Jamie Foxx paid tribute to the late Michael Jackson while hosting Sunday's BET Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
The show opened with a medley of Jackson 5 hits, including "ABC" and "The Love You Save," as images of Jackson as a child flashed on a screen. Host Foxx then walked on stage dressed as an 80s era Jackson – complete with the gloves – as "Beat It" blared in the background. He then showed off some of Jackson's signature moves, including Jackson's infamous crotch-grabbing routine. He then shouted for the audience to clap their hands. "C'mon," he yelled, "for Michael."
"We are here for the greatest. There's no need to be sad," he told the audience, which included Diddy, Alicia Keys and Kanye West, among others. "We want to celebrate this black man – he belongs to us – and we shared him with everybody else." "It don't matter what he looked like … what his nose looked like … it was what he sounded like," he went on. "Who was the best?" Foxx then asked the audience. The crowd shouted,"MIchael!"
Foxx recounted seeing Jackson in concert in 1983 at Texas Stadium. "Mike comes out … and grown white men fainted," said Foxx.
He then did the moonwalk across the stage to honor the singer, who died Thursday at the age of 50 after suffering cardiac arrest. "I am going to moonwalk for Michael Jackson," Foxx told the crowd. As he worked his way across the stage, the audience went wild.
