As many of you know, the BET Awards 2009 took place last night at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Long time readers will know that with the big award shows, That Grape Juice are at the forefront with live coverage and performance videos. However, with Michael’s passing really hitting me (and millions) to the core, the show kinda took a backseat in my mind, only regaining my interest when it began to be advertised as a Michael Jackson Tribute Show following The King of Pop’s sudden death. Check out the night’s performances below:

New Edition Opening

Keyshia Cole & Monica – Trust

Beyonce – Ave Maria

Jay-Z – Death of Autotune

What should have been a memorable tribute to the biggest musical icon of our time, in reality, turned out to be falsely advertised, dry-a** show, which ended up featuring less MJ and more of the trash which populates the charts today. In all fairness to BET, 3 days is a very short space of time to alter a show which no doubt had been in production for several months. Yet, what is inexusable is the fact that the show was promoted as a Michael Jackson Tribute, when the organisers evidently knew it was going to be anything but that (and please let’s not deceive ourselves, that was no tribute show. An artist of Michael’s magnitude having THAT as his farewell from his own people? I think not). This reaked of a ratings ploy and to be quite honest smelled like sh*t.

Apologies if I seem a little heated, but BET dropped the ball – big time. Where were the much anticipated appearances from Whitney, Chris Brown, Justin Timberlake, Usher? Beyonce giving a stellar rendition of ‘Ave Maria’…the only problem being that I saw that same ish three weeks ago at her tour! Where was the MJ song? Ciara, perhaps the single biggest by-product of MJ today, sitting on a stool singing a slow cut, when all we really wanted to see her sing and dance. Michael wasn’t a ballader alone.

Though Jamie Foxx’s antics made for a great opening segment, it quickly descended into the Jamie show with constant plugs for his tour, 3 performances and whatnot. The show’s main redeeming factor, performance-wise IMO was Ne-Yo’s live offering of ‘Lady In My Life’. Also enjoyable was Keri Hilson’s vocally-strained, yet still entertaining performance of ‘Turnin’ Me On / Knock You Down’. Everything else, inclusive Jay-Z’s ‘Death of Autotune’ performance, Drake, Monica’s schooling Keyshia etc, was kinda blah. A special mention has to go to Soulja Boy, who had me ready to dial animal services because he sounded like a dying banchee. Ugh.

While I sit here hoping to Sweet Jesus himself that BET are planning some kind of proper tribute special (I’d bet good money MTV are – MJ’s birthday is in August, as are the VMA’s), I dually wonder what the show would have been like had it not been an MJ ‘tribute’. I shudder at the thought.

What do you think of the performances?

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