Patti LaBelle Fumbles Lyrics During Her Tina Turner Tribute at BET Awards: ‘I’m Tryin’, Y’all!’

Matt Webb Mitovich
·2 min read
85
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

That simply was not the best. Though not for a lack of trying.

During Sunday night’s BET Awards ceremony, Patti LaBelle admittedly forgot the words to “The Best,” the song she sang as the show’s lone tribute to the late Tina Turner (who died on May 24 at age 83, after a long illness).

More from TVLine

“What if I can’t see… the words… I don’t know?” LaBelle, 79, ad-libbed early into the song, clearly squinting to see the teleprompter situated in the back of the theater. (At least one video shared on Twitter suggested that some audience members were unwittingly blocking LaBelle’s view of the projected lyrics.)

“I’m tryin’, y’all!” she added, as audience members appeared amused and/or sympathetic to her situation.

Watch a clip of LaBelle’s performance below:

Twitter, of course, was less kind than those seated in the Microsoft Theater. “Patti not knowing the words to Tina’s song is absolutely absurd and disrespectful,” one of many tweets on the topic read. “Who doesn’t learn the words to a 34-year-old song for a TRIBUTE?” marveled another.

LaBelle’s struggle was one of only a few meaningful hiccups during the live, three-and-a-half hour telecast — which is saying something, since this year’s BET Awards revolved around a celebration of 50 years of hip hop that took the form of an utterly astonishing amount of nearly non-stop, breakneck performances by artists past and present. (Meanwhile, you can find the list of this year’s winners here.)

What did you think of LaBelle’s performance, and this year’s BET Awards as a whole?

Best of TVLine

Get more from TVLine.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter

Click here to read the full article.