Donald Glover has called out the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards for having the same amount of awards as Sam Smith.
The BET Awards were hosted last night at LA’s Peacock Theatre, where Donald Glover was nominated for Best Actor and was part of a tribute performance to Usher.
Though he eventually lost out to Denzel Washington, the actor and musician did take to the stage to present the Album of the Year to rapper Killer Mike. During his speech, he said although he was “really excited” to be at the ceremony, he “wanted to get some things off my chest”.
“This isn’t personal but I just feel like I should have more BET awards,” he continued. “I’m serious. It’s the Black Entertainment Television Awards. How much more entertaining do I have to do? Because it’s just the math of the fact.”
“It doesn’t really make sense,” the polymath added. “I have more Grammys than Will Smith, which makes no sense, but I have the same amount of BET awards as Sam Smith. Does that make sense to you guys? Me and Sam Smith are neck and neck at the Black Entertainment Television [Awards]”. Glover won for Best Music Video for ‘This Is America in 2019, whilst Smith nabbed the 2015 Award for Best New Artist.
Glover concluded his speech: “If I have to do ‘Baby Boy’ or something, just let me know. I’ll have Jonathan Majors put me in a headlock, shave my head, I’ll do it.”
Childish Gambino just pulled a Jay-Z and I love it ???????? #BETAwards pic.twitter.com/HW2DreGPZF
— ✨Lei Lei✨ (@leiileiijaee203) July 1, 2024
In the same speech, Glover also announced the premiere of his trailer for his new movie Bando Stone.
In April, Glover announced that his next – and final – album as Childish Gambino, ‘Bando Stone & The New World’, will double as the soundtrack for his upcoming movie of the same name. Though there’s no official release date as of yet, Glover told social media followers in May: “The all new Childish Gambino album comes out in the summer”.
The trailer shows Bando Stone, played by Glover, confused after waking up in a deserted, dystopian universe.
He then runs into a mother and her child, eventually following them and embarking on a sci-fi adventure complete with alien lasers and monsters. The trailer then departs with the question: “What are you when the world ends?”
He also recently dropped his album ‘Atavista’ in May, which he calls the “complete” version of his 2020 record, ‘3.15.20’.
‘3.15.20’ was awarded four-stars by NME when it was initially released in 2020: “Glover’s willingness to share such a candid moment on record is particularly interesting given his past proclivity towards keeping his private life largely offline, and may be a sign that the star is beginning to let his guard down as the outside world continues to try to peer in.
“It’s an approach that Glover is applying to his musical output at least, with the impressive ‘3.15.20’ well worth the wait — we’ll keep our fingers firmly crossed, then, that he doesn’t give in to his past evasiveness and take the record down again…”
He will also embark on a world tour across the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and more – see all details here.