As Janelle Monae introduced nominees for the best female R&B/pop artist, she made her comments regarding the abortion laws at the ceremony at LA’s Microsoft Theatre.
BET Awards: Founded in 2001, this show celebrates and brings together black music and entertainment community. The event was held on Sunday in Los Angeles, days after the Roe Vs Wade ruling was overturned. Despite a lot of support taking place for the changes in the laws made, there have been quite a many protests seen in the US.
At the show, after Lizzo performed her current hit, About Damn Time, Taraji P. Henson, the host, was heard saying, “It is about damn time we talk about the fact that guns have more rights than women.”
“A woman that can take lives has more power than a woman that can give life-if she chooses to.”
Lizzo, the pop singer, donated $1m to Planned Parenthood, a non-profit organization that provides reproductive health care in the country. This was pledged following the last weeks-ruling by the court.
She said, “These artists are making art on our own terms, unwinding our truths and expressing ourselves freely and unapologetically in a world that tries to control and police our bodies, my body, and our decisions.”
Right after when the winner of the award was announced to be Jazmine Sullivan, she used the moment on stage and continued the same message and called for support from males as well.
She told the audience, “I want to speak directly to the men: We need you all. We need you all to stand up, stand up for us, stand up with us.”
Further, she says, “If you have ever benefited from a woman making one of the toughest decisions of her life, which is to terminate a pregnancy, you need to be standing. This is not just a woman issue. This is everybody’s issue. We need your support more than ever.” context of BET Awards.
Among the winners, we could see The Weeknd, who took away the best R&B/pop artists male, Anderson Paak, and Bruno Mars, who bagged the best group as Silk Sonic. The best female hip-hop artist was won by Megan Thee Stallion and Kendrick Lamar for the best male hip-hop artist.
Kendrick Lamar could attend the ceremony of BET Awards as he was to be the headline the closing night of Glastonbury, stood up, and spoke up against the ruling of Roe Vs Wade from the festival’s stage.
Glastonbury is a five-day festival where different forms of arts are performed in Pilton, Somerset, and England. Mostly the performing arts are of contemporary style gathering a vast audience each year.
At the end of his BET Awards performance, he said, “Godspeed for women’s rights. They judge you, they judge christ” while wearing a crown of thorns with blood pouring down his face.
Picking up the best actor award, Will Smith bagged to be the winner at the BET awards for his role in King Richard, which at the same time was also named the best movie.
His name was quite an internet frenzy after the BET Awards controversy caused at this year’s Oscars wherein he was seen walking up to the stage and sleeping comedian Chris Rock after he made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith.
As a surprise guest, singer Brandy was seen during rapper Jack Harlow’s performance, while her brother Ray was spotted eating a cup of noodles in the audience during the show.
