Cissy Houston performs during a tribute to her daughter Whitney Houston at the BET Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles
*(Via Yahoo News) – Cissy Houston’s tribute to her late daughter was the emotional highlight of Sunday’s BET Awards, a show that was defined by extended bleeps and the vulgarities that censors failed to catch onstage throughout the night.
Whitney Houston’s mother gave a rousing performance of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” that left the crowd in tears, including Beyonce and Melanie Fiona.
Mariah Carey opened the tribute with memories of her friend. She was followed by a moving number by Monica. Brandy, heavily influenced by Houston, sang two of the late singer’s hits. Chaka Khan blazed the stage with “I’m Every Woman,” which Houston remade. Gary Houston, Whitney’s brother, also performed.
But the nearly four-hour BET Awards was more like the Bleep Awards, as entire segments of performances from Nicki Minaj to Rick Ross were muted out due to foul language.
Spike Lee, left, and Samuel L. Jackson (host) do their thing onstage during the 2012 BET Awards in LA at The Shrine Auditorium.
It started during the opening number by Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. music group, which included Big Sean, Pusha T and 2 Chainz. There were long moments of censored silence when the rappers performed “Mercy,” though not all the offending words were bleeped out. Moments later, Samuel L. Jackson, the show’s host, was joined by Spike Lee as they did a comedic version of Jay-Z and West’s hit song “… In Paris,” to laughs.
“Two distinguished Morehouse men,” Lee joked after the performance, referencing the alma mater of the two.
The censor police also worked overtime when Rick Ross performed with his Maybach Music Group and during Minaj’s performance and acceptance speech for best female hip-hop artist. Minaj’s win was her third consecutive time taking the prize.
“I really, really appreciate BET for keeping this category alive, and I appreciate all the female rappers doing their thing, past, present and future,” she said, before uttering an obscenity.
Read/learn more at Yahoo News.
List of key winners and awardees at BET Awards 12:
Best group: Kanye West and Jay-Z
Best actor: Kevin Hart
Sportswoman of the year: Serena Williams
Sportsman of the year: Kevin Durant
Best new artist: Big Sean
Best male R&B artist: Chris Brown
Best collaboration: Wale featuring Miguel “Lotus Flower Bomb”
Best gospel: Yolanda Adams
Best female R&B artist: Beyonce
Best female hip-hop artist: Nicki Minaj
Video of the Year: Jay-Z and Kanye West, “Otis”
Lifetime Achievement: Frankie Beverly featuring Maze
Humanitarian Award: Rev. Al Sharpton
Viewer’s Choice Award: Mindless Behavior
Video Director of the Year: Beyonce and Alan Ferguson
Fandemonium Award: Chris Brown
Centric award: Common
Lat year the censor had ot continously bleep some of the performances. GEESh!!! BET should tell all performers to omit the obscenities while they are performing not that it would do any good. The tribute to Frankie Beverly and Maze was good, that good was long overdue for recognition IMO The tribute ot Whitney could of been much better, Monica was good but Brandy’s perfromance was fair she does not have the voice to sing those fast dance type songs. Chaka was great and she looked great Gary and Cissy were good also, whomever organized the tribute should of asked Mariah to sing one of Whitneys’s songs instead of just having her open up the tribute, there are othr female vocalists who should of been invited to participate also, it appeared that the tribute was thrown together in a few days when BET had ample time to organize an excellent show.
I watched some of the show could not watch that Nick person she is just disgusting to me she look like the mouse puppet that used to be on Ed Sullivan Show name Topo. These pac of disrespectful young people really get on my nevrves.This is an entire generation lost . They have no respect for themseleves or anyone else for that matter. The tribute to Frankie and Maze was LOOOOOG over due. I never miss his concerts when he comes to town . I truly enjoyed the tribute to Whitney I thought that Monica was out of sight Lord have mercy that girl sang that song. I thought that Brandy did a great job I loved it and Chaka looked and sounded like a million bucks!!!! Cisssys tribute must have been so hard for her and really I was in tears just to think that she could actully do that for her Nippy. Of course the show as too long some of the lighting was terrible on some of the acts and who cares because all that rap crap I didn’t want to see anyway. And I really would like to know why did we just HAVE to keep seeing Kayne and that stupid ugly Kim K (tramp) he is sporting around like she is the best thing since sliced bread UGH !!!!! OK BET some things are getting better and some of that mess was just that mess. IMO
They should have bleeped the whole show off the air. This was a pure waste of air time.
I’m shocked you guys watched the awards as much as BET gets bashed on this site. I haven’t watched the awards since 2005. I have to keep the streak going. LOL