Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars just earned one of the biggest accolades of the night at the 2022 BET Awards.
Tonight (June 26), Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars took home Album of the Year for An Evening With Silk Sonic at the 22nd annual BET Awards. The duo's win is particularly impressive due to the fact that their debut project beat out a completely stacked group of nominees within the Album of the Year category. Other albums that were in the running for the coveted honor include H.E.R.'s Back of My Mind, Tyler, The Creator's Call Me If You Get Lost, Drake's Certified Lover Boy, Kanye West's Donda, Jazmine Sullivan's Heaux Tales, Mo’ Tales: The Deluxe and Doja Cat's Planet Her.
.Paak and Mars' album dropped back in November of 2021, and landed at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. The 10-track LP features guest appearances from Thundercat and Bootsy Collins, and contains the double-platinum single "Leave the Door Open."
In 2021, the BET Award for Album of the Year went to Jazmine Sullivan and her album, Heaux Tales, the predecessor to Heaux Tales, Mo’ Tales: The Deluxe, which, as mentioned previously, earned the "Pick Up Your Feelings" singer a nomination in 2022 for the same category.
Other highlights from the night saw Empire actress Tarali P. Henson serving as the host of the BET Awards for the second consecutive year as well as Diddy being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Prior to the airing of tonight's show, this year's edition of BET Awards made one headline, in particular, that was met with a bit of controversy. When the nominations were first announced earlier this month, Lil Nas X called out BET for excluding him from earning nominations in all categories for the second year in a row despite the success of his 2021 album, Montero.
Congratulations to Anderson .Paak, Bruno Mars and all who were involved in the creation of their An Evening With Silk Sonic album.