GloRilla unexpectedly found herself in the middle of controversy earlier this week after winning the year’s Dr. Bobby Jones Best Gospel/Inspirational Award at the 2025 BET Awards on Monday (June 9).
Triumphing over genre staples like Maverick City Music, Tamela Winn, Yolanda Adams, and others, the victory earned her and the network quite the side-eye from some viewers – particularly because Glo, the most successful female rapper of 2024, lost in every other category she was nominated for.
Leading the charge against BET for honoring genre “outsiders” in the Gospel field was singer-songwriter Deitrick Haddon who dropped jaws when he spoke out and called the femcee’s win “discouraging and disappointing.”
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After garnering backlash himself for what many perceived as subtle disses against Glo and Kirk Franklin (who features on the song the rapper won the BET Award for), Haddon returned to social media to address his critics.
“I said what I said, and I stand on it. No backpedaling. No apologies. Just truth,” he said in the caption of the Instagram video seen above posted Friday (June 13). “My heart was never to tear anyone down, but to speak UP for the gospel artists who’ve labored, sacrificed, and carried this sacred genre through every storm. When we start handing gospel awards to artists outside the genre, without honoring those in it, we lose something sacred.”
To underscore the caption, he spoke about Glo directly in the accompanying clip.
“What I’m saying is not about GloRilla; GloRilla didn’t choose herself. Somebody made the decision to give her the Gospel award,” he relayed before saying some people have called him “jealous” and a “hater” for his commentary on the matter. “GloRilla has the right to give God praise and continue to do more Gospel collaborations. Nobody is trying to take anything from her. We just want to make sure our [Gospel artists] are being respected.”
And while Glo hasn’t issued an official statement on the topic, she did take to the comments of our friends at TSR to show love to Haddon before his reaction to the backlash.
“I love Deitrick Haddon…[he’s one of my] top 5 Gospel artists,” she commented.
BET’s choice is definitely questionable. But gospel artists shouldn’t be doing it for accolades or recognition and should be good no matter who wins.
Lets be real. The awards is connected to pay and this is a job where they have gotta eat to. The recognition introduces them to a bigger audience to enable them to reach others. And make a decent salary.
Tgat promotion from awards serms to drive who gets a desl. Who gets promoted. Dropped. And ultimately who is now a gospel artist. Its not cut snd dry as you said. It can be very interrelated.
Separate from that Gospel I believe should sound separate to promote the spirit of God and if dancing, dancing to Gods glory. Not sound like the latest Lil wayne track and inspire worldly get down. There should be no confusion on the two. If so the music creater should go back to the drawing board.
Girl, please. You can’t talk about God and talk about your pucci at the same time, and promote the things you promote. You can’t mix the holy with the profane. Glo should not have gotten a gospel award, but to me this is just a sign of the times, Chile. Values are flipped.
Glorilla deserved it fair and square she used her large platform to introduce others to God. Its not up to us to dictate & judge who and how God uses someone.
Thats not what he’s saying. I think he’s saying they are awarding the same people.
And im saying it looks like its those farthest from holiness and not people deeply entrenched in gospel music but lukewarm. That doesn’t serm to celebrate God. Or respect those true to the genre.
If it happened once. Twice. 3,4,5 times.
No problem. Thats expected.
Looks like its been happening for what 20 years now and is the norm.
If a person in gospel needs to make a decent living doing it they need to lukewarm it? Dance like its the club and to a beat rivaling an 05 Puffy hit? I think lukewarmness can have very serious consequences with God. ‼️And you don’t want that‼️
Hell is to hot for that 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
The Grammys had to change the country music rules so an artist like Beyoncé never wins another grammy for best country she only won because of jayz
As we gain back control of our Mental it’s needless to say the award title is Gospel/Inspirational. She might night have knocked the rappers from the other categories but definitely inspired a lot of people in the year 2024!
He’s right. The world seems to celebrate whats closest to the world. With all of the dancing and jumping around I wondered. How many were glorifying God during that BET performance or just enjoying the beat?
GODS WORK IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT and when doing it in the name of gospel music it must be done to GLORIFY JESUS.
ONLY.
I agree wholeheartedly with him in that there is a core and yet small group that sacrifices, work hard for, and push to keep and support Gospel music alive.
And those true to that art form are “routinely” ignored. Looked over. Forgotten. Not recognized. That is disrespectful. A little abusive. Just to always give to people outside or straddling the fence of gospel and other music. You can’t always call it gospel awards but almost always awarding people outside or fence sitting that music genre.
Not right.
Plus they had better check with God on what they’re doing. And I believe everybody’s gotta stand in front to God to give an account of your actions here in earth and you don’t want nothing sending you to that lake of fire. Because I believe thats burning forever🫣😱🥵