The list of official nominees has been released for the upcoming 2012 BET Awards, including the recently added category Best International Act: Africa, which will spotlight some of Africa’s biggest names including Sarkodie (Ghana), Lira (South Africa), Camp Mulla (Kenya), Ice Prince (Nigeria), Mokobe (Mali) and Wizkid (Nigeria).
The Avengers star Samuel L. Jackson is set to host the July 1 awards ceremony, to be held at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium.”We are massively excited about having Sam Jackson, the world’s biggest box office star, host The BET Awards 12,”Stephen G. Hill, president of music programming and specials, BET Networks, said in a statement to the press. “His wit, presence and gigantic personality are the perfect match for our show.” Nicki Minaj and Chris Brown are slated to perform at the awards show. The Cadillac Lifetime Achievement honor will go to Maze featuring Frankie Beverly.
Last year’s awards show drew 7.7 million viewers on BET. It was also the first time that BET recognized talent from Africa in their newly carved out category Best International Act: Africa.
Click to see the full list of nominees:
