Fresh off earning her first No.1 album on the Billboard 200, R&B star Summer Walker has been announced as the latest performer at the 2021 Soul Train Awards, which tapes at the Apollo Theater in Harlem on Saturday and airs on November 28.
Walker’s sophomore album, Still Over It, earned the best first-week performance for an R&B album this year, and also marks the all-time best single-week streaming performance for any R&B album by a female artist, with over 200 million on-demand streams, according to MRC Data.
Walker will join previously announced performers including Maxwell, Ashanti, Silk Sonic, Ari Lennox, Leon Bridges, and Lucky Daye. Maxwell is on hand to receive the Legend Award while Ashanti is the Lady of Soul honoree.
“I’m honored to be recognized as this year’s Lady of Soul honoree,” Ashanti said in a statement. “This is a full-circle moment for me because I received the Aretha Franklin Entertainer of the Year Award at the Lady of Soul Awards in 2002. As we commemorate 50 years of Soul Train, I’m proud to be a part of this legacy and to return to the Apollo to celebrate.”
Fred Hammond will also take the stage, along with Soul of Justice honorees Ciara and Russell Wilson, and Marley Dias. Meanwhile, hip-hop veterans Fat Joe and Ja Rule and R&B veteran El Debarge will also make special appearances.
Along with the performers, BET announced a star-studded set of presenters including Jazmine Sullivan, Normani, Hosea Chanchez, and Wendy Raquel Robinson from the Paramount+ series The Game, and Devale Ellis and Crystal Hayslett from Tyler Perry’s Sistas on BET.
Actresses Tisha Campbell and Tichina Arnold will return as co-hosts of the Soul Train Awards for the fourth consecutive year.
In addition to a stacked list of performers, the show will also include the annual Soul Cypher, featuring D-Nice, Musiq Soulchild, Jac Ross, Koryn Hawthorne, Elle Varner, and Tone Stith.
BET has also announced it will host its first-ever 2021 Soul Train Awards weekend, a three-day event that will celebrate the best in culture, commerce, entertainment, music, and more to mark the 50th anniversary of Soul Train.
The 2021 Soul Train Awards presented by BET premieres Sunday, Nov. 28, at 8 p.m. ET on BET and BET Her. The show will also be available to watch on My5 and Sky On-Demand, in the U.K., beginning Dec. 3.
