![Diddy and Lil' Kim at the 2015 BET Awards](https://www.billboard.com/wp-content/uploads/media/diddy-lil-kim-bet-awards-2015-billboard-650.jpg?w=650&h=430&crop=1)
The BET Awards pulled out all the stops to celebrate its 15th anniversary Sunday night (June 28) at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater. Between anticipated tributes to Janet Jackson and Smokey Robinson to a roof-raising tribute to 20 years of Diddy’s Bad Boy — with a let’s-squash-the-beef moment between two divas included for good measure — this year’s show proved to be one of the more memorable in BET history.
In fact, the awards themselves seemed to take a back seat to all the performances jam-packed into the three-hour and 48-minute telecast. Only seven winners out of the 21 categories were announced, including best male R&B/pop artist (Chris Brown), best male hip-hop artist (Kendrick Lamar) and best female hip-hop artist (Nicki Minaj, who brought her mother onstage). And the audience didn’t seem to mind one bit.
All told, the evening’s big winners were Beyonce and Chris Brown, who took home three awards apiece. Tied with two awards were the Academy Award-winning film Selma and Fox’s Empire.
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Which was also the case with the BET Awards. Rounding out the seemingly endless array of music were powerful performances by Big Sean, an Empire showcase featuring Yazz, Jussie Smollett and Seraya plus Meek Mill doing his new single “All Eyes on You” with featured guests Minaj and Brown. That’s not counting moving tributes to late artists B.B. King, Andrae Crouch, Ben E. King and Percy Sledge, among others by Donnie McClurkin, Anthony Hamilton and Gary Clark Jr. Or Rihanna stepping onstage to share a one-minute clip of her upcoming video for “Bitch Better Have My Money.” Talented newcomers Avery Wilson and Andra Day were given mini-spotlights during special Music Matters segments.
And the moments kept coming. Minaj, accepting the Coca-Cola Viewer’s Choice Award, also dropped some words of wisdom. “Make it your business to follow your dream,” she told screaming fans. “If you don’t, you’ll look around and be mad at your goddamn self.” Speaking of divas, K. Michelle and Tamar Braxton performed separately and then publicly ended their social media feud when Braxton began singing Patti Labelle’s “If Only You Knew,” adding, “I’m sorry K. Michelle.” Joining the pair: Labelle herself, proving to the crowd — like Robinson before her — that old school can still hold its own when it comes to singing.
Coming in about 12 minutes under its four-hour run last year, the BET Awards closed with Fetty Wap, who got the audience back on its feet one last time on “Trap Queen.” A complete list of winners is available at bet.com.