BET Awards 'leaks' winners, Nasty C on list

15 Jun 2017 - 15:00

Published under the Creative Commons Licence

The BET Awards appeared on Thursday afternoon to have made winners of some categories public well over a week before the 24-25 June advertised date of the show.

Nasty C has been prematurely announced as a BET Award winner.
A screenshot showing Nasty C as the winner of 2017 Best International Act: Africa at the forthcoming BET Awards.
Screenshot showing Kehlani as the winner at the not yet held BET Awards.
The Weeknd was also a 'winner'.

On the official website of the television network responsible for the awards, visitors could see the winners of several categories. For followers of the awards on the continent, the category most looked forward to, Best International Act: Africa, also had a 'winner'.

Rapper Nasty C, according to the information on the website, was already the recipient of the award. If this is true, it would mean the young South African artist has beaten such pop heavyweights as Wizkid and Davido. Other nominees in the category are Stonebwoy, Mr Eazi and Nasty C’s compatriots AKA and Babes Wodumo.

It is unclear what happened on the BET Awards website – whether it was in fact a leak or the webmaster's mistake – as on social media the organisers were busy sharing news regarding the ceremony proper, featuring such celebrities as DJ Khaled and actress Tracee Ellis Ross in photos and videos.

Other winners that were shown on the website included Emeli Sande, Kehlani, Migos, Beyonce for Best Video, and The Weeknd, who is of Ethiopian descent, for the Best Male R&B/Pop Artist category.

The image of the award ceremony will not be helped by this development if it's true, as two editions ago the show was followed by complaints from African nominees who expressed displeasure at the second-rate treatment meted out by the American organisation.

UPDATE – 19 June 2017

Here is an official statement that BET released soon after Music In Africa reported on the matter.

“An unforeseen technical issue on BET.com’s BET AWARDS show page resulted in several categories revealing randomly selected nominees as winners. We deeply apologize to the artists who were impacted by this error, and we look forward to celebrating all of this year’s incredible international nominees and winners during the BET Experience and BET AWARDS next week. The winners of the Best International: Africa, Best International: Europe, and International Viewer’s Choice categories will be revealed at the BET International Awards ceremony on Saturday, June 24th in Los Angeles.”

BET Awards 2017