BET Awards 2014 Highlights: Nicki Minaj, Pharrell Williams, Lionel Richie And More Rule Annual Celebration [VIDEO]
Last night, the 2014 BET Awards did not disappoint fans that were looking forward to the annual celebration. Hosted by Chris Rock, the award show had big winners, big performers and some interesting moments.
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The show even opened big with Pharrell Williams singing his new song Come Get It Bae with surprise guest singer Missy Elliott. Chris Brown surprised the crowd with his first performance after his stay in jail. Brown performed his song Loyal and featured appearances by Lil Wayne, Tyga and Travis Barker. Usher celebrated the twentieth anniversary of his first album by performing a medley of his hits. including Yeah!, Confessions, Caught Up and Love In This Club.
Other performers included Lil Wayne, Jennifer Hudson, Nicki Minaj, T.I., Iggy Azalea, August Alsina, Trey Songz and Robin Thicke. Thicke once again gave an emotional performance of his song Forever Love and surprise performers Troop, Color Me Badd and Silk also performed a medley of their songs All I Do Is Think of You, I Wanna Sex You Up and Freak Me. Beyonce and Jay Z closed the show with a taped performance of Partition.
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Lionel Richie was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award. John Legend and Yolanda Adams performed some of Richie's hits, but all anyone can talk about is the misspelling of his name. The show spelled his name "Lionel Ritchie" in a caption and blew up the Internet.
Despite that, Richie gave one of the best speeches of the night. "Soul is a feeling. Not a color," Richie said. "Talent is a God-given gift, and not a category. Out of the box is that magical place where talent -- pure talent goes -- to live and thrive and breath. And may you never give that up as long as you're in this business."
The other speech people are talking about is Minaj's for Best Female Hip Hop Artist. Some people thought Minaj was 'throwing shade' on fellow female rapper Azalea during her speech. "This is always very, very emotional for me," Minaj said during the speech. "Because this is my fifth year winning this award and I don't take it for granted. I really don't ... I thank god that I've been placed in a position to do something and represent women in a culture that is so male-driven ... But my point is, what I want the world to know about Nicki Minaj is, that when you hear Nicki Minaj spit, Nicki Minaj wrote it."
Although Minaj said there "was no shade" later, fans took it as a jab at the Fancy rapper because there have been rumors she used some ghostwriters.
Other big winners from the BET Awards were Beyonce with three awards and Pharrell Williams who won Video of the Year for Happy.
Aside from the awards, fans are also talking about the fashion. Kerry Washington made a rare appearance wowing in a flowered D&G dress, Gabrielle Union showed off some leg in thigh-high black boots and a Maria Lucia Hohan white gown, Paris Hilton also showed off skin in a custom white Michael Costello dress. Zendaya stayed true to the hip-hop spirit in a black hat, braids and Emanuel Ungaro ensemble.
