BET Award for Best New Artist

BET Awards for Best New Artist
Leon Thomas III is the most recent recipient
Country	United States
Presented by	BET Awards
First award	2001
Currently held by	Leon Thomas III (2025)
Website

The BET Award for Best New Artist is given to an artist who made their debut the previous or same year of the awards ceremony. A former group member can be nominated for the award if they have made their solo debut. Controversy arose when Jennifer Hudson won the award in 2007 even though her only solo release at the time was a single of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going"; her first album was scheduled for release in October 2007. Sam Smith is so far the only Caucasian artist to have won the award, winning it in 2015.

Winners and nominees

Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold.

• Grammy Award for Best New Artist winning artist – †
• Grammy Award for Best New Artist nominated artist –

Award Milestone

• Nelly became the Inaugural winner of this award in 2001
• 

Sam Smith became the first and only non-black person to win the Award in 2015. He also became the first Non -American to Win this.

• 

Tyla became the first African to win this award in 2024.

2000s

Year	Artist	Ref
2001
	Nelly	[ citation needed ]
	India Arie ‡
	Lil' Bow Wow
	Musiq
	Jill Scott ‡
2002
	Alicia Keys †	[ citation needed ]
	Ashanti ‡
	B2K
	Craig David
	Tweet
2003
	50 Cent ‡	[ citation needed ]
	Floetry
	Heather Headley ‡
	Sean Paul ‡
	Justin Timberlake
2004
	Kanye West ‡	[ citation needed ]
	Chingy
	Anthony Hamilton
	Ruben Studdard
	Pharrell Williams
2005
	John Legend †	[ citation needed ]
	Ciara ‡
	Fantasia
	The Game
	Omarion
2006
	Chris Brown ‡	[ citation needed ]
	Chamillionaire
	Ne-Yo
	Rihanna
	Paul Wall
2007
	Jennifer Hudson	[ citation needed ]
	Corinne Bailey Rae ‡
	Gnarls Barkley
	Lupe Fiasco
	Mims
2008
	The-Dream	[ citation needed ]
	Estelle
	Flo Rida
	Chrisette Michele
	Soulja Boy
2009
	Keri Hilson ‡	[ citation needed ]
	Kid Cudi
	Ryan Leslie
	M.I.A.
	Jazmine Sullivan ‡

2010s

Year		Artist	Ref
2010
		Nicki Minaj ‡	[ citation needed ]
		Justin Bieber ‡
		Melanie Fiona
		Wale
		Young Money
2011
		Wiz Khalifa	[ citation needed ]
		J. Cole ‡
		Bruno Mars
		Miguel
		Willow Smith
2012
		Big Sean	[ citation needed ]
		ASAP Rocky
		Diggy
		Future
		Meek Mill
2013
		Kendrick Lamar ‡	[1]
		Joey Badass
		Azealia Banks
		Trinidad James
		The Weeknd
2014
		August Alsina	[2]
		Ariana Grande
		Rich Homie Quan
		ScHoolboy Q
		Mack Wilds
2015
		Sam Smith †	[3]
		Dej Loaf
		Fetty Wap
		Bobby Shmurda
		Rae Sremmurd
		Tinashe
2016
		Bryson Tiller	[4]
		Alessia Cara †
		Andra Day
		Kehlani
		Tory Lanez
2017
		Chance the Rapper †	[5]
		21 Savage
		Cardi B
		Khalid ‡
		Young M.A
2018
		SZA ‡	[6]
		GoldLink
		A Boogie wit da Hoodie
		H.E.R. ‡
		Daniel Caesar
2019
		Lil Baby	[7]
		Blueface
		City Girls
		Juice Wrld
		Queen Naija

2020s

Year		Artist	Ref
2020
		Roddy Ricch	[8]
		DaniLeigh
		Lil Nas X ‡
		Pop Smoke
		Summer Walker
		YBN Cordae
2021
		Giveon
		Coi Leray
		Flo Milli
		Jack Harlow
		Latto ‡
		Pooh Shiesty
2022
		Latto ‡
		Baby Keem ‡
		Benny the Butcher
		Bleu
		Muni Long ‡
		Tems
2023
		Coco Jones ‡
		Ambré
		Doechii
		FLO
		GloRilla
		Ice Spice ‡
		Lola Brooke
2024
		Tyla
		41
		4Batz
		Ayra Starr
		BossMan Dlow
		Fridayy
		October London
		Sexyy Red
2025
		Leon Thomas
		Ayra Starr
		BigXthaPlug
		BossMan Dlow
		Dee Billz
		41
		October London
		Shaboozey ‡
		Teddy Swims ‡

References

1. Andy Swift. "BET Awards Nominees 2013 – Full List Of Hip-Hop Nominations". Hollywood Life. Archived from the original on February 20, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2015.
2. Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE. "BET Award 2014 Nominations Announced". nokiatheatrelalive.com. Archived from the original on July 21, 2014. Retrieved May 18, 2015.
3. "Chris Brown and Nicki Minaj Lead BET Awards Nominations". Rap-Up. Retrieved May 18, 2015.
4. Konerman, Jennifer (May 20, 2016). "Drake Leads BET Awards with 9 Nominations". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
5. "Beyoncé and Bruno Mars Top 2017 BET Awards Nominees Slate". Billboard. May 15, 2017. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
6. "DJ Khaled Leads 2018 BET Awards Nominations: See the Full List". Billboard. May 16, 2018. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
7. "Winners". BET . Archived from the original on May 17, 2019.
8. "2020 BET Awards". Awards and Winners. Archived from the original on June 16, 2020. Retrieved June 15, 2020.