With R&B darlings and six female rappers on its performance roster, Sunday’s BET Awards (June 30) already had a heavy dose of girl power.
But, the lady-led tribute to Usher drove that point all the way home when it assembled the stage-blazing talents of Tinashe, Teyana Taylor, Victoria Monet, KeKe Palmer, Coco Jones, Marsha Ambrosius, and Chloe Bailey to perform some of the music megastar’s greatest hits.
And while their composite performance had Ush, live audience members, and viewers at home on their feet with a standing ovation, some critics took to the net to voice disappointment that Donald Glover was the only taste of testosterone over the nearly 17-minute showing.
Among those making headlines for this view are superstar singer-songwriter Eric Bellinger and veteran screen actress Elise Neal.
Look inside for their polarizing opinions.
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As captured by our buds at TNT, Neal took so social media not long after the BET Awards to relay her thoughts on Usher’s tribute.
“I just feel like it could’ve been something better,” she said before later relaying, “I just feel like I was disappointed and I think it’s because he’s [Usher] has given us so much good stuff; so much greatness [and] so many hits.”
Elaborating on what she would’ve preferred to see, Elise suggested the overall showing was lacking due to the absence of male performers.
“I wanted some roller skates; I wanted to see somebody hit them notes…a MAN hit them notes,” she stated.
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The sentiment was one shared by GRAMMY-nominated singer-songwriter Eric Bellinger.
“They [the ladies] were killing it…but I was like ‘where the kings at?,'” he questioned while chatting with interviewer Buzy Baker. “Tank was in the building, Tyrese was in the building, Vedo was in the building, I was in the building…”
Neal and Bellinger’s opinions may represent some, but GRAMMY-nominated crooner Mario is among the many on the ladies’ side as evidenced by a recent interview with TMZ.
“I thought it was great; I think the whole point was to have all women do it. It was a concept and they killed it,” he started. “If it was dudes it would’ve been good, but the women killed it.”
When quizzed on if BET should’ve asked him to perform, the ‘Let Me Love You‘ singer seemed to love the idea.
“Yeah, I would’ve killed that. It would’ve been fire,” he said with a smile.
Regardless of what celebs and viewers had to say, Usher himself had nothing but a glowing review for the tribute. Click here to see what he said.
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Flop mani is really wishing she was on the stage. She had to make excuses about her injury weak ass leg. lol Bet she wasn’t even invited. lie lie lie
Get help and stop eating Jeeezz out your daddy’s b-hole.
Diva rather eating multiple loads from my bubbly b hole
Get over ittttt. Usher doesn’t serenade to men at his shows. It was fun. Nothing serious. Like usher was licking his lips at tinashe, why would he want to watch random male singers sing his songs….. Beyoncé and Alicia keys should have performed instead of childish and marsha. HER could have been an option too. And maybe chilly too, just for like nostalgia, to sing u got it bad
Getting Chilli would’ve made for a great TV/award show moment at the very least! Too bad they didn’t
Worry about Meg selling 65k😭
Why you worried about me and Megan when you should worry about being jobless, toothless and Covicki not giving a damn about her lgbtq fans 😩
Bc there’s a lack a black male pop/rnb stars. The ones that can sing aren’t recognized in the main stream (luke James, Raphael saadiq, Jon batiste). The ones that can sing are misogynist, abusive, and reckless (Chris brown, Trey songs). Execs are too busy pushing trap/rap stars and no one wants to sing bc men are fragile and think it’s gay.
Babe huh? Trey can’t sing and Chris uses a s*** ton of autotune. I agree w/everything else.
It’s all a set up anyway..after they give this man all these awards, the real s*** will hit the fan..it’s coming..you simply can NOT serve two Masters 💁
The real reason they did it was to promote lezbeeanism, and role reversals.