET did good.
Alicia and Letoya were best dressed to me of the night. I enjoyed the O’Jays segment, that was one of the best.
Alot of people are talking about how wack the show was, but these people changed the entire show in 2 and a half days. They had something completely different to do, and there were people that hadn’t planned on even attending that came to perform. I feel they did the best they could. I hate what happened to Michael, but had this not been a tribute to him it would have been even worse off. And does anybody know what the hell Ving Rhames was talking about, “Guns is the BET awards” what the hell.
Marlon Wayans is funny acting like his family respected MJJ, when I remember they used to do parodies of MJJ on ILC.
If they were true artists two days would have been focused on their routines and what they were going to say and do to give respect to MJJ, not coordinating their outfits and worry about their appearance. That’s the difference between MJ, Janet and these celebrities. MJJ and Janet would rock the same outfits for award shows, but when they performed , they were always on point. These celebrities come out with new everything and their performances suck.
First lets state how bad the show was!!! I expected so much more from B.E.T!!!! They indeed played us all who expected a great show and Tribute to Mike. Besides BBD, etc, etc the show was nothing to climb the wall about!
I can honestly say that I ride Beyonce all the time-huge fan! But she has completely gotten on my last nerve. She looked TERRIBLE in every sense of the word! Her and J are in their own little Weird world! Im still pondering on what the hell her performance was about. That was garbage! She has lost me as a fan after that (and all the blk&wht videos that are the same)!
Toccara as well as little mama are on the worst dressed list with beyonce. As much as she states how fabulous she is, she is always looking a mess!!!!
Ciara………why did they (BET) do that? They know darn well she cant sing! Needless to say that was awful!
Taraji’s dress was BANGIN-Best Dressed!!!!! The dress made up for the hair IMO!
All of the other ladies you have posted looked great as well!
Meagan Good looked absolutely stunning in Mario Moya – I love that dress!
@ bohwe
i think i agree with what you are saying. i believe you mean that michael and janet and some others know what it means to perform. put on a show. give people so much in a performance. they wear special outfits/costumes even or at least dressed nicely. they don’t just look so bedraggled like they just came from home and were forced to be there. they are organized and putting so much of their being and heart into a performance that it is magnificent. these new folks don’t know about that or sometimes seem to care.
*is that what you were saying? cuz if so i agree. if not…my bad.
I only liked Beyonce and I thought her performance was beautiful. Alicia Keys looked great too
Alicia is a beautiful, talented, and intelligent woman!! I’m so proud of her!!
A LOT of people are so upset with Beyonce for singing a Catholic Virgin Mary song in a SKIMPY outfit!! WHy does she ALWAYS have to showcase her body. Have some class sometimes!! Ugh…That was so disrespectful!
Keri did good considering this to be her first award show. At least she tried to incorporate Mike in there some type of way ( referring to to clothes)
I guess Neyo and Jamie are the only male singers out….
Lil Wayne……utter embarrassment!!
Souljah boy could have been axed
Old school tributes and MAXWELL were the best!
I actually Ciara did pretty well!
Jay Z………
Tired of seeing T- PAIN
Typical BET though……same OVERRATED people every single year! Thats why I been stopped supporting them. They used Mike to hype that show up and it was a TOTAL FAILURE!! They should have just waited and did an actual REAL tribute show with the BEST people!! Like Mariah, Usher, CB, Diana Ross, even some of the non-famous people that can imitate him to a T.
BTW Monica upstages Keyshia on that song. It felt so good to see Monica back up on that stage. She is soooo underrated!
I have to agree with everyone’s comments. I was disappointed with the awards. I think they should’ve had a seperate tribute show and allowed those at the show to honor MJ in their own way, because it became confusing. And yes it was the Jamie Foxx & Ne-Yo show. There was no need for him to keep promoting his tour, when he just gave us the concert.
It was good to see NE, BBD, Guy, and the O’Jays. My true reason for watching the show was Maxwell and of course they had him at the end.
I’ve lost respect for Lil Wayne
thank you torya and sweet serenity…… neyo, ojays tribute, surprise new edition/jackson 5 trubute, keri, taraji and maxwell were i think the standouts of the night…but….i keep thinking about Lil wayne’s performance…when i was watching it all i could think was “WTF are those little girls doing on stage?” i heard one of those girls was his daughter, and if THAT is true, then that just tops it. WHY on earth would you have little girls there singing your lyrics to THAT song? i know he isnt the most distinguish gentleman out there (supposedly has two girls preg at the same time, OMG) but to have your own little girl out there? i swear it turned my stomach….
i’m so proud of wycleff and miss keys they got the best awards
:evil: :evil: THE BET AWARDS SUCKED FLAMING A**. And Im tottaly embarassed as a young black woman to have seen such GHETTO *** GARBAGE in honor of somebody that completely change the game…..and was truly special and enormous to music. That was a disgrace…and BET SHOULD feel like sh&t….MICHAEL DESERVED SOOO MUCH BETTER :cry: ….I cant wait for the MTV awards….watch how they show BET ragdey ghetto selves up.
Monica killed keyshia cole in her own damn song :cool: she looked really nice from head to toe
Oh and please no more tattoos keysh :shock:
I agree that the show was hella predictable. I watched the show with my oldest sister, and she isn’t crazy for BET either, and she wondered how I was able to call out every winner. You know that anytime Beyonce is nominated she will win. I really have started to like Keri, but I feel she won because of the hype behind her, I don’t know how Jazmine Sullivan was Grammy nominated and didn’t win or perform, she definately should’ve performed over drake. BET awards go strictly on hype, they don’t take the time to listen to the music like more prestigous awards, I feel the content and creativity of the music is more important, not whos videos get the most play because BET is scared of their husband and father. If BET was done right Solange would’ve been nominated, and Jazmine probably would’ve won.
We should write letters and create a petition sending it to Quincy Jones, asking him to produce a televised MJJ Tribute. Because, that mess that BET did was a disgrace, but most importantly, the artists who claim that MJJ was their icon/idol, claiming that MJJ was their inspiration , came across as not really honoring him or his legacy. Everything seemed so forced to me. I, guess his fans truly loved him, and his (cough ) sarcasm had haterism, only mimicked him. Because, why else would you not give honor and respect to the man, that paved the way by exploding the racial barriers in music and videos. They could have taken the time to show some respect. And jamie did a terrible job at honoring Mick. It didn’t seem real, or coming from a place of respect. It was like fake. Hopefully, Steve Harvey or Cris Tucker(after he grieves) can really put it down for the icon. Jamie needs to apologize for that.
The show was so pathetic, it was all about look at me, look at me. And Jamie promoting his album, every 5 minutes was pure tackiness. Mick didn’t have to do that, he came out with the baddest video, and made you take notice. From the bottom of my heart, I feel sorry for Janet that she had to watch that piece of garbage of a tribute.
I heard/read so many very passionate and true comments about the BET “award” show…If they would just dump the award part of it and focus on good music…I could respect that. But the “awards” are a joke, they are based on popularity and undercover “coon nections,”
If anyone is old enough to remember the award shows that Motown used to do like Motown 25…when artists were respectful and rehearsed and you cared about the artists that won because you know they loved music as much as a fans…I have fonder memories of those award shows. The ” happy/love/togetherness” songs that EVERYONE got on stage and sang together for the award show finale’s like then Patti Labelle would start walking and singing and everyone would start screaming all over again…
It was truly beautiful…now…well I have no more words…BET does not get shown in my house with my kids. Tavis’ show was the last decent shred of intelligence and dignity BET had.
I wonder how long I will be listening to my old school songs of the 80-90’s? There are only a few true artists of R&B/ Hip Hop of today worth listening to…
The awards show truly sucked!!!!! except for wyclef and the always graceful and beautiful spoken alicia keys, Maxewll did well and it seemed to have come from the heart, Beyonce I think she was thinking how can she capitalize for her own selfish gain, since she took time to bash the Jackson family, then there she is wanting to be part of the show, Jennifer Hudson was hurting and you did not take time to give condoleses, I guess still bitter over not winning a dam award, which bey has already robbed the other singers of thier due! If these selfish arrogant singers learn anything be humble, Micheal was so loved because He loved! and gave of himself giving all he had to help, He will be missed!!!! Watch the snakes come out and try to capture his throne! NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i can really say that the show was not anything i would have expected. i find myself not caring about BET and only wondering when the channel that i came to know back in the 90’s changed to this crap that’s here today. tv as a whole isn’t worth watching but when they said it would have been a tribute to michael i figured that when they said they would try….that they meant it. i watched the show from the very beginning to the end. the preshow was the beginning of me feeling like they didn’t care about his memory. with the bad job they did with cursing and trying i just was annoyed. when the show started and they seemed so unorganized i figured it was because of the last minute changes they had made. i thought that the even would be about trying to give michael his proper dues while trying to do the original show. with the itsy bitsy peices of the show that seemed like they were about michael seemed rushed but i could not wrap my mind around the parts where anyone who came up to the stage, except for a few, to accept their award just shouted out or threw michael’s name like they cared. it seemed as if they just said it to say it. i didn’t feel any heart behind most of them.
the lil wayne performance was majorly disrespectful. not just because of michael but geez, the young girls who shouldn’t even have been up there, dressed and dancing inappropriately, the cursing, the uteer ni**erish way they displayed themselves. it was just down hill from there. i mistakenly called this the last performance. my bad. but this was horrible. that along with the ving rhames thing was ridiculous. he seemed drunk if anything and i didn’t know if i should have taken what he said seriously or laugh…i was just kinda confused and annoyed.
they shoulda just have waited for the greiving time to pass and then do an honaray show to michael. bet knows better i just don’t see why they continually don’t do better. but hey maybe that’s just how it is nowadays.
Jean: “Watch the snakes come out and try to capture his throne! NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
So true.
Like some of you stated I too think that they don’t really care. Ne-Yo even forgot to have a word for him when he won his award (well he noticed it and did it later though).
All those artists are so self-absorbed I think they can’t stand the fact to see someone else shines. Nobody could have expect that Michael’s death would bring such a shock and sadness especially in the U.S because here in Europe we’ve always supported him so I’m not surprised by people’s reaction over here. The sentence I quote from Jean is totally true and I will even add that they already started to do it when Michael was alive. Let’s face it for a lot of people he was old story. Now this death is reality check for all these so-called “artists” who the only interest seems to be to make the Forbes’ list.
As for Beyonce well the statement she made when he died shows that she likes him though and I see a coverage about Thriller 25 where she was preaching him, saying she used to have a Beat It jacket that he was a genius and stuff. Maybe for her Michael and the rest of the family are two different stories. Therefore Michael loved her. His friend Liza Minelli said he had a crush on her.
I agree with Lingre 100% they should have waited and did a tribute show with more class.
@loulou
are you saying that liza minelli said that michael had a crush on beyonce?
where’d you get that from?
I’m not gonna go through every lady but I will say Monica and Alicia’s beauty struck me the most when I saw the awards….only time I turn to B.E.T. lol
@ toootie foster: well I have Beyonce’s fans in my circle I thought it was true but just a few hours ago I read that Liza ex-husband David said he had a crush on Kelly. So I don’t know. The liza’s statement is old though it dates from 2007 . But he was a fan of Beyoncé for sure. He said that Michael favorites contemporary artists were DC, Beyoncé, Kelly, Eminem, Dr Dre, Black Eyed Peas.
@ loulou
oh okay. thanks for letting me know.
@ Busymomrn
Well said. I couldn’t agree more. Most of them don’t even CARE about the music anymore. I know we all need money, but thats what the music biz has come too, it’s all about money, and thats why there are so many “singers” that can’t sing worth a damn. It’s sickening. You are right about those motown artist, many of them didn’t make much money and some of them died in debt, but they sang anyway, they continued to put their heart in the music they sang. Thats why it was so good, they were so hungry. The people singing now, once they sell a million ringtones they sleep on us WTF?
@ Ebz202
I co sign. Alicia and Monica were absolutely stunning. They had their hair make up and fits all on point.
@ Tootie Foster
You wonder when it changed? It seems to have changed when that lady took over. Thats when they changed 106, the programming, and the shows went down hill from their. The best one to date is probably the one where Will and Jada hosted, there wasn’t a dull moment.
You know what was really sad about that show is that Michael Jackson really did put BET on the map. In the eighties he put his foot down with MTV and told them that if they didn’t play his videos and other black artisist that he would start to debut all his videos on BET and he did for a while. MTV saw how big Thriller was getting and they started trying to put his videos on but he told them if they weren’t going to play other black artisist that they couldn’t play him either. That is why it should have been better because he put his neck out there for them. How many black artisist today would do what he did. It was shameful and disgraceful. He is the reason all of these black artisist are getting these multi million dollar contracts and record deals. The problem is these young artisist don’t know the history of the business that they are in. The reason MJ is bigger and better than Elvis because he didn’t have to steal music from black artisist and past it off as his own. He and Prince were orginal. I think it is time for all of these new artisist to take a history lesson and realize the sacrifices that were made for them so that they can now stand on the stage and act like bafoons.
CIARA HOLD DOWN THE TOP 20 ON BET EVERY TIME, BUT YET WHEN IT COME TO THE AWARDS SHOW THEY SEEM TO FORGET AND NO DENYING SHE CAN DANCE HER BUT OFF AND HER VIDEO’S ARE THE BEST, BUT THAT’S ALRIGHT AT THE END OF THE DAY, CIARA THEY ARE GOING TO HAVE TO GIVE HER PROP’S THAT SHE SO DESERVES CAUSE SHE ROCKS NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT!
@ truthteller
my mind has been low and slow lately. i am completely unhappy….don’t even have a desire to eat or sometimes drink. but that’s an unrelated problem. anyway…i think it mighta happened before that woman became the CEO. what i meant to ask was when did it become acceptable to lose the meaning in lyrics and show all of this senseless crap on that network? there’s harldy any music on that channel and the whole thing just seems fake. so when did it become acceptable for this to become the reality?
yeah…..anybody know what can make someone lose their appetite.
They disrespected michael something serious…
Alicia Keys’ speech/MONOLOGUE was entirely TOO LONG! ALICIA, cut it out! Everytime, her *** is on stage, she wants to philosophy! Furthermore, why do we continue to give awards to people who aren’t even BLACK! Her ugly *** WHITE MAMA was right in the audience. Alicia wanted her to come on stage with her, but her mom was afraid to (for the obvious reasons). She didn’t belong! ALICIA KEYS, NEWS FLASH, YOU’RE NOT BLACK! Dumbass!
@ Upset and Insane um so neither are barack, mariah, etc. So very hateful because Alicia earned that award. That white guy from the Entourage was there on stage why aren’t you mad at him? FURTHERMORE Keyshia Cole is supposed to be half Italian just like Alicia.
BET WARDS 2009
Debra Lee get control of the network.
Jamie Foxx not funny at all and what about all those disrespectful comments referring to your private parts….I thought it was a tribute to MJ. Jamie decided to talk about how big his ***** is, probably not.
Best Performances: Neyo & Tyrese, Johnnie, Trey Songs
Beyonce: wrong outfit (don’t always have to show body) hair wrong…song wrong…
hair looked like a 15.00 wig from the Korean store.
Lil Wayne New Orleans project finest NOT! I still can’t figure out why he is successful