BET Honors: The Queen and Anita

SURPRISE AND WONDER: Queen Latifah and Stevie Wonder collaborate on the finale of the BET Honors, taped in DC Jan 17 and shown on BET Feb 9.

Again, we can’t say how the finished product will appear on the small screen tonight (Feb 9) at 9pm, but at the live taping of BET’s second annual Honors last month in DC the loudest applause in an evening of loud applause went to Anita Baker, who sang well; Whitney Houston, who looked well but didn’t sing at all; and Stevie Wonder, who received tremendous raves from your blogger [see previous post].

And in an evening of surprises one of the biggest surprises for your blogger came courtesy of Queen Latifah, who sang beautifully. I knew Queen Latifah’s film and television work, and heard her sing in the film version of Chicago, but I had no idea that she possessed a very legitimate set of pipes.

The  other surprise was learning about the second African-American to serve as House Majority Whip, the Hon James E. Clyburn, who BET honored for public service. Clyburn at first seemed a fish out of water this night. He’s not young, flashy, a singer or an athlete. His rank in the House also prevented him from endorsing Barack Obama, or any candidate, for that matter during the primaries. He felt his duty as Majority Whip was to remain impartial. Yet on this evening of celebration, just before the historic presidential inauguration, he might have been the most important honoree in terms of his clearing a path for African-American politicians. Clyburn, elected in 1992, was the first African-American voted in from South Carolina since 1897 and the only South Carolinian to serve as Majority Whip.

He also got off the best line of the night (which, hopefully, will remain in the broadcast). He joked that when BET chief Debra Lee called his office [to let him know about his honor], he hesitated. Lee’s message did not say why she had called. “I waited two days to call her back…I didn’t have any more [inauguration] tickets.”