2024 NAACP Image Awards: Donnie Wahlberg Presents New Edition With Image Awards Hall Of Fame Induction
The 55th Annual NAACP Image Awards premiered live on BET and CBS on Saturday night, filled with accolades for Black excellence in every art form.
Ronnie DeVoe, Bobby Brown, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ralph Tresvant, and Johnny Gill, make up the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and still relevant pop group that remain a steadfast inspiration to music to this day.
New Kids On The Block member, Donnie Wahlberg, presented supergroup New Edition into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame during the live ceremony.
"New Edition, you also changed my life forever, and so many of us here," he said. "Without New Edition, there is no New Kids On The Block, no Backstreet Boys, no *NSYNC, no Justin Timberlake, no One Direction, no Harry Styles, I can keep going and going and going!"
He continued: "We all owe our success to the greatest of all time: New Edition."
Wahlberg, born Donald Edmond Wahlberg Jr., presented the group the honor, saying, "It is my great honor to make it official, as they enter the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame!"
Ronnie DeVoe, 56, thanked a bevy of people, including "our parents, who gave us the gifts and talents that we turned into our purpose. A gentleman that gave us our name, New Edition, Mr. Brooke Payne. Gifts and talents is like coal, without someone to refine it and put the pressure on it, it doesn't turn into the diamonds that we are standing before you guys."
"The Hall of Fame Award is bestowed on pioneers in their respective fields and whose influence will shape the profession for generations to come," a press release from BET said. "Previous inductees include Eddie Murphy, Stevie Wonder, Oprah Winfrey, Spike Lee, Carlos Santana, Little Richard..." amongst others.
Wahlberg, who is a founding member of fellow Boston natives New Kids On The Block, also dabbled in acting, starring in the 'Saw' films, 'Zookeeper' (2011), 'Dreamcatcher' (2003), 'The Sixth Sense' (1999), as well as appearing in the World War II miniseries 'Band of Brother's as Carwood Lipton.
New Edition is an American R&B from the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. They were formed in 1978 by Bobby Brown with Ralph Tresvant serving as the group's lead singer for over 40 years.
The group's lineup originally consisted of Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ronnie DeVoe, Bobby Brown, and Ralph Tresvant. Brown, 55, left the group in 1985 to begin a solo career.
The Boston group continued as a quartet for one album before R&B singer Johnny Gill joined the group in 1987.
Last November, New Edition announced a Vegas residency at the Encore at Wynn Las Vegas in early 2024. Due to overwhelming demand and sold-out shows, their residency has been extended until July 2024.
