Will Smith performed his new single, “You Can Make It,” with Chandler Moore, Kirk Franklin and Sunday Service Choir for the first time during the 2024 BET Awards on Sunday night (June 30).
“You are in the smoke and the fire/ Tight rope on the wire/ I see you’re broken and tired/ And all your hope is expired/ You’re just done with the change and the games and the shame/ And the world is insane, all the pain from the flames,” Smith rapped while standing in a ring of fire.
But the Sunday Service Choir’s soothing harmonies and Moore’s sweet hook turned the track’s initial downtrodden mood upside down. “Don’t give up on me, I need you to hold on/ Know you’re deep up in the storm/ But I know you can face it (Face it), ayy/ It can get dark on the road and you’re feeling all alone/ Don’t lose sight of where you’re going/ ‘Cause I know you can make it, oh, woah,” Moore sang before a storm snuffed the fire and rained down on Smith.
“Yo, Will, if I can testify for a minute?” asked Kirk Franklin before walking up to deliver a sermon about persevering through tough times with God’s grace, while Smith and the Sunday Service Choir got into formation in the middle of the red-colored stage.
“Nobody gets an easy ride/ We all have a cross to bear/ But there’s wisdom in that fire/ And every moment in your life is an opportunity/ We are not being punished, we are being forged/ Dance in your darkness moments,” Smith said solemnly at the end of his performance while the “Dance In Your Darkest Moments” line flashed above on the screen.
“It’s a blessing, that’s a Philly legend. I grew up watching him my whole life. I recorded that hook in 2020 and I sent that to Ayo, and then I think Ayo started working with Will this year and just played him that hook. And he just jumped on the verses. So that’s a blessing,” Fridayy told Billboard‘s deputy director of R&B/hip-hop Carl Lamarre on the red carpet earlier this evening. “I talked to him a few times on the DM, but this the first time I’m meeting him.
Taraji P. Henson hosted the show for the third time. The 2024 BET Awards took place at Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
Watch Will Smith’s debut performance of “You Can Make It” below:
