Latto brings out Mariah Carey for surprise appearance, wins Best New Artist award and more epic moments from the BET Awards

It was a night of red carpets full of fashion and epic performances at the BET Awards.

Taraji P. Henson hosted the 2022 BET Awards last night and there were so many epic moments and Atlanta’s own, Latto, was a part of them.

Lizzo kicked off the show and brought the energy with her latest hit, “About Damn Time.” Shortly after, we got to see Jazmine Sullivan take home the first award of the night for Best Female R&B/Pop Artist. It became clear, very early on, that most of the presenters and performers wanted to make their voice heard regarding the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. While they stated their opinions, they got their message across but kept the night moving along in order to celebrate those who have put so much work into their craft.

Atlanta’s own, Latto, took home her very first award, as the Best New Artist. She became visually emotional during her acceptance speech and talked about how thankful she was – she almost had me shed a tear because you could tell how genuinely appreciative she was. That wasn’t the end of big moments for Latto though; later in the show, the audience was shocked to see Mariah Carey grace the stage with Latto to perform their collaboration, “Big Energy” remix. Talk about a legendary moment for Latto and the audience! Latto gets extra points in my book because if you can get Mariah Carey out of the house and it’s not her peak season of Christmas time, you’ve got to be doing something right.

Here are a few more OMG moments of the night:

Jack Harlow brought out R&B songstress Brandy to perform her remixed version of his song – what makes it such an OMG moment is the fact Harlow had an interview go viral a few weeks back that had everything to do with Brandy! During the interview, a sample of Brandy’s song was played, and when asked to guess who the song was by, Jack Harlow had no idea whose song it was; even when he was given the hint that it was “Ray J’s sister,” he still had no clue that they were siblings. The internet was not happy with Harlow and neither was Brandy, who then released a freestyle over the beat to Harlow’s song “First Class.”

Kanye West made a surprise appearance – P Diddy was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award last night and while it was announced that Babyface would be doing Diddy’s introduction and he would perform right after, that isn’t exactly how things went. Once Babyface was finished talking, he introduced Ye (aka Kanye West). Kanye came out covered from head to toe, literally, full face covering included - which I’m convinced he had trouble breathing under. I’m not sure if they told Kanye they weren’t ready and needed him to fill time before the performance, but he had a lot to say. He talked about his appreciation for Diddy and everything else under the sun, in true Kanye form.

Diddy thanks his ex, Cassie, during his Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance speech – Many in the audience were shocked when Diddy thanked his ex, singer Cassie, for helping him through his “dark times.” He recently released the song “Gotta Move On,” which many thought was about Cassie. Shortly after, Cassies’s husband, Alex Fine, wrote in a now deleted post, what seemed to be harmless support of Pride Month and a pro-LGBT charity. It was Fine’s word choice that had everyone thinking he was taking a shot at Diddy. The post said, “attached is a charity who helps people who are in the closet and GOTTA MOVE ON. Along with other resources.” The bolded words, “GOTTA MOVE ON” had the internet buzzing!

All in all, other than sound issues, which proved to be a buzz kill, the BET Awards had some pretty epic moments.