Kane Brown Performs 'Worldwide Beautiful' at the BET Awards

Kane Brown virtually took the stage at the BET Awards on Sunday night to sing his new song "Worldwide Beautiful," performing on stage at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Brown's performance was a collaboration with gospel singer Jonathan McReynolds, who first appeared with an acoustic guitar to sing his own "People" with the help of violin and cello players stationed around the venue. After the song ended, McReynolds left the stage as Brown walked on, utilizing a full concert setup of lights and his full band, all of whom were socially distanced from each other.

The 26-year-old's performance marked the first time the BET Awards featured a performance from a black male solo country artist. This year's ceremony was virtual for the first time due to the coroanvirus pandemic but continued to celebrate achievements in music, sports, television and movies on the 20th anniversary of the awards show. Brown released "Worldwide Beautiful" early this month and wrote on Instagram at the time that he had been holding onto the song for a year and that he is "hoping it will bring us together during this time." The reflective song is a call for equality and was written by Brown, Shy Carter, Ryan Hurd and Jordan Schmidt.

"You're missing every color if you're only seeing black and white / Tell me how you're gonna change your mind if your heart's unmovable," the chorus reads. "We ain't that different from each other from one to another / I look around and see worldwide beautiful." Brown, who is biracial, had a candid discussion with his followers about racism, sharing a photo of a tweet that read, "We will never see peace in this world until we ALL see each other as PEOPLE. We will never understand each other when you have people on 2 different sides. We have to become 1 to be at peace."

The "Cool Again" singer shared in his caption that he would be answering fans' questions and went on to discuss a number of topics including his experience as a biracial person, protests in the country and the Black Lives Matter movement. "If everyone was seen as people, if everyone was treated the same, if everyone was charged the same sentence, this s— wouldn't be happening," he wrote in one comment. "#BlackLivesMatter we are people too." Brown has since disabled the comments on the post.