Fans Have Mixed Feelings About BET 2022 Nominees

Tallahassee, FL — BET recently announced its nominations for its 2022 award show. As many artists were excited to see themselves nominated, others were quite upset about receiving no nominations after a notable musical year. 

Rapper Lil Nas X was one of them. In a post-and-delete, Lil Nas X — whose real name is Montero Lamar Hill — tweeted his reaction to not being nominated for the award show.

“Thank you bet awards. an outstanding zero nominations again. black excellence,” he wrote. 

Shortly after, a Twitter user questioned him about why he should be nominated and said, “what have you put out??? & don’t use that gay sh*t as an excuse don’t nobody care no more.”

Lil Nas X responded to a Twitter user about why he thought he should’ve been nominated.

“Idk [I don’t know] maybe 3 of the biggest songs of last year & a critically acclaimed album sunnytee___ I feel like that should’ve helped me a bit,” he replied. 

Lil Nas X’s song, “THATS WHAT I WANT,” surpassed his other song, “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name),” and is now the rapper’s third longest running song on the Billboard Hot 100.

“BET is playing nasty by not even giving Lil Nas X at least ONE nomination. Lil Nas X had TWO number one singles with TWO large music videos that were critically acclaimed with 300+ million views. His songs were everywhere & still are,” wrote Twitter user @HotCommieGal.

Supporters also noticed how other fan favorites like Normani and Lizzo weren’t nominated after having notable hits like “Wild Side” by Normani featuring rapper Cardi B or “About Damn Time” by Lizzo. 

Fans questioned BET’s reasoning for nominating artists like Jack Harlow and Justin Bieber but not selecting fellow Black artists doing well in the industry. 

“justin bieber got a BET awards nomination but normani, the artist with the best music video of 2021, did not. interesting,” wrote Twitter User @JaylenTheGOAT.

As some fans are disappointed about the nominations, others are excited to see their favorite artist nominated for multiple categories or for the first time. 

Artist Doja Cat leads the nomination list with a total of six awards: Best Female R&B/Pop Artist, Best Collaboration, Best Female Hip Hop Artist, Video of the Year, Album of the Year, & BET Her.

Singer Ari Lennox and Artist Drake have the second-most nominations with four each.

Nigerian singers Tems and WizKid have also been nominated; Tems has three nominations while WizKid has two nominations, which brings him to eight career nominations at the BET Awards — the most for an African artist. Many fans are excited to see African singers being recognized.

“Wizkid fought BET for presenting Best African Act award backstage, he stood against the disrespect shown to Afrobeats & he missed out on nominations couple of times. Now his achievements are too loud for BET to turn blind eyes, he’s got himself 2 nominations in major categories,” tweeted user @itzbasito.

Despite all the excitement, some people are still skeptical about the award show and if they should tune in this year.

“Jack Harlow being nominated for BET awards & not the actual black artists is another of many things to add to the love at to why I no longer watch the BET & BET Hip Hop Awards,” tweeted user @kickk_buttowski.

The BET Awards will air live Sunday, June 26, at 8 p.m. ET/PT from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. 

Here is a look at the nomination list.