Soul Train Music Awards 2011: Recap & Winners

Opening up this years Soul Train Music Awards was Morris Day and the Time. I have such an old soul for my age, I was up doing the dance and singing, "America have ya heard? I gotta brand new dance and it's called the bird! ..... Whawck hallelujah, woah...oh..oh...." Lol.

And how funny was Cedric the Entertainer who hosted this years show? He came out doing the Dougie, the Stinky Leg and he was Popping.

The lovely Marsha Ambrosius came out to join Common on stage and they performed "Blue Sky."

Cee Lo Green and Melanie Fiona sung "Fool For You." I would've preferred if Melanie sung her single "4 a.m."

Lloyd performed "Dedication to My Ex (Miss That)" and right after Miguel performed "Girls Like You." For the teenage boppers out there, Mindless Behavior performed their hit "Mrs. Right" and at first I'm like who is this?... B2K? Lol. Anthony Hamilton performed to his song "Woo." And Robin Thicke sung "Love After War"....love his voice!

A lot of reality stars made appearances in presenting awards and performers; NeeNee from Real Housewives of Atlanta, Tami and Shaunie from Basketball Wives and the Braxton sisters, minus Toni, from The Braxton Family Values. Celebrity blogger, Necole Bitchie also made an appearance doing the Soul Train scramble board, her site is one of my favorites. CNN's Wolf Blitzer made his second appearance at the Soul Train Awards, last year he dougie'd and this year he beat-boxed, lol.

Tributes...



Gladys Knight accepting her award from Natalie Cole

The first person to ever perform on Soul Train and seven-time Grammy Award winner, Glady's Knight, received the Legends Award.

Kenny Latimore, Freddy Jackson, Tamar Braxton, Chrisette Michelle, Marsha Ambrosius and Natalie Cole made appearances in a tribute to Glady's singing songs like, "Midnight Train to Georgia" and other Gladys hits. 

When accepting her award, Glady's brought up BeBe Winans on stage and they sung a song off her new album.

I saw Jill Scott sitting in the audience and thought she should have been included in the tribute lineup.

Gladys Knight will also be performing at the Tropicana casino in Atlantic City on December 31st.

A tribute to Heavy D was shown which started off with a clip of his 1991 Soul Train Music Award acceptance speech.

I thought the American Music Awards would've mentioned more about Heavy D, but only Mary J. Blige mentioned his passing on the show.

So to honor Heavy D on the Soul Train Music Awards Naughty by Nature, Doug E Fresh, Kurtis Blow, Big Daddy Kane, Whodini and more honored the Overweight Lover, bringing the crowd to their feet singing as everyone sung, "We got nothing but love for you Heavy." And there were 'In Loving Memories' with a variety of celebs paying their tribute. Nicely done.

Earth, Wind & Fire, one of the groups that I must see in concert, received the Legends Award for lifetime achievement and they're celebrating 40 years!

To pay tribute to them, Miguel, Musiq Soulchild, Pootsie Collins (from Parliament-Funkadelic) and more performed.

Eric Benet, Robin Thicke and Joe killed the "Reasons" song. Eric Benet sounded like Philip Bailey for a hot second, hitting those high notes very nicely.

And Cee Lo Green closed out the tribute singing "Shining Star." Awesome tribute but I didn't like how the show ended while Earth, Wind & Fire were performing. I wanted to hear more of Philip Bailey.

Earth, Wind & Fire Tribute Band will be performing at BB King's Bar & Grill in New York on December 26th at 7 p.m.

What I like about the Soul Train Music Awards is that the mainstream artist don't sweep the awards show, they win enough. Artists that are so underrated can shine during this show and we see their performances and hear the songs that don't get that much airplay on the radio. Jill Scott, Anthony Hamilton, Marsha Ambrosius...all great talent in which we need to hear more of. And we get to hear classic music!

And the winners are...

Best New Artist
Bruno Mars
Marsha Ambrosius
Miguel
Frank Ocean

Winner: Miguel
My Pick: Marsha Ambrosius

Best Female R&B/Soul Artist

Jill looked great!

Kelly Rowland

Beyonce
Marsha Ambrosius
Jill Scott
Jennifer Hudson
Mary J. Blige

Winner: Jill Scott
My Pick: What a tough category! But that The Light Up the Sun album is fire! Jill deserves that win.

Best Male R&B/Soul Artist
Trey Songz
Chris Brown
R. Kelly
Miguel
Cee Lo Green
Eric Benet

Winner: Cee Lo Green
My Pick: R. Kelly

Ashford and Simpson Songwriter of the Year Award (New Award)
Rollin' in the Deep - Adele
Far Away - Marsha Ambrosius
Best Thing I Never Had - Beyonce
Good Man -Raphael Saadiq
Hold My Hand - Michael Jackson feat. Akon

Winner: Marsha Ambrosius
My Pick: Agreed! What an inspirational song "Far Away" was and a touching video to go along with it, go Marsha!

- SEE THE FULL LIST OF WINNERS HERE