Sam Smith Wins BET Award, Host Anthony Anderson Jokes He Didn't Show Up 'Because He's White'

Reuters; WireImages

Update: In September 2019, Sam Smith announced that they use they/them pronouns. This content was written in June 2015, before Smith publicly announced their pronouns.

And the winner of the Best New Artist at the BET awards goes to…Sam Smith!

The British singer was unable to accept the award so co-host Anthony Anderson did so on his behalf.

Wearing Smith's signature look (complete with a wig and a sleek blue suit), the Black-ish star joked, "Sam Smith could not be here tonight because he's white, and he didn't think he would win at the BET Awards and he didn't think he could win, but we showed him that we love him too."

As a play on Smith's hit song "Stay With Me" Anderson held the award and sang, "This is going to stay with me because you didn't show up for BET. Although this trophy is yours it's going to stay with me."

He continued: "Sam Smith, congratulations brother on your much deserved award, you come by my house next week and pick it up."

But where was Smith? The singer Tweeted about watching friend Jessie Ware perform at Glastonbury on Sunday evening, so he might have been at the famed English music festival.