Watch Kamasi Washington & El DeBarge Cover George Michael At The BET Awards

Matt Sayles/Invision/AP

Watch Kamasi Washington & El DeBarge Cover George Michael At The BET Awards

Matt Sayles/Invision/AP

Year in and year out, the BET Awards remain one of our most entertaining, sincere awards shows, and even when it comes time for the obligatory honor-the-fallen segment, the show seems to celebrate dead legends without being maudlin about it. Case in point: Last night’s show featured a very cool tribute to the late George Michael. El DeBarge, Michael’s peer in smoothed-out ’80s R&B, sang “Careless Whisper,” Michael’s monster 1984 solo hit. And jazz standard-bearer Kamasi Washington played the song’s cheesily molten saxophone part. Both of them gave it their all, and both seemed to enjoy it. The same segment also featured Janelle Monaé protege Roman GianArthur doing a quick version of Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode. Watch it below.

God bless the crowd-reaction shots at the BET Awards. Because I do want to know how much Jamie Foxx is enjoying that performance, you know?

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