Performing midway through Sunday’s BET Awards, the R&B singer and reality-television star tore into her song “My Man” — about how you should “never trust a lonely woman with the one you love” — as though her life depended on it.
She whipped her long blond hair; she doubled over to better dig into the song’s low notes. And when it was over, she dropped her microphone and sauntered off stage, as certain she’d crushed it as everyone in the audience was.
Would Braxton really have died if her performance hadn’t been so fierce? Surely not. But the BET Awards — until that point a surprisingly sluggish affair — might have.
Advertisement
In the past few years, the cable network’s flagship awards show has been the liveliest and most relevant on TV, with electrifying performances from top hip-hop and R&B stars and a focus on progressive values that has often made the Grammys and the American Music Awards look trivial.
Yet this year’s edition, broadcast live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, suffered a serious dip in energy — and seemed to back away from the chance to more deeply engage the issues of today.
1/38
Host Leslie Jones speaks at the BET Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
(Matt Sayles / Invision / Associated Press)
2/38
Bruno Mars performs at the 2017 BET Awards.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
3/38
Bruno Mars and his band perform at the awards.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
4/38
Actress Yara Shahidi accepts the Young Stars Award onstage at 2017 BET Awards.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
5/38
Kamasi Washington, left, and El DeBarge perform a tribute to George Michael.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
6/38
Regina Hall, Tiffany Haddish, Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith speak onstage at 2017 BET Awards.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
7/38
Kendrick Lamar accepts the Male Hip Hop Artist award onstage at 2017 BET Awards at Microsoft Theater.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
8/38
SZA
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
9/38
Chloe Bailey, left, and Halle Bailey of Chloe x Halle accept Coca-Cola Viewer’s Choice Award on behalf of Beyonce at 2017 BET Awards.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
10/38
Remy Ma accepts the award for Female Hip Hop Artist onstage at 2017 BET Awards at Microsoft Theater.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
11/38
Jamie Foxx with kids speaks onstage at 2017 BET Awards.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
12/38
Mary J. Blige performs at the BET Awards at the Microsoft Theater.
(Matt Sayles / Invision / Associated Press)
13/38
A$AP Rocky backstage at the 2017 BET Awards.
(Neilson Barnard / Getty Images for BET)
14/38
Big Sean performs at the BET Awards.
(Matt Sayles / Invision / Associated Press)
15/38
Khalid
(Matt Sayles / Invision / Associated Press)
16/38
Tamika Scott, LaTocha Scott and Tameka Cottle of the group Xscape perform at 2017 BET Awards.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
17/38
Future, left, and Kendrick Lamar perform onstage at 2017 BET Awards.
(Paras Griffin / Getty Images for BET)
18/38
Logan Browning and Demetrius Shipp Jr. speak onstage at 2017 BET Awards.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
19/38
Lecrae accepts the Dr. Bobby Jones gospel/inspirational award for “Can’t Stop Me Now (Destination).”
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
20/38
Maxwell performs onstage at 2017 BET Awards.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
21/38
French Montana onstage at 2017 BET Awards.
(Paras Griffin / Getty Images for BET)
22/38
French Montana, second from left, and dancers backstage at the 2017 BET Awards.
(Neilson Barnard / Getty Images for BET)
23/38
Kamasi Washington, left, and El DeBarge
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
24/38
Solange took home the Centric Award for “Cranes in the Sky.”
(Paras Griffin / Getty Images for BET)
25/38
Chance The Rapper accepts the Humanitarian Award onstage at 2017 BET Awards at Microsoft Theater.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
26/38
Lil Wayne, left, and Chance The Rapper perform “I’m The One.”
(Matt Sayles / Invision / Associated Press)
27/38
Bruno Mars performs at 2017 BET Awards.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
28/38
Jessie Reyez performs at the BET Awards.
(Matt Sayles / Invision / Associated Press)
29/38
Quavo, left, Offset and Takeoff of Migos perform at 2017 BET Awards.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
30/38
Roman GianArthur performs onstage at 2017 BET Awards.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
31/38
Young and adult cast members of “The New Edition Story” and original members of New Edition perform onstage at 2017 BET Awards.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
32/38
New Edition performs onstage at 2017 BET Awards.
(Paras Griffin / Getty Images for BET)
33/38
Young cast members of “The New Edition Story” perform during a New Edition tribute onstage.
(Paras Griffin / Getty Images for BET)
34/38
Ricky Bell, from left, Johnny Gill, Bobby Brown, Ronnie DeVoe, Michael Bivins and Ralph Tresvant\ of New Edition
(Matt Sayles / Invision / Associated Press)
35/38
Chris Brown performs at the BET Awards.
(Matt Sayles / Invision / Associated Press)
36/38
Cari Champion speaks onstage at 2017 BET Awards.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
37/38
Trey Songz performs at the 2017 BET Awards.
(Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
38/38
Diddy, left, and Chance the Rapper are onstage as Chance picks up the award for new artist.
(Paras Griffin / Getty Images for BET)
Advertisement
One problem was the lack of A-listers such as Drake, Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé, the last of whom is said to have given birth to twins recently and therefore wasn’t available to collect the viewers’ choice award she won for her song “Sorry.” (Other winners included Migos for group of the year and Kendrick Lamar for best male hip-hop artist.)
Lamar hadn’t been announced in advance as a performer but showed up to do “Mask Off” with Future — a last-minute cameo that made you wonder if someone at BET called the Compton rapper Sunday evening around 6:30.
More troubling, the artists who did appear failed to do much worth getting excited about. Chris Brown sang a perfunctory “Party,” while Big Sean combined several of his hits into a boring medley.
Trey Songz performed seduction-by-numbers in his slow jam “Nobody Else but You.” Mary J. Blige’s vocals were wobbly in “Love Yourself.” And then there was Post Malone, the polarizing white rapper who clung to Quavo of Migos like a life preserver as they did their duet “Congratulations.”
Given the lackluster company, you could understand why Braxton figured she could snatch the crown when her opportunity arrived.
In fact, her game-upping moment inspired competition; after “My Man,” the four-hour show improved considerably.
Advertisement
Chance the Rapper, accepting BET’s Humanitarian Award for good deeds including a $1-million contribution to Chicago’s public school system, gave an appealingly unscripted speech in which he criticized a bank he said was betting against the schools’ success.
Saxophonist Kamasi Washington and singer El DeBarge — the latter dressed in a dazzling red suit — paid tribute to the late George Michael with a warm and loving rendition of “Careless Whisper.” And the members of New Edition, whose lives were dramatized this year in a painstaking BET biopic, brought a rowdy thrill to the show as they crowded the stage to accept a lifetime achievement award.
After their speeches, a lengthy stretch of dead air took place — long enough that the wheels appeared to be coming off the BET Awards again.
But the delay was actually because of New Edition’s changing costumes for another unannounced performance of its classic R&B song “Can You Stand the Rain.”
If your answer was yes, the BET Awards had something for you.
