BET honour the mothers of House music: Crystal Waters, Robin S. & CeCe Peniston

BET honour the mothers of House music: Crystal Waters, Robin S. & CeCe Peniston | Random J Pop

BET did something rather unexpected and amazing for Black Girls Rock this year, by having a live performance honouring 3 black women who have remained fixtures in House music for decades. Robin S, Crystal Waters & CeCe Peniston. These women have managed to maintain a legacy and a career off of one song. Delivering hits which are not only timeless, but defined a particular part of many people's lives, as well as being songs in a soundtrack to a whole community.

The kids these days could never.

All 3 ladies looked and sounded great. There was not a damn thing washed up about what they showed on that stage despite not having the most prominent careers since they'd released their respective songs. That first note Robin S. hit was flat like water. But other than that, this was a great performance.


Robin S.'s "Show me love" has been sampled, interpolated and covered so many fucking times that every generation knows some version of the song, even if they don't know the original and who sang it. Crystal Waters has been a fixture in the clubs for decades with "Gypsy woman". A song that most know the hook to, even if they don't know who sang it or any of the verses. And we all know Cece Peniston's "Finally". All 3 of these women be on every Pride playlist and every House 'n' Dance compilation. And because Crystal and CeCe wrote their own hits, they stay forever paid in royalties.

But as good a job as BET did here, they have however come under fire (and rightly so) for not begin fully inclusive of black women and having a glaring omission of black trans women; something that Pose actress Angelica Ross brought to everybody's attention on Twitter. With a show as big as Pose and the all that's happening (or not rather) with trans rights and trans visibility, it was completely tone deaf of BET to not invite any black trans women to the event, not have a segment to honour those who have had their lives taken and to also educate everybody on black trans women who were prominent in the trans and LGBT movement. Black Girls Rck stays on trend each year and often features inclusion of whatever cultural and social zeitgeist at the time includes black women. So the lack of black trans women just went to show how BET do not see black trans woman as women. It's even more tone deaf in the context of them acknowledging acts like Robin S., Crystal Waters and Cece Peniston whose biggest fan base is queer. Queers be keeping all 3 ladies relevant and getting that streaming coin. BET has a way to go as far as LGBTQIA+ inclusiveness goes. Hopefully they will do right next year. But small claps on them for honouring the three of the Mothers of House music, a genre that doesn't always have black people at the forefront, despite black people being the pioneers of it.

🎧 A black Pride playlist: Black 'n' queer, BITCH!

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