There are moments in life when every bone in your body is telling you to just embrace the petty; when you’ve lost all the fight within you, so you just say to hell with it and throw all caution to the wind. For Ciara, that moment happened Monday morning on live TV when she and co-host Ludacris were put in charge of announcing the 2016 Billboard Music Awards finalists. It’s a tricky thing being an artist tasked with reading a bunch of other artists’ names aloud, particularly for a nomination in a category you could have also been up for — but weren’t. Inevitably, you’ll come across an enemy or five. Ciara diverted that tension once already, asking Ludacris to read the Top R&B Artist finalists, knowing Rihanna, the woman who once cyberbullied her to the point of no return, was on the list. Surely such tension wouldn’t haunt her again, right? Ha.
Little did Ciara know (or did she?), moments later she had to read the names for Top Rap Artist, and guess whose name was on there, likely bolded, highlighted, and circled with “danger!†arrows pointing at it: Future. Yes, her ex-fiancé, father of her son, man she is suing for defamation, and rapper who landed three No. 1 albums in the span of six months. Ciara did what any woman who has since moved on to bigger, better things would do. She happily read Drake and Fetty Wap’s name, then swerved to the right like a bird dodging incoming traffic and forced Ludacris to say Future’s name — only to happily carry on saying Wiz Khalifa and Silento’s names like she’s bought every one of their songs. Today, we bow to Ciara’s petty throne.