Lessons from the BET awards @25

The BET25 awards featured flashy performances, beloved throwbacks, and poignant tributes to past and present legends. Throughout the night, Hart provided memorable comedic moments, and there were nostalgic celebrations of 25 years, as well as powerful vocal performances.

The amazing line-up of performers included newcomers such as Leon Thomas, Ravyn Lenae and Elmiene, as well as industry veterans Ledisi, Mýa and rapper T.I., and Ultimate Icon honorees Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg, Jamie Foxx and Kirk Franklin.

Rapper Kendrick Lamar, the night’s most-nominated artist with 10 nominations, took home five new trophies, including Album of the Year for DAMN., Best Male Hip-Hop Artist, and Video Director of the Year alongside Dave Free.

Having faced challenges in recent years, particularly with regard to viewership, the 2025 Awards ceremony was praised for its ability to restore its former glory by uniting Black talent from various genres and showcasing both established icons and up-and-coming artists.

With a star-studded line-up, iconic performances and memorable moments, the awards proved their continued relevance and appeal within Black and African communities worldwide. How exactly did the Awards redeem itself in 2025 from its fading glory?

Choice of host: Kevin Hart on Steroids

If there was one important lesson for any Kenyan event organizer to take away, it's that the choice of host is as important as the event itself. This was demonstrated by the choice of Kevin Hart as the host, who, despite his small stature, delivered big on his hosting duties.

Host Kevin Hart was probably on steroids, an X user twitted. The diminutive stand-up comedian opened the main show with his signature humor and cultural commentary. His opening show was frenzied and furious, with standards and practices struggling to keep up with his expletive-filled monologue. He called out revealing outfits and banned nicknames, choosing to address everyone in the audience by their real name, catching many celebrities off guard and surprising the audience.

One of his memorable lines was when he announced that there would be no after-parties, which many interpreted as a dig at rapper P Diddy, who is currently standing trial for racketeering.

Red Carpet Live pre-show

The 2025 BET Awards broadcast was a live show that ran for more than four hours. Perhaps a key lesson that the Kenyan entertainment industry needs to take on is the curation of the red carpet activities. In most Kenyan red carpet events, you would be forgiven for thinking it’s a holding area before the main show begins. Other than being a photo session and interview opportunities for celebrities, there is not much going on at the Red Carpet. A lesson from the BET Awards 2025, Red Carpet can too be edified. The BET Awards 2025 ceremony kicked off with a two-hour Red Carpet Live Pre-show featuring performances by emerging acts in the likes of Jordan Adetunji, Spice, Gelo, Honey Bxby, among others. It was at the red carpet show that rapper 2 Chainz premiered his new video ‘Not the Same’ with familiar faces such as Tisha Campbell, T.I and Tiny all attending the red carpet pre-show.

With Gen Z now being the talk of the town, the opening performance montage was any Millennial’s dream with legendary Ashanti opening the stage followed by Jim Jones, Keyshia Cole, Mya, T.I, B2K and Bow Bow who was joined by legendary producer Jermaine Dupri. The night ended with a bang. After a spirited medley of hits of four hours, Kirk Franklin closed the night by taking the attendees to church with a spirited performance by his choir after receiving the Ultimate Icon Award from T.I.

Honoring Legends

In most instances, whenever such events are hosted in Kenya, legends are always honored by a mention, perhaps a lifetime accolade and a few applauses.

If there will ever be a need to source inspiration on how to better honoring legends, Kenyan awards event organizers need not to look further than the BET Awards.

Rapper and actor Jamie Foxx let the tears flow while accepting the Ultimate Icon Award. The 57-year-old survived a stroke in 2023 following a brain bleed. After being introduced by Stevie Wonder, the Oscar winner opened on a note of gratitude.

“Man, we used to take this thing for granted — that God is good,” he began his speech.

“I cannot even begin to express the love that I feel from everybody out there,” he continued.

Foxx fought to hold back tears in front of his 14-year-old daughter and the audience as he was serenaded by a series of artists paying him homage. In his 10-minute acceptance speech he shared that while he was watching the “In Memoriam," he realized that could have been him.

The medley performance to honor him featured legends Ludacris, Jennifer Hudson and T-Pain. Fox would eventually let tears role down as he became visibly emotional as he watched in the audience.

"I ain't going to turn down. I'm not going to stop crying," the actor said. "At a certain point I'm gonna stop crying, but I ain't gonna stop just yet." Foxx said.

How best can you honour a legend if you can’t move them to tears?

Inviting of A – A-Listers

According to People magazine, the BET Awards 2025 witnessed a soar in ratings and viewership, something that had taken a dip in recent years. BET, however, is yet to release the viewership numbers for this year. One of the reasons that led to the rise of the awards rating was the attendance of so many heavy hitters from the past to the present. In 2017, the awards had a significant drop of viewership. According to the Los Angeles Times, one problem for the Deep was the lack of A-listers such as Drake, Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé. Beyonce missed the 2017 BET as she had given birth to twins and therefore wasn’t available to collect the viewers’ choice award she won for her song “Sorry.” 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 rapper on the night before the D-Day.

Not announcing Lamar early had an impact, given his large cult audience. At this year’s event, BET were keen not to repeat the mistake. Fans were well aware in advance that Lamar will attend and so in their hundreds of thousands, looked forward to the event.

The 2015 BET Awards drew 6.5 million viewers a slight drop from the 7.9 million viewers that tuned in in 2014.

In 2019 the event show was listed with only two million viewers according to Nielsen Ratings, compared to a high of 10.6 million in 2009. BET disputed the numbers, claiming that the award show generated 12.7 million total viewers across eight Viacom networks.

But the numbers have been on decline in recent years. In 2022 the show, drew in 3.2 million viewers across a simulcast of 10 Paramount Global networks. This was a 34% jump in viewership from 2021, when BET’s in-person ceremony brought in only 2.4 million viewers across multiple outlets.

In comparison, the 2020 BET Awards (which were held virtually) averaged 3.7 million people, in large part due to simulcasting with CBS. With 2015 attracting as many A lister as there could be, the numbers are expected to jump. This is yet another lesson for the Kenyan entertainment industry as it helps in gauging the popularity of the ceremony by data. But it also helps in the sale of airing rights to media partners thus generating income for the awards that can help make it better. It is also worth noting that to attend BET you have to pay. Kenya isn’t at this level yet.