Paramount Pictures and Tuff Gong’s musical biopic Bob Marley: One Love won “Best Movie” at the 2024 BET Awards, which took place in Los Angeles on June 30.
Other nominees in the category included American Fiction, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Book of Clarence, The Color Purple, The Equalizer 3, and The Little Mermaid.
Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, Bob Marley: One Love features Kingsley Ben-Adir as Marley, Lashana Lynch as his wife Rita, and James Norton as Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, alongside several Jamaican artists. According to Billboard, it is now the fifth highest-grossing music biopic in the U.S. The top spot is held by the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), followed by Straight Outta Compton (2015), Elvis (2022), and Walk The Line (2005).
The film premiered at Carib 5 in Kingston, Jamaica, on January 23, 2024, and was released in the U.S. by Paramount Pictures on February 14, 2024. Despite mixed reviews from critics, it has grossed $177 million worldwide, making it the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2024.
Jamaican performers at BET Awards
Dancehall artist Skillibeng and Reggae star YG Marley also performed at the awards.
Skillibeng joined South African singer Tyla and American rapper Gunna for a high-energy performance of their hit song “Jump.” The track, featured on Tyla’s self-titled debut album, has soared on the charts, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart, No. 3 on the US Afrobeats Songs chart, and No. 38 on the UK Singles chart.
This marked Skillibeng’s second performance at the BET Awards in as many years. At the 2023 show, he participated in a tribute to Busta Rhymes, who had received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
YG Marley, the son of Rohan Marley, performed during his mother Lauryn Hill’s set, delivering his new song “Survival” and the viral hit “Praise Jah in the Moonlight.” Hill also revisited the iconic “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” and “Lost Ones,” before Wyclef Jean, her fellow Fugees member, joined them to close out the performance with “Fu-Gee-La.”
Cole Bennett, who directed YG Marley’s music video for “Praise Jah in the Moonlight,” won the 2024 BET Award for Video Director of the Year.
“Praise Jah in the Moonlight” recently received Gold certification in the US (500,000 units), Silver in the UK (200,000 units), and Platinum in Canada (80,000 units).
