Sam Smith missed the BET awards because he thought he was ‘too white’ to win
Sam Smith didn’t show up to accept a BET Award in person last night – after assuming he would lose “because he’s white”.
The openly gay Leave Your Lover singer was the surprise winner of the Best New Artist award at the event, which is hosted by the Black Entertainment Television network and celebrates black entertainment artists.
Smith was the only white artist nominated in the category, but surprisingly fought off competition from Bobby Shmurda, Dej Loaf, Fetty Wap, Rae Sremmurd, Tinashe to win the award.
However, embarrassingly Smith wasn’t around to pick it up in person – because he had assumed he had no chance of winning at the event.
‘Black-ish’ star Anthony Anderson, who accepted the award on Smith’s behalf, joked that he wasn’t at the event because he was too white to win.
He said: “Sam Smith isn’t here tonight because he’s white, and he didn’t think he would win at the BET Awards.
“He didn’t think he could win. But we showed him that we love him, too.”
He joked: “This award is going to Stay With Me, for you not showing up to BET! Although this trophy is really yours, it’s going to Stay With Me.”
“Sam Smith, congratulations brother on your much deserved award… you can come by my house next week and pick it up, but call first because black folk don’t just show up at other people’s houses like that!”
The singer tweeted his thanks after hearing he had in fact won.
It’s the latest award for the star, who has picked up four Grammys, three Billboard awards and two BRITs in the past few months.
He gave a ‘Love Actually’-style silent awards speech at the Billboard awards last month, holding up signs with his speech on as he had just undergone vocal surgery.
However, after cancelling a string of appearances across several months, the singer has since recovered his voice and is back on tour.
