2face and Dbanj win BET Award for Best International Act (Africa) – tokenism?

Nigeria’s 2face Idibia and Dbanj tied for the BET Award for Best International Act (Africa) at ceremony held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Sunday night. It didn’t come as a surprise as the two were clear favourites for the nod. But perhaps it should have been more competitive with only one winner instead of the two. It makes the African category come out as mere tokenism to keep us happy. Although this was the second time that African artists have been nominated in the BET Awards, this year saw a separate category for the African acts which also included D-Black (Ghana), Fally Ipupa (DR Congo), Angelique Kidjo (Benin), and Teargas (South Africa).

Meanwhile R&B superstar Chris Brown garnered three trophies out of his pack-leading six nominations. There was a mix-up during the announcement of the Viewer’s Choice winner as Tiffany Greene first named Brown as the winner before then saying Drake and Rihanna were the victors [With Drake accepting the trophy] it was later confirmed that Chris Brown was indeed the winner of the fan voted accolade.

Kevin Hart hosted the annual BET event with featuring performances by top acts such as Beyonce Knowles, Drake, Chris Brown, Lil Wayne and Mary J Blige, among many others. There were also special tributes to Steve Harvey as the Humanitarian Award Honoree and Patti LaBelle as the Life Achievement Award winner.

Here is full list of winners:

Female R&B artist: Rihanna

Male R&B artist: Chris Brown

Female hip-hop artist: Nicki Minaj

Male hip-hop artist: Kanye West

Collaboration: Chris Brown, “Look At Me Now,” feat. Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes

New artist: Wiz Khalifa

Group: Diddy Dirty Money

Young Stars award: (tie) Jaden Smith and Willow Smith

Gospel: Mary Mary

Centric award: Marsha Ambrosius

Actress: Taraji P. Henson

Actor: Idris Elba

Movie: “For Colored Girls”

Sportsman of the year: Michael Vick

Sportswoman of the year: Serena Williams

International act, UK: Tinie Tempah

International act, Africa: (tie) 2Face Idibia and D’Banj

Video director of the year: Chris Robinson

Viewers’ choice: Chris Brown, “Look At Me Now”