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I was blacklisted in 2015 for criticizing the BET Awards. Yemi Alade recalls.
Yemi Alade, a highlife and Afropop artist from Nigeria, has admitted that she had been prohibited after criticizing BET Award organizers eight years ago.
You might remember that in 2015, the event’s planners decided on the African category hours before the main ceremony and instructed winning African performers to receive their Awards backstage.
One of the African nominees, Yemi Alade, expressed her disgust on Instagram. She believed that the event organizers’ actions were disgusting and mocked the African performers.
She shared that, The ‘Tumbum’ singer wrote; “By the way… AFRICA IS NOT A COUNTRY.!!! ..IT IS WRONG TO NOMINATE HUGE AFRICAN STARS AND PUBLICLY TRY TO HUMILIATE AFRICA. WHY ON EARTH IS THE AFRICAN CATEGORY OF THE AWARDS HELD HOURS BEFORE THE “MAIN EVENT? IF AFRICAN ARTISTS ARE NOT WORTHY IN YOUR SIGHT.
“PLS, BY ALL MEANS, CANCEL, DELETE, COMMIT THE “BEST INTERNATIONAL ACT (AFRICA) CATEGORY OUT OF THIS GLORIFIED AWARD. THIS IS WRONG! !! WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG.”
The singer claimed in a tweet sent out during the 2023 BET prizes that she was mostly to blame for BET switching from awarding African performers their prizes backstage to during the main program.
She was overruled by a fan with the account @jefe_says, who credited Wizkid, the king of Afrobeats.
He wrote on Twitter, “Let me restate “Thank You Wizkid for battling for respect for African singers.”
Meanwhile, Wiz would have accepted the BET backstage award that year, but he rejected it.
8 years later ,we no longer receive awards back stage at award ceremonies.
We are on the main guest lists and Our categories are not skipped on live TVor feed/streams. 2015 and2016 was a different time.thank you BET for stepping up!!! Afrobeats to the world— ✊🏾 yemialade (@yemialadee) June 27, 2023
Let me rephrase “Thank You Wizkid for fighting for African artistes to be respected.”
If Wiz didn’t reject BET backstage award that year, it would’ve still been happening
— Jèfé Juan José (@Jefe_says) June 27, 2023