Patti LaBelle at the BET Awards
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Patti LaBelle gave a powerful and upbeat performance in honor of Tina Turner at Sunday’s BET Awards, though she couldn’t quite remember all the lyrics.
About halfway through the live broadcast, LaBelle took the stage to pay her respects to Turner, who died May 24, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
LaBelle sang Turner’s “(Simply) the Best,” but forgot the lyrics for a few moments.
“I’m trying, y’all,” she said, after humming a few notes before beginning the chorus.
When she forgot the lyrics a second time, she said “Oh God” before singing a few more words of the song, and then sang “Whatever, I can’t see the words” to the tune of the song. “I’m trying, y’all,” she told the crowd again.
The crowd danced and sang along to LaBelle, who nonetheless exuberantly prevailed and seemed to finish without any major problems.
“God bless you, Tina Turner, BET, hip-hop!” she exclaimed at the end of her performance.
Asked for comment, a BET spokesperson told of the snafu, “It was an extraordinary privilege to celebrate the life and legacy of Ms. Tina Turner at the 2023 BET Awards. To have the incomparable woman Patti LaBelle on our stage to honor one of her contemporaries was an equal privilege. Due to the crowd’s enthusiasm, the teleprompter was blocked, preventing Ms. LaBelle from seeing the text. Nonetheless, we couldn’t be more grateful to Ms. LaBelle for bringing her incredible talent to this moment.”
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