"Man in the Mirror"

As you all may know, on June 27th, 2010 the BET awards was aired live on national television. If anyone reading this is not aware with this its basically an awards show recognizing and appreciating the music and successful careers of African American artists. There were many amazingly talented and well-known artists that performed at the awards show. Alicia Keys performed her songs "Unthinkable," "If I Ain't Got You," and "You Don't Know My Name;" all of which are from previous and current albums. There were also newer artists that performed in the Prince tribute portion of the show such as Janelle Monae who performed Prince's most popular songs "Let's Go Crazy." Also, Trey Songz did a montage of his songs and he performed a snippet of Prince's famous song "Purple Rain" that he covered briefly in between his performance. There were others such as Drake, Young Jeezy, Nicki Minaj, and also an introduction and return of rapper Kanye West who has been on a hiatus from the rap game after his past popularity with the media.

Out of all of these amazing artists and outstandingly phenomenal performances, one act stood out from all the rest and that was no other than, Chris Brown. Now it has been a year since the greatly missed King of Pop past on, Michael Jackson. In his honor Chris Brown did a special and surprisingly amazing performance of the King's famous dance moves and innovative musical successes. He started out by performing songs like "The Way You Make Me Feel", to "Do You Remember the Time," then into "Smooth Criminal" and then went straight into "Billie Jean." This segment consisted a montage of songs that was dazzled with background dancers in outfits with lighting effects on their suits flashing with their every move. Here is a brief look at the performance and tribute that you can watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCYt1mK3-qc. Horrible quality, I know, but its just there for you to get the real picture and feel the emotions felt when he performed these songs. Towards the end of Chris's tribute to the King of Pop, he sang on a softer note a song that touched the entire audience, "Man in the Mirror" in which Chris was suppose to sing in closing of his performance. The audience was expecting him to go out with a bang but was soon shocked to realize that Chris's notes weren't out of key for lack of practice, skill, or endurance it was because while he was singing that song, he was looking at himself and past mistakes and feeling the music like never before.

Brown has been speculated and looked down upon by the media since his accusations and later sentencing of abuse on his then girlfriend Rihanna Fenty. After this heart wrenching performance, I think his experience with trouble has been redeemed and finally forgiven, well, at least thats what most would like to believe; but others aren't seeing it too much like people like me. There was a recent poll on a website that asked viewers if they thought that Chris Brown took it too far with the crying and whether we, the people and viewers, thought he was faking to redeem himself and get our trust and loyalty back. When I read this, I was extremely angered and I felt really upset. Now I do not condone violence of any kind, but I do believe that people ought to receive a second chance, no matter what their past. If they're asking for one, I think they should at least be given a chance to show that people can change for the better. So, what do you guys think?

MJ