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We caught up with Snoop Dogg, Ciara, Keke Palmer, Jermaine Dupri, and more on the red carpet of the 2025 BET Awards and found out their all-time favorite Mariah Carey song.
What’s your favorite Mariah Carey song? Let us know in the comments!
Keke Palmer: You’ll always see my baby
Snoop Dogg: I would be like “Mariah. You know, when I was in jail, ‘Vision of Love,’ we used to sit around waiting for that video to come on. I can’t believe I did a song with you.”
Ciara: Oh my gosh, there’s so many hits.
Lauren-Ashley Beck: Mariah Carey is being nominated for an icon award this evening, what is your favorite Mariah Carey song?
Amerie: My favorite? “We Belong Together.”
Lucky Daye: I like the one she did with. Uh, is it Ol’ Dirty Bastard.
Oh yes, I can see the music video.
Ciara: That right there, by far, is one of the most timeless records that is special.
Jermaine Dupri: “My All.” I know y’all thought I was gonna say one of my songs.
We did.
Jermaine Dupri: She knows that’s my song. Yeah, I love that song. I wish I would have made that song,
We gotta get you on the stage. Okay, that was amazing. I have chills, actually.
Amerie: That’s my son’s favorite Christmas song. He actually liked it outside of Christmas, but he just started dancing and running around. Yeah, it’s just great, like she created a new classic.
Kendrick Lamar will be making his grand return to Australia this year, with the rapper announcing new dates for his ongoing Grand National Tour.
Lamar announced on Wednesday (June 11) that he will be performing two headline dates while in Australia this December, with stadium shows set for Melbourne’s AAMI Park on Dec. 3 and Sydney’s Allianz Stadium on Dec. 10.
The newly-announced headline shows follow on from Lamar’s inclusion on the Spilt Milk Festival lineup which arrived in early May. Also featuring Doechii, Sara Landry, Dominic Fike and Schoolboy Q as headliners, the festival will take place across Ballarat, Perth, Canberra and the Gold Coast between December 6-14.
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The forthcoming shows will be Lamar’s first visit to Australia since The Big Steppers Tour in 2022, though unlike his current run of North American dates, they will feature Lamar in solo mode as opposed to his co-headlining status with SZA.
Lamar’s nascent tour dates also arrive in the wake of his latest batch of honors, this time coming from the BET Awards on Monday (June 9).
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Having been nominated for a total of ten awards across six categories, Lamar ended the evening as the most awarded artist, with the ceremony at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater resulting in five trophies going his way, including album of the year, video of the year, best collaboration (with SZA), best male hip hop artist, and video director of the year (with Dave Free).
Additionally, in February 2025, in the wake of Lamar’s Grammy Awards success, his 2024 single “Not Like Us” re-entered the Australian ARIA charts and gave the rapper his first No. 1 single in the country.
Kendrick Lamar – 2025 Australian Tour Dates
Dec. 3 – AAMI Park, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaDec. 6 – Spilt Milk Festival, Ballarat, VIC, AustraliaDec. 7 – Spilt Milk Festival, Perth, WA, AustraliaDec. 10 – Allianz Stadium, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaDec. 13 – Spilt Milk Festival, Canberra, ACT, AustraliaDec. 14 – Spilt Milk Festival, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia
Does Kai Cenat not know who Wale is? During Monday night’s 2025 BET Awards, the two crossed paths in what looked like a parking garage while Cenat was doing a livestream of his night. They greeted each other as Wale was playing Nintendo Switch, and when he told the popular streamer that he was playing […]
Source: Paras Griffin / Getty / Doechii
Monday night at the Peacock Theater, Doechii wanted to make sure to point out what was happening in the streets of downtown Los Angeles while they celebrated “culture’s biggest night,” at the BET Awards.
The Swamp Princess’ stellar year continued at the 2025 BET Awards, taking home the award for Best Hip-Hop Artist, but that’s not what she was getting praise for.
The Florida artist used her acceptance speech moment to remind everyone of what was happening outside the Peacock Theater, away from the celebrating, glitz, and glamour. Donald Trump and his administration are using the full might of the government to terrorize immigrants and American citizens who don’t rock with the MAGA agenda.
Before BET Weekend kicked off, mostly peaceful demonstrations denouncing the immigration raids of workplaces conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), where hardworking immigrants are being detained under the guise of detaining “dangerous illegal immigrants and gang members,” were conducted by the government agency.
Over 40 people were arrested as a result of the raid.
LA Mayor Karen Bass said to reporters, “ICE initiated enforcement actions on several workplaces. That created a sense of chaos, outrage, fear, and terror because people are very worried as to what happened to their families.”
The situation was exacerbated when Donald Trump federalized the National Guard without consulting Governor Gavin Newsom, who, under normal circumstances, is in control of the state’s National Guard.
The Swamp Princess Didn’t Miss The Moment To Speak Up For Marginalized People
Doechii, unlike some other artists, was not afraid to keep it real (looking at you, Snoop) about what is going on in the streets of LA and possibly across the country.
“I do wanna address what’s happening right now outside of the building,” Doechii began. “There are ruthless attacks that are creating fear and chaos in our communities in the name of law and order. Trump is using military forces to stop a protest, and 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.”
“What type of government is that?” she asked, drawing huge applause from the crowd. “People are being swept up and torn from their families, and I feel it’s my responsibility as an artist to use this moment to speak up for all oppressed people.”
She continued, “For Black people, for Latino people, for trans people, for the people in Gaza. We all deserve to live in hope and not in fear, and I hope we stand together, my brothers and my sisters, against hate, and we protest against it. Thank you, BET.”
Doechii received plenty of praise for using her moment to highlight the struggles that were happening in the streets of Los Angeles.
You can see those reactions in the gallery below.
1. Salute to her
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Usher was sitting at home watching the 2025 BET Awards Monday night (June 9) when he recognized host Kevin Hart‘s fuzzy red coat. Ahead of Teyana Taylor‘s television debut performance of her new single “Long Time,” Hart strutted down the aisle of Peacock Theater at L.A. Live wearing Usher’s signature jacket from his most recent […]
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Despite the unconscionable runtime and the understandably solemn energy given the anti-ICE protests, as well as the passing of Sly Stone, the 2025 BET Awards tried their best to properly commemorate its 25th anniversary at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theatre on June 9. To celebrate, BET put together a terrific lineup of performers, including newcomers (Leon […]
Kirk Franklin closed the 2025 BET Awards by performing a medley of hits featuring Tamar Braxton, Muni Long, Jamal Roberts and Salt from Salt-N-Pepa after he received an Ultimate Icon Award. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “I never felt the love of a mother or a […]
06/10/2025
From Lil Wayne and Playboi Carti to Kirk Franklin, the stars showed up in a big way during Culture’s Biggest Night.
06/10/2025
Kendrick Lamar was the top winner at the 2025 BET Awards, which aired live on BET from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Monday (June 9). Kevin Hart hosted the show for the second time.
Lamar won five awards – album of the year for GNX, best collaboration for “Luther” with SZA, best male hip hop artist (for a record-extending eighth time), video of the year for “Not Like Us” and video director of the year in tandem with Dave Free.
Lamar had won album of the year seven years ago for DAMN. Lamar and Beyoncé are the only artists to win twice in that category, which was introduced in 2017. Bey won for Lemonade and Renaissance.
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GNX, which is a leading Grammy candidate for album of the year in 2026, beat three albums that won Grammys in February – Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter (album of the year and best country album), Chris Brown’s 11:11 Deluxe (best R&B album) and Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal (best rap album).
SZA and Chris Brown each won two awards. SZA won best female R&B/pop artist for the third year in a row as well as the aforementioned award for best collaboration. SZA is just the third artist to win best female R&B/pop artist three or more times. Beyoncé leads with 10 wins in the category. Alicia Keys also won three times.
Brown won best male R&B/pop artist for a record-extending eighth time. In addition, his “Residuals” won the Viewer’s Choice Award. It’s Brown’s fourth win in that category, a total equaled or surpassed only by Beyoncé with five wins and Lil Wayne also with four wins.
Luther Vandross was remembered by fans in two categories: Not only did “Luther” win best collaboration, but the documentary Luther: Never Too Much won best movie. This is the second year in a row that a film about a music legend has won in that category. Bob Marley: One Love won last year.
Doechii won best female hip hop artist. It was her first BET Award. She proceeded to give an impassioned speech in support of protesters outside the venue protesting ICE crackdowns.
Leon Thomas won best new artist. He’s the first male artist to win in the category since Giveon four years ago. Thomas won a Grammy in 2024 for co-writing SZA’s “Snooze,” which was voted best R&B song. As a result, he will probably not be eligible to compete for best new artist at the 2026 Grammys. Thomas also performed his hit “Mutt” on the show.
GloRilla’s “Rain Down on Me” (featuring Kirk Franklin and Maverick City Music) won the Dr. Bobby Jones Best Gospel/Inspirational Award. It’s the record-extending eighth win in the category for Franklin, the second for Maverick City Music and the first for GloRilla.
Future & Metro Boomin took best group. It’s the third year in a row that a collaboration of two solo stars has won that award. The last groups to win were Migos and Silk Sonic.
Summer Walker’s “Heart of a Woman” won the BET Her award. The song reached No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs chart in December 2024.
Blue Ivy Carter won the Young Stars Award for the second year in a row. BET rules allow multiple wins in this category. Marsai Martin won five times. Yara Shahidi and Keke Palmer also won it twice.
Denzel Washington won best actor for a record-extending fifth time. Cynthia Erivo won best actress for the first time.
Basketball star Angel Reese won sportswoman of the year for the third year in a row. Football star Jalen Hurts won sportsman of the year for the second time in three years.
Drake was shut out, despite going into the ceremony with six nods. The Weeknd was also shut out. He went 0-4.
There were special tributes to three legendary artists who died in the past year – Quincy Jones, Roberta Flack and Angie Stone. Luke James, Miles Caton and Lucky Daye performed Jones’ 1990 hit “The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite).” Andra Day sang Flack’s 1973 classic “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” Brittney Spencer sang Stone’s 1999 hit “No More Rain (In This Cloud).” The multiple In Memoriam segments included Cissy Houston, James Earl Jones, Tito Jackson, Roy Ayers, Frankie Beverly and poet Nikki Giovanni.
As previously announced, Kirk Franklin, Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg and Jamie Foxx were named BET Ultimate Icons. Astonishingly, it’s Carey’s first BET Award.
Connie Orlando — evp of specials, music programming and music strategy at BET — served as the executive producer for BET Awards 2025, with Jamal Noisette, svp of tentpoles and music community engagement, for BET. Jesse Collins Entertainment was the production company for the show, with Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay also serving as executive producers.