The

BET Award The BET Awards is an American award show that was established in 2001 by the Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate black entertainers and other minorities in music, film, sports and philanthropy. The awards, which are presented annu ...

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 Jennifer Kate Hudson (born September 12, 1981), also known by her nickname J.Hud, is an American singer, actress, and talk show host. Throughout her career, she has received various accolades for her works in recorded music, film, televisio ...

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 "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" (also known in short as just "And I Am Telling You") is a torch song from the Broadway musical '' Dreamgirls'', with lyrics by Tom Eyen and music by Henry Krieger. In the context of the musical, "And I Am ...

"; her first album was scheduled for release in October 2007.

Sam Smith Samuel Frederick Smith (born 19 May 1992) is an English singer and songwriter. After rising to prominence in October 2012 by featuring on Disclosure's breakthrough single "Latch", which peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart, they ...

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 The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967. The official guidelines are as ...

winning artist – † *

nominated artist – ‡

2000s

2010s

2020s

References

{{BET Awards BET Awards Music awards for breakthrough artist