Montero Lamar Hill, 22, known by his stage name Lil Nas X, celebrates Pride month with a steamy on-stage kiss during his performance.
Lil Nas X lit up the 21st BET Awards on June 27 after ending his performance with a passionate kiss with one of his male dancers.
The 22-year-old took to Twitter and declared, “I wanna perform call me by your name at the bet awards” — and he did.
The two-time Grammy winner presented a fiery rendition of “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” at the award show, which was held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Dressed in ancient-Egyptian-style attire, the rapper gave a show-stopping performance inspired by Michael Jackson’s “Remember The Time”, the rapper gave a show to remember.
The singer’s onstage passionate kiss got everyone talking and he even received a standing ovation from Pose star Mj Rodriguez and a few other celebrities during the performance.
Lil Nas X came out as gay in his Old Town Road performance in 2019, and it seems that he has supported Pride month.
The rapper and social media whiz made his mark on the pop charts with the record-breaking “Old Town Road,” which he performed with Billy Ray Cyrus at the 2019 BET Awards.
Two years later, now out and proud, Lil Nas X performed the song he wrote in hopes of “[opening] doors for many other queer people to simply exist.”
After the performance, the singer did receive some criticism online. One Twitter user said that Lil was disrespecting their culture, the rapper clapped back saying: “Y’all really like to pretend homosexuality didn’t exist in African culture.” He also went on to write “LGBET”.
Despite some harsh critics Lil Nas’ fans soon filled Twitter with praise for the performance with users writing: “I am going to watch Lil Nas X’s BET performance for the whole day today.”
“Lil Nas X ending his BET performance of Montero with a kiss with one of his backup dancers,” another one said. “Lil Nas x making out with a guy on live tv during the bets…”
He also received love from Diddy who gave him a sweet shoutout on Twitter saying, “Lil Nas X did that!! Be fearless!!!”
Fans also applauded Lil Nas X for the brave act just in time with the end of Pride Month, which is celebrated annually in respect of the members of the LGBTQ community.
Before the BET Awards, Lil Nas X talked to Entertainment Tonight and described his upcoming performance as “the best one” of the night.
“I can’t give you much, but it’s going to be the best one,” he said. “No offense to all the other performers. Yeah. I mean it though, I mean it.”
Lil Nas X was directly inspired by John Singleton’s nine-minute “short film” for Michael Jackson’s Remember The Time in 1992 starring Eddie Murphy and Iman.
BET’s Twitter account also tweeted about Lil Nas X’s performance, saying: “He did what needed to be done. #BETAwards #CulturesBiggestNight”
Recommended Video For You!
What ‘The Most Beautiful Girl In The World’ Looks Like Today