Will Smith Performs New Music ‘You Can Make It’ at 2024 BET Awards

Will Smith made his musical return in a giant manner at Sunday’s BET Awards!

The Oscar winner and four-time GRAMMY winner, 55, took the stage alongside collaborators Fridayy and Sunday Service for the primary efficiency of his new single, “You Can Make It,” and bought the gang on their toes with the extraordinary new observe.

Earlier than Smith hit the stage, his voice rang out by way of the theater as he launched his inspiring observe with a robust ethos, “I do not know who must hear this proper now, however no matter’s happening in your life, I am right here to inform you you could make it.”

The observe feels deeply private for Smith and shares a message of common hope aimed toward these battling hopelessness and misery.

“You might be within the smoke and the fireplace / Tight rope on the wires / I see you are damaged and drained / And all of your hope is expired,” Smith rapped within the opening verse. “So many checks for the flesh / Exhausted, gasping to catch your breath / Strolling by way of the valley of the shadow of loss of life / And if you suppose you’ve got bought nothing left, preserve going.”

Surrounded by a hoop of fireplace — and later showered in rain — Smith rapped his observe with a fiery ardour that was amplified by Sunday Service and particular visitor Kirk Franklin, who joined Smith on stage to assist ship the highly effective message behind the impactful new music.

After kicking off his solo music profession in 1997 with the “Males in Black” theme music, Smith’s first two solo albums — Massive Willie Type and Willennium — each went platinum a number of occasions over. He later took a step again to give attention to appearing, together with his final main music releases as a lead artist coming when he coated “Pal Like Me” and “Prince Ali” as a part of the soundtrack for the live-action Aladdin remake in 2019.

“From his begin as a rapper to The Contemporary Prince to being a field workplace king as one of many Unhealthy Boys, Will Smith is really a worldwide icon, and we’re honored to welcome him again to grace the BET Awards stage,” shared Connie Orlando, BET’s EVP of Specials, Music Programming & Music Technique, in a press launch saying the efficiency. “We sit up for Will including to yet one more defining night time for the tradition that isn’t to be missed.”

Smith joined a stacked slate of reside performers on the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California — together with Lauryn Hill, YG Marley, Ice Spice, Tyla, GloRilla, Latto, Muni Lengthy, Sexyy Purple, Shaboozey and Victoria Monét.

In the meantime, Taraji P. Henson was back to host the annual awards show for the third time.

This yr, the BET Awards paid particular tribute to Usher, who will obtain the celebrated Lifetime Achievement BET Award. The “Love in this Club” singer, 45, will be part of a celebrated record of game-changers and trade pioneers who’ve left a long-lasting affect on the tradition and leisure. 

The 2024 BET Awards, hosted by Taraji P. Henson, airs live on the BET channel from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 30, at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Check out the complete winners list here. 

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