Soul Train Awards 2012 Premieres This Sunday

On Thursday, November 8, 2012, the Soul Train Awards celebrated its 25th Awards show by honoring the best in music and entertainment at Planet Hollywood Live in Las Vegas. Hosted by Cedric the Entertainer, and backed by the musical direction of Raphael Saadiq, Soul Train Awards 2012 featured meaningful tributes to this year’s loss of Don Cornelius, hilarious Awards presentations, not-to-be-missed musical performances, and much more. The network premiere of Soul Train Awards 2012 will be televised simultaneously on Centric and BET on Sunday, November 25, 2012 at 8pm ET/PT.

Today’s hottest artists and Soul Train Awards 2012 nominees took to the Planet Hollywood Live stage including: three-time 2012 nominee Miguel, who performed his hit “Adorn;” Ne-Yo, who wowed with his single “Let Me Love You;” 2012 Best R&B/Soul Female Artist nominee Keyshia Cole, who performed her single “Trust and Believe;” Tyrese, who performed his Song of the Year-nominated hit “Stay;” 2012 Best New Artist nominee Elle Varner, who sang a remix version of her single “Refill” with a human beatbox; and two-time 2012 nominee John Legend, performed his Song of the Year-nominated smash “Tonight (Best you Ever Had).”

Bringing southern hip-hop to the Soul Train Awards 2012 stage was two-time 2012 Best Hip-Hop Song of the Year nominee, 2 Chainz, who performed a crowd-pleasing medley of his hits “Birthday Song,” “I’m Different,” along with a special duet of “Ghetto Dreams” with Charlie Wilson.

Soul Train Awards 2012 couldn’t have been the year’s biggest night for R&B/soul without unforgettable, crowd-raising performances by legends like Stevie Wonder, Eddie Levert, and Charlie Wilson, as well as contemporary artists of today channeling classic soul icons of yesterday. Epic Records recording artist Leah Labelle brought down the house with her flawless performance of Teena Marie’s “Square Biz,” Grammy Award-winner Fantasia embodied the Queen of Soul with her rendition of the Aretha Franklin classic “Don’t Play That Song For Me,” while Anthony Hamilton belted Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day,” and The Voice season 1 winner Marcus Canty tore up the stage with his take on Luther Vandross’ “Never Too Much.”

New Edition—particularly Bobby Brown—gave a tear-inducing acceptance speech during the group’s much-anticipated and well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award presentation. The sextet later returned to the stage for a very special medley performance of their hits like “Candy Girl,” “Telephone Man,” and “If It Isn’t Love” that drove the crowd wild.

Not to be outdone by the phenomenal music performances of the night, the caliber of star power the Soul Train Awards 2012 pulled together for the first-ever three-day Soul Train Awards experience in Las Vegas was legendary. Long-time Academy Awards host, actor, and comedian Billy Crystal, Donny and Marie Osmond, Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx, Las Vegas comedic icon George Wallace, basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson, hit-making songwriter and producer Jimmy Jam, Vampire Diaries star Kat Graham, Tamar Braxton, 2012 Best New Artist nominee Luke James, radio personality Tom Joyner, and more came out to present Awards, introduce musical acts as well as provide hysterical advice, guidance, and encouragement to two-time Soul Train Awards host Cedric the Entertainer about moving the show to Las Vegas.

Additional memorable moments include: the consistent threading of memories and images of the late Don Cornelius throughout the show—particularly the words from his son, Tony Cornelius; Charlie Wilson showing Cedric the Entertainer how to romance a woman; Eddie Levert singing “Casanova”; Jamie Foxx introducing a trailer for his upcoming film directed by Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained; and the super group TGT—composed of Tank, Ginuwine, and Tyrese.

Fresh off the heels of the Presidential election and Barack Obama’s re-election, Cedric The Entertainer coined the phrase of the night—”2 Termz”—playing off the audience call-and-response of 2 Chainz’s name.

Closing out the show was none other than the “8th Wonder of the World,” Stevie Wonder, who delivered a roof-blowing medley of his hits including “Superstition” and President-Elect Barack Obama’s acceptance speech entrance song “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours,” which was backed by projected photos of the “2 Termz” President.

Additional celebrity attendees and appearances by Estelle, Melanie Fiona, Jody Watley, Doug E. Fresh, Tony Rock, Mike Bivins, Gary Owen, Olympic gold medalist Cullen Jones, Kenny Lattimore, Lil Mama, Julius “Dr. J” Erving, and many more.

The Soul Train Awards is a presentation of Centric Network. Executive Producers of the telecast are: Paxton Baker, Tami Willis-Arasli, Derek Lewis, CENTRIC; Bart Phillips, Sunseeker Media; and Soul Train Holdings’ Kenard Gibbs, along with Cedric Kyles; Eric Rhone; Doug E. Fresh; and Damien Smith. The Soul Train Awards is directed by Tony McCuin and produced in cooperation with the City of Las Vegas and Clark County Nevada.

The Soul Train Awards 2012 will premiere simultaneously on BET and Centric on Sunday, November 25th at 8pm ET/PT. For more information, go to www.BET.com/SoulTrain and Tweet on Twitter using: #SoulTrainAwards