BET aired an encore presentation of its second annual BET Honors program on Sunday night, which honored several folks in entertainment, media, education, politics and corporate service. Honorees got awards and a tribute performance of some sort. (An aside, not that it’s gospel: Anita Baker is timeless and her voice is just as incredible as twenty years ago.)
Tyler Perry, awarded for being a ”media phenomenon,” received a musical tribute from Yolanda Adams and Joss Stone. Yolanda started with “Just A Prayer Away,” a CLASSIC favorite of mine from her Through The Storm album.
I might’ve known that things were going to go awry when Joss Stone joined her on stage, followed by a choir wearing those typical awards-show choir robes. The woman can sing, no doubt, but it turned into a howling match in which Yolanda’s incredibly warm and pure tone couldn’t even be heard. By the end, I just sat at the screen and thought “huh?!”
So, I beseech the production powers-that-be: can we just sing our songs by ourselves, please?
Nobody ran up and joined Anita Baker, Ne-Yo, Monica, Anthony Hamilton, Queen Latifah, Keyshia Cole or Stevie Wonder in their musical tributes. How come the ONLY duet of the entire show has to happen on the ONLY gospel song of the night? And, if for some reason you simply MUST create a duet out of a gospel song that was recorded (and has always been performed) as a SOLO, why add a secular artist to it? Somebody had to have planned this. Like, “you know what would be HOT?!” But, no… not hot, BET. 
Anyone else catch it? Thoughts???
LoL, award show choir robes. I would never think of pairing the two together, but I thought it was a nice performance. Yes, Joss Stone is much more in your face style wise, but I think it came off cool. You have to admit, the girl can sing. There harmonies at the end were very nice, and the choir sounded great (even in those typical award show choir robes, lol). I'm sure it probably bothered you a lil more E.J. because you are such a fan of that song. While its not fair that everyone else got to do their songs by themselves, I thought what they did was cool. Plus, in some ways there performance stood out because they were the only duet. Random question: Is it me, or does Anthony Hamilton sing for every tribute show, award show, that's on BET??
@luda: you may be right. I'm a little sentimental about my early Yolanda music. And YES, Anthony Hamilton is ALWAYS on somebody's tribute! LOL
@EJ Yea man, I'm with you. Yolanda should have sung that one by herself. That's my favorite song that she sings. I could be wrong, but maybe she couldn't hit that high part like she used to and that's why she got Joss to come in with her. By the way who is Joss Stone anyway?
Lol. I'm only able to laugh now because of the way you said it. But seriously, I was annoyed. I always look forward to hearing Yolanda Adams. Don't get me wrong, Joss Stone is great at what she does, I just didn't want to hear her sing that duet. I think it IS more about dashed expectations than how it sounded, though, for me.
@EJ..I kinda agree wit u. Joss was overbearing compared to Yolanda..seemed kinda awkward...not necessarily horrible, but somewhat mismatched!! Queen Latif (on the other hand) could have used some help!!!!!!!!! lol.....
@monica: LOL. Yes, I believe she had on shoes. @bill: right?! "mismatched" is the perfect word for it.
I think Joss did a great job. Yolanda was severely underwhelming and her outfit was horrid. She needs to come better than that especially when singing a Yolanda original.
I agree. gospel artists can stand alone. Don't need no help. Now on another note, Anita Baker killed it on the second song!
OMG.. Anita Baker Killed! Detroit Stand Up!! That was just classic soul and stage presence.
@Monica"I just wanna know…Was Joss Stone wearing shoes?" Nope: http://obama.wsj.com/photo/0a4lehbfhK373?q=Yolanda+Adams It is her trademark to not wear shoes when she performs but she does wear them on the red carpet: http://www.bet.com/Assets/BET/Published/image/jpeg/4ba7ce4d-62b9-fd83-3bff-6d3878176f92-beth09_fb_RedCarpet_JossStone.jpg At an awards show bare feet is out of place so it's good she wore a floor length dress to cover them (for the most part). She did wear shoes for a duet at a British awards show in 2005 but ended up taking them off during the performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyu8YrTMDuU @Justin "She needs to come better than that especially when singing a Yolanda original." Somebody made the comment on YouTube that Yolanda never oversings her partner (even though she could). She seemed to be trying to help promote Joss to the audience and appeard to be fond of her, so she may have very likely held back to give Joss the spotlight. The only time I have heard Joss Stone sing in that high pitch where it gets screechy was the very end of the British National Anthem at a NFL game in London last fall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVBSJCtXH1s