BET Awards: Mary Mary Nab Best Gospel Prize
During Sunday night’s BET 2011 Awards, the Grammy-award winning duo Mary Mary nabbed the Best Gospel award.
Contenders in the category included Byron Cage, Deitrick Haddon, Karen Clarck Sheard, and BeBe & CeCe Winans.
Since the release of the sister duo album, Something Big, it ranked No. 28 on R&B/Hip-Hop Album Charts on Billboards and No. 3 on the Gospel Album Chart as well as top spots on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Charts.
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"When we started off with the album titled Something Big, we didn't know all that it would evolve into, but we knew it was something that was put in our hearts and our heads and our minds," they say. “‘Something Big' is not just the name of a song – it's a movement,” said Tina Atkins-Campbell to NPR.
The awards show also included a tribute to the late Walter Hawkins, who died in July 2010 at the age of 61 due to pancreatic cancer. As part of the tribute, the Californian sisters, Erica and Tina Atkins-Campbell performed alongside Donnie McClurkin and Deitrick Haddon, singing “Thank You Lord.”
Patti LaBelle, 67, who released her first gospel album in 2006 after a three decade music career, was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award. Singer Gladys Knight, who made news when she performed "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" and "The Lord's Prayer" at the funeral service for Michael Jackson, presented the award to LaBelle.
The full list of BET Award 2011 winners.
• Best Female R&B Artist: Rihanna
• Best Male R&B Artist: Chris Brown
• Best Group: Diddy-Dirty Money
• Best Gospel Artist: Mary Mary
• Best Female Hip Hop Artist: Nicki Minaj
• Best Male Hip Hop Artist: Kanye West
• Best New Artist: Wiz Khalifa
• Best Collaboration: Chris Brown f/ Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes "Look At Me Now"
• Video of the Year: Chris Brown f/ Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes "Look At Me Now"
• Video Director of the Year: Chris Robinson
• Best Actress: Taraji P. Henson
• Best Actor: Idris Elba
• Young Stars Award: Jaden Smith and Willow Smith
• Best Movie: For Colored Girls
• Subway Sportswoman of the Year: Serena Williams
• Subway Sportsman of the Year: Michael Vick
• Centric Award: Marsha Ambrosius "Far Away"
• Best International Act: 2Face Idibia (Nigeria) and D'Banj (Nigeria)
• Coca-Cola Viewer's Choice Award: Chris Brown f/ Lil Wayne & Busta Rhymes – "Look at me Now"
• Humanitarian Award: Steve Harvey
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Patti LaBelle
