Cardi B enters the 2026 BET Awards as the evening’s leading nominee with six nominations, including a spot in the newly created Fashion Vanguard Award category alongside Beyoncé, Rihanna, Zendaya, A$AP Rocky, Teyana Taylor, and Doechii. The ceremony airs June 28 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on BET and simulcasts across Paramount’s cable portfolio — MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon among them — from Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, with comedian Druski hosting for the first time. Nominations were first reported in full by The Hollywood Reporter’s complete 2026 BET Awards nominations list.
Cardi B’s Six Nominations
Cardi B’s six nods span multiple disciplines: Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, Album of the Year for AM I THE DRAMA?, Best Collaboration for “Errtime Remix” featuring Jeezy and Latto, Video Director of the Year, Viewers’ Choice Award, and the inaugural Fashion Vanguard Award — which recognizes “global figures whose fashion presence has had long-standing cultural impact.” It is the first time in her career she is nominated as a director. Variety’s analysis of the 2026 BET Awards nominations notes the breadth of her six-category reach as historically significant for the show.
Kendrick Lamar and the Competition
Kendrick Lamar and Mariah the Scientist each earned five nominations. Lamar’s bids include Best Male Hip-Hop Artist, Video of the Year for “luther” with SZA (which won Record of the Year at the 2026 Grammys), Best Collaboration for “Chains & Whips” with Clipse and “Good Flirts” with Baby Keem and Momo Boyd, and Viewers’ Choice for “Chains & Whips.” Mariah the Scientist’s five nominations include Best Collaboration and Video of the Year for “Burning Blue.”
Four-nomination contenders include Doechii, Doja Cat, Clipse, Teyana Taylor, Olivia Dean, and Latto. Triple nominees include A$AP Rocky, Bruno Mars, Bryson Tiller, Chris Brown, Jill Scott, Kehlani, Metro Boomin, SZA, T.I., Tasha Cobbs Leonard, and YK Niece.
Album of the Year Field
Eight albums compete for the top prize: Cardi B’s AM I THE DRAMA?, Tyler, the Creator’s Don’t Tap the Glass, Wale’s everything is a lot., Mariah the Scientist’s Hearts Sold Separately, Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out, Leon Thomas’s MUTT Deluxe: HEEL, J. Cole’s The Fall-Off, and Bruno Mars’s The Romantic.
New Categories and the Best Movie Field
Alongside the Fashion Vanguard Award, BET introduced the Pulse Award for creators and content “that most powerfully moved Black culture forward in digital spaces.” Nominees include the 85 South Show, R&B Money Podcast, Charlamagne Tha God, and Don Lemon. In the film categories, the Oscar Best Picture winner One Battle After Another and the Oscar-nominated Sinners compete for Best Movie. “All of our nominees represent the very best of Black culture across music, film, sports, and beyond,” said Connie Orlando, BET’s EVP of Specials, Music Programming and Music Strategy. Deadline’s full category-by-category breakdown of the 2026 BET Awards covers all remaining fields. The BET Experience fan events run June 25–27 at venues across Los Angeles ahead of the Sunday-night broadcast.
The nominations land in a summer generating major US celebrity news. On the philanthropic front, Ariana Grande’s Brighter Days Ahead Foundation for LGBTQ+ rights and mental health launched June 12. In music, Olivia Rodrigo’s third studio album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love sent “Drop Dead” straight to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in its debut week.
