Watch The Weeknd & Alicia Keys, Janelle Monáe Play The BET Awards
Last night, BET held its big annual awards show, and we’ve already posted the video of Kendrick Lamar opening the show by performing “Alright.” But that wasn’t the only notable performance of the night. The Weeknd, looking like a newly-minted star, sang “The Hills” and then brought out Alicia Keys for a slick duet version of “Earned It,” his biggest hit to date. Janelle Monáe did a heavily choreographed version of her new single “Yoga,” and then shared the stage with her collaborator Jidenna, who did his own “Classic Man” and looked like a newly-minted star himself. There were other things we could post. Diddy led a joyous shiny suit-era Bad Boy reunion that featured Mase, the Lox, Faith Evans, 112, and Lil Kim, and he also completely fell through Kim’s surprise-entrance trapdoor during “All About The Benjamins,” granting us the rare image of Diddy flossing hard and looking sheepish at the same time. And a Janet Jackson tribute featured Tinashe, Ciara, and Jason Derulo doing a dance medley. Big Sean did a look-everyone-I’ve-arrived medley with an E-40 guest spot. Meek Mill and Nicki Minaj performed together, adorably. But these BET videos autoplay, so to spare you the chaos of five of these videos suddenly starting all at once, we’ve just posted the Weeknd and Monáe videos, as well as an incredibly baller Nicki Minaj moment, below.
Nicki Minaj accepts award, then has to ask what it was for pic.twitter.com/foSspMEWpk
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) June 29, 2015
The BET Awards is not the best awards show, but it absolutely has the best crowd-reaction shots.