After watching the 2022 BET Awards, we can all collectively say, “What a time to be African!”. The prestigious award show held on the 26th of June, 2022 and Africa has been buzzing. Our arts and culture are gradually getting the recognition they deserve.
The star of Sunday night was our very own Temilade Openiyi, popularly known as Tems. The sensational singer came into the limelight after her hit song “Try Me” had everyone in a chokehold in 2019. Her career has skyrocketed ever since and this year’s BET Awards 2022 is every proof of that.
Before we talk about how Tems made history for Afrobeats and female Africans, let us look back at the history of the award show. The show that was created to nurture, recognize and reward black excellence. And let’s look at its inclusion of Africans over the years.
BEST INTERNATIONAL ACT (AFRICA) CATEGORY IN THE BET AWARDS
The BET Award show was created in 2001. Since then, it has become an event to look forward to every year. However, with all its focus on black excellence, the award show primarily hosted African Americans. There was little to no inclusion of Africans.
This changed in the year 2010 as a new category, Best International Act was introduced. However, this was a joint category that combined acts from both Africa and Europe. Even though there were African nominees for this category, British rapper Dizzee Rascal outshone them all, winning the award.
In the year 2011, the BET network saw the need to create a separate category for African acts. Thus the category was no longer joint, but now a stand alone – Best International Act (Africa). This nudged African music further into the spotlight.
That year, Africans still took the lead as Nigerian artists 2Face and Dbanj went home with their first ever BET Award.
They went ahead to outshine other Africans that had been nominated in that same category. Nominees included Fally Ipupa from Congo, Benin Republic’s Angelique Kidjo and many others. It was a big step forward for African music.
In 2012, Wizkid won the award. The year after that in 2013, Nigerian pop artist Ice Prince went home with the award. In his acceptance speech, he gave odes to several artists before him who had helped paved the way for Afrobeats today. Particularly Fela Kuti, the father of Afrobeat.
EVERYTIME AFRICANS MADE AN APPEARANCE IN THE BET AWARDS
The inclusion of Africans in the beautiful award show was not only in the form of awards. Over the years, there have been multiple recognitions of Africans on the BET Awards stages.
This was in the form of performances, nominations and awards. Finally, Africans were no longer excluded from the prestigious show. It was nothing short of thrilling for African musicians.
In the 2022 edition, we saw an electric performance from Nigeria’s Fireboy DML. The 25 year old singer of 2021’s hit song “Peru” hit the stage with an exciting performance.
On the pre-show stage, Pheelz also rocked with an equally sensational performance. The Nigerian producer who doubles as a singer, performed his 2022 hit, Finesse which featured BNXN. It was no surprise that he had the crowd pumped and singing along to every word.
These performances came off the heels of Burna Boy’s phenomenal BET Awards performance in the year 2020. The African Giant did not fail to deliver in the virtual performance of his hit song “Monsters you made” with Chris Martin.
With regard to nominations, there is a long list of amazing artists from all over Africa who have had the honour.
The first set of African nominees under the International Act from the year 2010 are definitely worth mentioning too. These include the likes of Kojo Antwi from Ghana, Hip Hop Pantsula from South Africa, M.I and Psquare from Nigeria.
Over the years, other African artists came into the BET spotlight with recognitions and nominations. Artists like Black Coffee, Casper Nyovest, Yemi Alade, Dj Serge Beynaud… (Whew! The list goes on).
AFRICANS WHO HAVE MADE HISTORY ON THE BET STAGE
WIZKID, AFRICA’S STARBOY
Nigerian artist Wizkid, tops the list. His most recent BET win was “Best Collaboration” for the 2021 song of the summer, “Essence”. Justin Bieber from Canada and Tems both shared the victory in this.
This particular win is like none other because it was a general category, not restricted to Africans. This is a big step forward for African music, further pushing it onto the global stage.
Apart from winning Best International Act (Africa) in both 2012 and 2017, the popular star also won the BET HER Award for his collaboration with Beyonce and other artists on “Brown Skin Girl”.
That, plus his “Essence” win makes it a whopping four time win for Wizkid. This award puts him in the spotlight as the most awarded African artist in BET history. No surprise there, just starboy giving us starboy wins.
BURNA BOY, THE AFRICAN GIANT
In the year 2021, Burna Boy took home his third BET win. The most thrilling aspect of this victory was that the Nigerian singer became the first and only African artist to achieve three consecutive victories in the prestigious award show.
In 2019 and 2020, the Grammy-winning artist was nominated for the award of Best International Act (Africa), which he won. He outshone other talented African artists who were nominated for the same award; Sho Madjozi, Mr Eazi, Rema, AKA and so many others.
TEMS
In her acceptance speech, the 27 year old musician dedicated the award to every young girl and artist who could dare to dream.
With her win of both Best International Act (Africa) and Best Collab, Tems has set a BET record of being the first African woman ever to win the award. Going even as far as leaving the stage with three nominations and not just one but two awards… phenomenal.
Obviously still in the euphoria of her big win, Tems took to her twitter to give odes to other African female artists.
“I’m taking today to appreciate all the sisters today… When I see any of you gracing a stage, I feel like that’s me. We’re all winning and we’re about to move in like a Tsunami”
Tems’ unique style of music which is a blend of RnB + Afrobeats has made records of being one of the fastest careers to ever take off. No doubt that her talent will take her places far bigger than BET.
It was definitely a huge night for Afrobeats, Africans and particularly African women. We can be certain that African music is well on its way to taking over the world.
Just like Tems said… We are all winning, and we are about to move in like a tsunami. Brace up and get ready for the wave of African music that is bound to hit the globe soon!