BET Awards Stars of 2025

Evanne Evans, 10 June 2025

The BET Awards, short for Black Entertainment Television Awards, are an annual American award show presented by BET (Black Entertainment Television) to celebrate achievements in Black entertainment and sports. The awards honor achievements in music, sports, television, and movies.

The first BET Awards ceremony was held on June 19, 2001, at the Paris Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hosted by Steve Harvey and Cedric the Entertainer, the event celebrated the achievements of African Americans and has been held annually since.

Comedian Kevin Hart hosted the 2025 BET Awards, which took place at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, with outstanding performances by artists such as Lil Wayne, Teyana Taylor, GloRilla, Playboi Carti, and Leon Thomas. Icons Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg, Kirk Franklin, and Jamie Foxx were honored with the Ultimate Icon Award. The luscious red carpet event also featured many glamorous celebrities, including Jennifer Hudson, Keke Palmer, Ciara, Ashanti, Machine Gun Kelly, and Tyler Perry.

Despite not being able to attend the event himself due to a rigorous U.S tour, Kendrick Lamar emerged as the night’s biggest winner, securing four major awards, including Album of the Year, GNX, Best Male Hip Hop Artist, Video of the Year, Not Like Us and Best Collaboration, Luther, with artist SZA, who herself won Best Female R&B/Pop Artist.

As reported by Vulture (Alejandra Gularte, June 9), Artist Doechii acknowledged the protests against ICE in response to Trump’s condemned order to send Marines and the National Guard into Los Angeles who was reported saying, “Trump is using military forces to stop a protest — I want y’all to consider what kind of government it appears to be when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us.”