Photo: Getty Images
T-Pain was the star of the night at the 2023 Soul Train Awards.
On Sunday, November 26, BET aired the 36th annual Soul Train Awards, which took place outdoors in Beverly Hills, Calif. Before T-Pain made his grand entrance, a slew of performers dominated the stage like host Keke Palmer, Coco Jones, Muni Long as well as those in the annual Soul Cypher by Brownstone's Nicci Gilbert, Arin Ray, Eric Bellinger & Marsha Ambrosius. Toward the end of the show, veteran hitmaker David Banner presented Pain with the Legend Award, which the Florida artist noted felt "a little weird" since he's got a lot more music left in him.
“I don’t want you to chase this," Pain advised young artists during his acceptance speech. "I don’t want you to base your life on how many people in the crowd can tell you that you can have this. I want you to know that you already got this. You already have this in your mind. I want y’all to be who y’all are unapologetically, I want y’all to be who you’ve always wanted to be. I want y’all to not care about what anybody thinks about that person. If you like it, I love it and I want some mo’ of it.”
T-Pain also thanked his wife Amber Najm with some heartwarming words before he wrapped up his speech. Afterward, Pain hit the stage to perform a solid medley of his greatest hits. Within a 10-minute span, Teddy Pain went through a slew of songs like “Got Money,” “Bartender,” “Good Life,” “I’m Sprung,” “Can’t Believe It,” “Chopped N Skrewed,” “Blame It,” “The Boss,” and “All I Do Is Win.”
In addition to T-Pain's major win, SZA took the lead as the most decorated artist of the night after she won four awards: Song of the Year, the Ashford & Simpson Songwriter’s Award for “Snooze," Best R&B/Soul Female Artist, and Album of the Year for SOS. Usher came in second with three awards and Victoria Monét with two awards.
See T-Pain's performance below and see all the winners here.