Cardi B, Don Lemon and SZA joined Michelle Obama and Kendrick Lamar as NAACP Image Award winners on night 2 of the virtual pre-show.
Cardi B won three Image Awards on Tuesday night, including outstanding female artist and outstanding album for her latest record “Am I the Drama?” Her track “ErrTime” won the prize for outstanding hip-hop/rap song. Before the ceremony, Cardi B had won just one Image Award, for serving as judge and executive producer of “Rhythm & Flow.”
Veteran journalist Don Lemon won two trophies for his eponymous talk show, “The Don Lemon Show”; Lemon’s news and talk series and Obama’s podcast “IMO,” which the former first lady co-hosts with her brother Craig Robinson, won four of the five awards presented for that medium.
Lamar, who was also a big winner on the first night of the three-part virtual ceremony, hosted by Angel “ThatChickAngel” Laketa Moore and Khleo Thomas. On Tuesday, Lamar also won prizes in two more categories — named outstanding male artist and sharing the music video/visual album award with SZA for their Grammy-winning hit song “Luther.”
Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” won its first awards out of a massive 18 nominations, collecting the prizes for outstanding soundtrack and original score. The period vampire thriller is the most-nominated project at this year’s Image Awards, which will air live on Saturday, Feb. 28, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on BET and CBS. Deon Cole returns to host the show, broadcast from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. The recently-wrapped Peacock series “Bel-Air” led the TV categories with seven nominations. The nominees for Entertainer of the Year, the show’s signature category, include Cynthia Erivo, Doechii, Lamar, Michael B. Jordan and Teyana Taylor.
Special honorees for this year’s NAACP Image Awards week include Viola Davis, who will be presented with the Chairman’s Award; Colman Domingo, the President’s Award honoree; A$AP Rocky, to be presented with the Vanguard Award for fashion; and Rev. Dr. Jamal-Harrison Bryant, who will receive the prestigious Mildred Bond Roxborough Social Justice Impact Award.
Watch the virtual pre-show in the video above. The full list of winners from night two can be found below:
Outstanding Music Video/Visual Album
“luther” – Kendrick Lamar & SZA (pgLang under exclusive license to Interscope Records)
Outstanding New Artist
Monaleo – “Who Did the Body?” (Columbia Records)
Outstanding Female Artist
Cardi B (Atlantic Records)
Outstanding Male Artist
Kendrick Lamar (pgLang under exclusive license to Interscope Records)
Outstanding Hip-Hop/Rap Song
“ErrTime” – Cardi B (Atlantic Records)
Outstanding Soundtrack/Compilation Album
“Sinners (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)” (Proximity Media LLC, under exclusive license to Masterworks, a label of Sony Music Entertainment)
Outstanding International Song
“Is It” – Tyla (Epic Records)
Outstanding Jazz Album
“We Insist! 2025” – Terri Lyne Carrington & Christie Dashiell (Candid Records)
Outstanding Gospel/Christian Song
“Do it Again” – Kirk Franklin (Fo Yo Soul Recordings/Tribl Records)
Outstanding Gospel/Christian Album
“Tasha” – Tasha Cobbs Leonard (Motown Gospel)
Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration (Traditional)
803Fresh feat. Fantasia – “Boots on the Ground Remix” (Snake Eyez Music Group/Artist Partner Group)
Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration (Contemporary)
Chris Brown feat. Bryson Tiller & Usher – “It Depends (Remix)” (RCA Records/Chris Brown Entertainment)
Outstanding Original Score for TV/Film
“Sinners (Original Motion Picture Score)” (Proximity Media LLC, under exclusive license to Sony Classical, a label of Sony Music Entertainment)
Outstanding Album
“Am I The Drama?” – Cardi B (Atlantic Records)
Outstanding Podcast – Scripted/Limited Series/Short Form
“Interesting Things with JC” (Jim Connors LLC)
Outstanding Podcast – News and Information
“The Don Lemon Show” (Lemon Media Network)
Outstanding Podcast – Lifestyle/Self-Help
“IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson” (Higher Ground)
Outstanding Podcast – Arts, Sports and Entertainment
“IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson” (Higher Ground)
Outstanding Podcast – Society and Culture
“The Don Lemon Show” (Lemon Media Network)
Getty Images
Monday, February 23
The 57th NAACP Image Awards week kicked off Monday with former first lady Michelle Obama and rapper Kendrick Lamar winning two of the early prizes.
Obama’s latest book, “The Look” — which explored her style evolution from her time in the White House to life afterwards — won the award for outstanding literary work biography/autobiography. Meanwhile, Lamar’s electrifying Super Bowl halftime performance was named outstanding short-form series or special – reality/nonfiction/documentary. Both Obama and Lamar are repeat winners at the Image Awards: she won in the same category in 2019 for her memoir “Becoming,” while he has nine trophies from the NAACP, including two for his 2025 anthem “Not Like Us.”
The awards were announced during the first edition of a three-night virtual event, where winners will be revealed in the majority of the Image Awards’ more than 90 categories (across film, television and streaming, music, literature and podcasts). The pre-show ceremony, hosted by Angel “ThatChickAngel” Laketa Moore and Khleo Thomas, aired exclusively on YouTube and NAACP+ and focused primarily on the literary categories, as well as two digital content creator prizes. For the first time, the NAACP Image Awards got into gaming, with Berlin Edmond Jr., aka Berleezy, winning the top prize.
Watch the virtual pre-show ceremony in the video above. The full list of winners from night one can be found here:
Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/Autobiography
“The Look” – Michelle Obama (Crown)
Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction
“A More Perfect Party: The Night Shirley Chisholm & Diahann Carroll Reshaped Politics” – Juanita Tolliver (Legacy Lit/Hachette Book Group)
Outstanding Literary Work – Instructional
“Who Better Than You?” – Will Packer (Penguin Random House)
Outstanding Literary Work – Journalism
“On Borrowed Time” – Anissa Durham (Online)
Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author
Charles B. Fancher – “Red Clay” (Blackstone Publishing)
Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction
“Death of the Author” – Nnedi Okorafor (William Morrow)
Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry
“The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems” – Patricia Smith (Scribner)
Outstanding Literary Work – Children
“Yvonne Clark and Her Engineering Spark” – Allen R. Wells; Illustrated by DeAndra Hodge (Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers/Macmillan)
Outstanding Literary Work – Youth/Teens
“Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Book of Anansi” – Angie Thomas (HarperCollins/Clarion Books)
Outstanding Literary Work – Graphic Novel
“Parable of the Talents: A Graphic Novel Adaptation” – Octavia E. Butler, adapted by Damien Duffy, illustrated by John Jennings and David Brame (Abrams ComicArts)
Outstanding Short-Form Series or Special – Reality/Nonfiction/Documentary
“The Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show Starring Kendrick Lamar” (FOX)
Outstanding Digital Content Creator – Gaming/Tech
Berlin Edmond Jr. (@Berleezy)
Outstanding Digital Content Creator – Fitness/Wellness/Food
Keith Lee (@keith_lee125)
