--- title: "Soul Train Awards return to Chicago with first fan-voted trophies after a three-year pause" url: https://badiyaa.com/soul-train-awards-2026-chicago-fan-vote/ published: 2026-10-20T02:17:00+01:00 modified: 2026-10-20T02:17:00+01:00 section: Entertainment publisher: Badiyaa --- # Soul Train Awards return to Chicago with first fan-voted trophies after a three-year pause Fan voting closed October 16; Anthony Anderson hosts the November 5 taping at Chicago's Harris Theater, which airs on BET and CBS on November 27. For the first time since the show began in 1987, fans rather than an industry panel will decide two of the trophies at the Soul Train Awards, which BET is bringing back in Chicago after a three-year pause. Voting in both new categories closed on Friday, October 16, and the winners stay sealed until the broadcast on Friday, November 27. BET named the nominees on October 5. Ten records compete for R&B/Soul Song of the Year, which fans voted on through BET.com, and seven acts are up for Spotify’s RNB X International Artist, which was voted inside the Spotify app. Tems is the one name in both fields, so she currently holds the most nominations of the night, with two. ## The 10 songs and seven international acts The song list mixes solo hits with two duets: Brent Faiyaz’s “Butterflies,” Bruno Mars’s “I Just Might,” Chris Brown and Bryson Tiller’s “It Depends,” Daniel Caesar’s “Who Knows,” Justin Bieber’s “Yukon,” Kehlani’s “Folded,” Mariah the Scientist and Kali Uchis’s “Is It a Crime,” Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need,” Tems’s “What You Need” and Tyla’s “Chanel.” BET’s pitch for the shortlist was that these records “dominated streaming, conquered the charts, and resonated across the culture.” The international race, built around Spotify’s flagship R&B playlist, features Cleo Sol, FLO, kwn, Odeal, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Tems and Tiana Major9. BET and Spotify said the seven were chosen on streaming numbers, cultural reach and their effect on the genre, so the shortlist itself was a curated one before any fan clicked. A third, unofficial poll ran alongside them. Fans picked from 64 records to rank the 20 greatest R&B songs of the 2020s, voting once every 24 hours, and the top 20 will be counted down on “Back on Track,” the red-carpet show streaming on YouTube and Facebook before the ceremony. ## What changes when fans hold the ballot For most of its history, Soul Train winners came from a voting body of radio programmers, music retail and management professionals, and recording artists who had charted in the trade publications the year before. Handing two categories to the public changes who the show is talking to. A daily-vote format also rewards organized fan bases more than casual listeners, which is worth keeping in mind when the results land; a big streaming army can carry a record that radio programmers might have ranked lower. “We’re thrilled to put the vote in the fans’ hands for the first time,” said Connie Orlando, BET’s executive vice president of specials, music programming and music strategy, who is also the show’s executive producer. Jesse Collins Entertainment is producing. ## Back in the city where Soul Train began The setting carries its own weight. Don Cornelius grew up in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, graduated from DuSable High School and worked at WVON and WCIU before he launched Soul Train, which premiered on WCIU-TV on August 17, 1970, as a live weekday-afternoon show. Chicago’s Johnson Products Company, the maker of Afro Sheen, co-sponsored its move into national syndication in 1971, and the series stayed on air until 2006. The awards spin-off first aired in 1987 from Santa Monica, California, with Dionne Warwick and Luther Vandross as hosts. It went on hiatus after the 2023 edition, hosted by Keke Palmer in Los Angeles, and the 2026 show is listed as the 37th ceremony. Anthony Anderson, named host on October 1, has done this job before: the ceremony record lists him as host of the 2013 show at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, which makes this a return 13 years later. He also hosted the BET Awards in 2015 and 2016 and the NAACP Image Awards for eight straight years. “Don Cornelius created a platform that gave Black artists a place to shine,” Anderson said when BET announced him. The show will not be live. It tapes at the Harris Theater on November 5, which leaves a gap of 22 days before it airs, and BET has said the two-hour program will honor four to five music icons alongside the fan-voted awards. Performers and honorees are still to be named. - **November 5:** taping at the Harris Theater in Chicago - **Before the ceremony:** “Back on Track” red-carpet stream with the 2020s countdown on YouTube and Facebook - **November 27, 8 p.m. ET/PT (7 p.m. CT):** broadcast on BET, simulcast on CBS, BET Her, VH1, MTV2 and Logo That CBS slot is new too: according to the [show’s history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Train_Music_Awards), November 27 will be the first time the [Soul Train Awards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Train_Awards_2026) air on the network. ## Further reading - [Wikipedia: Soul Train Music Awards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Train_Music_Awards) - [Wikipedia: Soul Train Awards 2026](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Train_Awards_2026) *Image: Punzunltd, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons* *This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*