Donald Glover expressed his belief that the BET Awards have not given him the recognition he feels he deserves.

Credits: Youtube/Sam Smith

Hollywood star Donald Glover, also known as Childish Gambino, has recently called out the BET Awards for undermining his potential as an entertainer. The singer-actor, who has been an active artist for two decades, has earned significant admiration and acclaim for his work, along with several accolades.

Childish Gambino in This is America music video | Credit: Donald Glover via YouTube

However, Glover believes that one award show that has yet to recognize his potential and talent has been the Black Entertainment Television Awards, as he claimed during the recent ceremony while pointing out that he has the same number of BET as the English singer Sam Smith.

Childish Gambino Criticizes BET Awards for Lack of Recognition

Childish Gambino took the stage at the 2024 BET Awards to present the award for album of the year. And the singer seized the opportunity to express his frustration with the award show for failing to fully recognize his potential.

Donald Glover in Atlanta | Credit: FX

“I’m really excited to be here but I wanted to get some things off my chest first,” he said while voicing his belief that he deserves more BET Awards than he has received.

Donald Glover has seven BET nominations with one win for Video of the Year, which he won for the 2019 song This Is America. The Atlanta star further pointed out the irony that despite having more Grammys than Will Smith, he has the same number of BET Awards as Sam Smith, a non-Black artist.

It’s the Black Entertainment Television Awards. How much more entertaining do I have to do? Because it’s just the math of the fact. It doesn’t really make sense. I have more Grammys than Will Smith, which makes no sense, but I have the same amount of BET awards as Sam Smith.

Sam Smith | Credit: @samsmith via Instagram

Expressing his disbelief that he’s at the same level as the Unholy singer at the BET Awards, the Mr. & Mrs. Smith star humorously suggested,

If I have to do ‘Baby Boy’ or something, just let me know. I’ll have Jonathan Majors put me in a headlock, shave my head, I’ll do it.

Sam Smith won the Best New Artist award at the 15th BET Awards, a win that surprised both the audience and the singer, given that BET claims to celebrate Black entertainers and other minorities.

Sam Smith Also Did Not Expect to Win a BET Awards

Sam Smith winning Best New Artist was one of the many memorable moments of the 2015 BET Awards. However, despite being nominated the singer-songwrite did not attend the ceremony as they did not expect to win.

Anthony Anderson, who received the award for Smith, shared the singer’s apprehension about winning the title, saying, as per BET,

Sam Smith could not be here tonight because he’s white, and he didn’t think he would win at the BET Awards and he didn’t think he could win, but we showed him that we love him too.

Sam Smith | Credit: @samsmith via Instagram

The singer was nominated alongside Bobby Shmurda, Dej Loaf, Fetty Wap, Tinashe, and Rae Sremmurd. Sremmurd later expressed disappointment over losing the award to Smith, saying that it affected their confidence in award shows and ceremonies thereafter.

While it has been a topic of discussion as to why Smith won the award, many argue that he was the most talented and deserving among the nominees. So far, the Promises singer remains the only Caucasian artist to have won a BET Award.

However, over the years other non-Black artists, including Adele, Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, Sandra Bullock, and many others have also landed nominations in various categories at the BET Awards.