This year's BET Awards airs June 26th at 8
p.m. ET on BET and I'm so pumped! It’s truly my favorite awards show, and I haven't missed a year yet. Tracee Ellis
Ross and Anthony Anderson return as hosts for the second time and I can only imagine what they have planned. There’s a few things I hope to see at the show so check out my suggestions below:
The Hosts-Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross
BET’s Black
Girls Rock brought back Tracee Ellis Ross as host and she KILLED the opening dance number. Because of that, I’d like to see both Ross and Anderson perform a dance medley from artists nominated this year. Anthony Anderson has become notorious for putting together great openings like the Soul Train Awards (2013) and the 2015, 2016 NAACP
Image Awards. Anderson always delivers, as does Ross, which make them the perfect
duo. Not only would I love to see them dance, but also interact with people in the audience. Another suggestion is having Ross' alter ego, TMurda, decode rapper’s songs in a skit with an actual
rapper beside her. For example, Rae Sremmurd is one group that'd be funny to see decode alongside TMurda.
Prince
Tribute
Because I attended the Formation World Tour, my top
pick for the Prince tribute would be Beyoncé, but it’ll take a miracle for that request to happen. If BET can get Queen Bey in the audience, that alone would be great because she deserves wins for Lemonade. I’m actually thrilled at the lineup of performers BET have for Prince. The Roots,
Sheila E., Janelle Monae, D’Angelo, Maxwell and many more are slated to perform. All will do amazingly well. If you go by these names alone, already this tribute will do better than the Billboard Awards. Honestly, there was no wow factor during May's Billboard Awards tribute to Prince, and BET should feel the pressure to deliver.
Backstage
Access-
Chris Spencer and Billy Sorrells held down the fort behind the scenes of the awards, and I have no critique or suggestion to make. They were simply... HILARIOUS! What I like about Chris
Spencer is that he seamlessly
hosted the backstage access part, while handling all of the celebrities with ease and humor. Nothing felt forced, and that translated well to the audience. Spencer was the head writer for the awards, and hopefully he joins the team again. Billy Sorrells held it down with the fans in the pit, and I'd love to see him again this year. The interaction with the fans were refreshing to see and towards the end, Spencer interviewed Sorrells and I got to know more about him. Both brought energy and light to the awards show. If you didn't get a chance to see the backstage access from last year, you can still watch the stream here.
The Categories I'm rooting for-
Best Female R&B/Pop = Beyoncé
Best Male Hip Hop Artist = Drake
Best New Artist = Bryson Tiller
Video of the Year = Beyoncé “Formation”
Best Actress = Tracee Ellis Ross
Best Gospel = Erica Campbell
Side note: If we can get more than just one token Gospel artist to perform at the show, that would be great. Have either a slew of artists take turns singing snippets of their songs or choose a few to perform separately throughout the show. Gospel is a genre that shaped the music we listen today and since BET creates programming for the Christian community, let it reflect more at the awards. Here's artists I'd want to see perform if not this year, in the years to come : Erica Campbell, Kierra Sheard, Dorinda Clark Cole, Kirk Franklin, Lecrae, Tasha Page Lockhart...etc
Go to BET.com for more info about the BET Awards 16.
**Photos posted are from BET and Getty Images
