Mary J. Blige will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement award at the 2019 BET Awards.
The 48-year-old R&B songstress is set to receive the prestigious accolade – which recognizes legendary artists and their contributions to the music industry – at the annual ceremony, which is set to air live next Sunday at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles (23.06.19).
And Mary – whose long-running music career includes nine Grammys (with 32 nominations) and eight multi-platinum albums – will join previous BET lifetime achievement honourees including Anita Baker, Prince, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, and James Brown to name a few.
Mary J. is set to tour with rap legend Nas. The tour dubbed the Royalty Tour will also see the two iconic artists perform their collaboration ‘Thriving’ together onstage.
The first wave of performers at the BET Awards to be announced for the 19th annual ceremony – which will be hosted by Regina Hall – include Cardi B, DJ Khaled, Migos, H.E.R., Lil Nas X, Lizzo, Lil Baby, Yung Miami of City Girls and Lucky Daye.
‘Invasion of Privacy’ rapper Cardi leads the list of nominees with a staggering seven nods this year.
Her shortlisting includes two nominations for Video of the Year with ‘Money’ and ‘Please Me’ with Bruno Mars, and she is closely followed by Drake with five nods. Beyoncé, Travis Scott and J. Cole all have four nominations whilst Bruno Mars, 21 Savage, Childish Gambino, H.E.R. have three nods each.
As earlier reported by The Sauce, top Nigerian acts Burna Boy, Mr. Eazi has been nominated in the ‘Best International Act’ category. They’ve each had a good year with a lot of music releases including new albums in 2018 titled ‘Outside’ and Mr. Eazi Life Is Eazi, Vol. 2 – Lagos to London respectively.
Among the presenters at the ceremony will be Taraji P. Henson, Lena Waithe, Morris Chestnut, Yara Shahidi, and Marsai Martin.
It was announced earlier this week that Tyler Perry will receive the Ultimate Icon accolade at the event.
The 2019 BET Awards will air on Sunday, June 23 at 8 p.m.
