The BET Awards may be hip-hop’s biggest night, but they couldn’t forget about the Queen of Rock.
Patti LaBelle paid tribute to rock icon Tina Turner, who died in May, with a performance at the BET Awards on Sunday night. Taking the stage in a shimmery, black fringe dress, LaBelle sang a lively rendition of the Turner classic “The Best.”
“Give it up for Tina Turner,” LaBelle said at the start of the performance.
But even the best stumble a bit sometimes. At one point during the performance, LaBelle experienced a technical issue with the show’s teleprompter and flubbed some of the song’s lyrics.
“I’m trying y’all,” she told the studio audience as she briefly improvised.
LaBelle joined the likes of Bia, Coi Leray, Cutty Ranks, Fat Joe, Soulja Boy and The Sugarhill Gang, who took the stage at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles in a star-studded tribute to hip-hop’s most significant moments, as curated by Kid Capri.
Turner died at her home in Switzerland after a long illness, according to a statement on her official social media accounts. For many years, Turner had lived a reclusive life while battling ill health, including a stroke in 2013, intestinal cancer in 2016 and a kidney transplant in 2017.
Throughout her career, Turner’s life was one of musical greatness and personal trauma, as she fled an abusive relationship with her musical mentor and first husband, Ike Turner, to achieve unlikely pop stardom in the ’80s with “What’s Love Got to Do With It.”
Turner was renowned for her sexy, elastic dance moves on stage – notably influencing Mick Jagger – and she toured relentlessly. Her outing to support her fifth solo album “Private Dancer” played 180 dates in 1984, while subsequent tours filled arenas and stadiums worldwide.
Turner’s talents expanded beyond music. She also worked in films, making an appearance in the big screen version of The Who’s rock opera “Tommy” in 1975 and starring with Mel Gibson in “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” in 1985.
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Contributing: Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY; Maria Sherman, The Associated Press
