Lil Nas X walked like an Egyptian into one of the steamiest performances of the evening at the 2021 BET Awards with a King Tut-styled, Michael Jackson-inspired performance of “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).”
Opening on an Egypt-themed stage, complete with a sphinx background, pyramid designs and some well-placed hieroglyphs, Lil Nas X, dressed in a pharaoh-inspired golden kilt and neck brace combo, started commanding the stage with the opening lines of his No. 1 single. “I caught it bad yesterday/ You hit me with a call to your place,” he sang.
As the performance — which paid homage to the choreography and looks of Michael Jackson’s “Remember the Time” — went on, Nas joined his dancers for some truly excellent breakdowns, including one that saw him grinding right into a camera. As he ascended the staircase placed on the set, and stood atop his throne, the rapper then turned to the dancer next to him and planted a kiss on him, making out with him as the audience cheered on.
Fans on Twitter immediately began praising the rapper, thanking him for featuring such an explicitly queer moment during his performance. “Lil Nas X finna piss the homophobics off and I’m loving every moment of him making y’all sick,” one fan wrote.
Lil Nas X was just one of the stars attending the 2021 BET Awards — the “Montero” rapper joined stars like Megan Thee Stallion, DaBaby, Jazmine Sullivan, Kirk Franklin and many more in celebrating black culture on Sunday night.
