Will Smith Will Get Jiggy With Some New Music at the 2024 BET Awards
Will Smith is set to take the stage for a special performance at the 2024 BET Awards, where he’ll be debuting a new original song.
No details about the song were shared. Smith hasn’t released much new music in the nearly 20 years since his last album, Lost and Found, dropped in 2005. There have been scattered singles and features, like “Live It Up” with Nicky Jam and Era Isterefi, “Está Rico” with Marc Anthony and Bad Bunny; and the “Will” remix with Joyner Lucas. Most recently, Smith partnered with Sean Paul for “Light ‘Em Up,” a song off the Bad Boys: Ride or Die soundtrack.
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“From his start as a rapper to The Fresh Prince to being a box office king as one of the Bad Boys, Smith is truly a global icon, and we are honored to welcome him back to grace the BET Awards stage,” Connie Orlando, BET’s EVP Specials, Music Programming & Music Strategy, said in a statement. “We look forward to Will adding to yet another defining night for the culture that is not to be missed.”
Smith joins a stacked performance lineup for the 2024 BET Awards, which also includes Ice Spice, GloRilla, Ms. Lauryn Hill and & YG Marley, Latto, Muni Long, Sexyy Red, Shaboozey, Tyla, and Victoria Moneet. The show, which will air live June 30 on BET at 8 p.m. ET/PT, will be hosted by Taraji P. Henson, and Usher will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Smith’s BET Awards performance comes as Bad Boys: Ride or Die — the fourth installment of Smith’s long-running action/buddy cup franchise with Martin Lawrence — enjoys a wildly successful summer run at the box office. It’s a major moment for Smith, who, as everyone knows, has had a somewhat tumultuous couple of years after infamously slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars (the same night he won Best Actor for his performance in King Richard).
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