Will Smith has made his first major award ceremony appearance since facing widespread criticism for slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards.

The 55-year-old Hollywood star performed his new song – You Can Make It – at the 2024 BET Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday.

It was a rare live appearance from the Men In Black actor, who was banned from attending the Academy Awards for 10 years following the televised slap, which occurred moments before he won his first Oscar.

For his performance, Smith stood in a circle of fire on an apocalyptic landscape, with a large sun rising behind him.

Smith opened the song by saying to the audience: “I don’t know who needs to hear this right now, but whatever’s going on in your life, I’m here to tell you, you can make it.”

Lyrics to the song include: “The darker the hell you gotta endure, the brighter the heaven you get to enjoy.

“The harder the fall, the higher you soar, God opens a window when the devil closes the door.

“Believe me, they tried to bleed Will Smith, in the rearview, I see adversity was the gift.”

Smith was joined by singer and songwriter Fridayy and the gospel choir Sunday Service, who encircled him above from a high platform.

Smith’s collaborator on the song, Kirk Franklin, also came onto the stage and rapped during the song, telling the audience that no one “is on a bad chapter forever”.

Smith closed the song with the lyrics: “We are not being punished we are forged. Dance in your darkest moments.”

Fresh Prince’s big comeback

Smith teased his upcoming album, Dance In Your Darkest Moments, last month. It comes nearly 20 years after his last studio album, Lost And Found, which he released in 2005.

Many see this as part of a well-orchestrated comeback, a feat almost as tough as his 26,000-mile trek from the South Pole to the North Pole for the Disney and National Geographic nature show he fronted, Welcome To Earth, in December.

Ahead of his song’s release on Friday, Smith shared a video of him playing the piano, with the message: “Through some of my darkest moments, music has always been there for me – to lift me and help me grow.

“It’s my humble wish that it can do the same for you and bring you all the joy and light you deserve.”

Smith first shot to international fame in the 1990s sitcom The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, a role he won after becoming the first rapper to win a Grammy award, in 1989 for his song alongside DJ Jazzy Jeff, Parents Just Don’t Understand.

The pair went on to record five hip-hop albums together, with hit songs including Summertime and Boom! Shake The Room.

As a solo artist, he released four albums, with number-one tracks including Getting’ Jiggy Wit It and Wild Wild West, and winning four Grammys.

Big win, and big mistake

Smith went on to conquer Hollywood, starring in blockbuster movies including Bad Boys, Men In Black and Independence Day, along with his critically acclaimed performance as Muhammad Ali in the 2001 film Ali, which earned him the first of three Oscar nominations.

But he did not receive Academy recognition until 2022, taking home best actor for his role in the sports drama King Richard, in which he played Richard Williams, the father and coach of tennis players Venus and Serena Williams.

However, his biggest career achievement to date was overshadowed by his on-stage actions.

Now, two years after the event, this rare stage appearance follows the success of his latest movie, Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, which has stormed the box office, and taken over $330m (£260m) globally.

Sir Ian McKellen has pulled out of a national tour after falling from a stage in the West End while performing in a play.

The 85-year-old actor was performing in Player Kings earlier this month at the Noel Coward theatre when he fell into the audience.

The production had been due to go on tour until 27 July but Sir Ian, 85, has announced his withdrawal with the “greatest reluctance” to “protect my recovery”.

A statement from the production said: “Following Ian McKellen’s injury during the West End run of Player Kings, his doctors’ advice is to take time off from work in order to fully recover.

“As such, he will not be returning to play Sir John Falstaff in the national tour of Players Kings (3-27 July 2024).

“Ian continues to recuperate very well, but he needs the time to rest and ensure a complete recovery. We continue to send him our best wishes.

“As it was for the final West End performances, the role of Falstaff will now be performed by David Semark, Ian’s brilliant understudy, for all tour dates of Player Kings.”

Sir Ian had been playing Sir John Falstaff – one of Shakespeare’s most famous creations – in the modern reworking of Henry IV, parts one and two.

The Olivier Award-winning star said in a statement: “Two weeks after my accident onstage, my injuries improve day by day.

“It’s with the greatest reluctance that I have accepted the medical advice to protect my full recovery by not working in the meantime.

“I had been so looking forward to bringing Player Kings to theatre-goers in Bristol, Birmingham, Norwich and Newcastle.

“But I can assure them that, with David Semark now playing Falstaff, Robert Icke’s production and his acting company remain as dazzling as ever. Go see for yourself!”

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Sir Ian had lost his footing during a fight scene in the play involving the Prince of Wales and Henry Percy.

The Lord Of The Rings star was heard crying out in pain as staff rushed to help, and the theatre was quickly evacuated.

Sir Ian said he spent three days in hospital following the fall before undergoing “physiotherapy, light exercise and a lot of essential rest at home”.

He also thanked well-wishers for their messages of support, as well as the NHS experts who had diagnosed and treated him.

Following its West End run, the play begins a national tour, starting at the Bristol Hippodrome on Wednesday 3 July, before stops in Birmingham, Norwich, and Newcastle.

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A migrant boat artwork by Banksy which appeared at Glastonbury Festival has been labelled “vile” and “not funny” by the home secretary, James Cleverly.

Speaking to Matt Barbet on Sky News Breakfast, Mr Cleverly said: “There are a bunch of people that are joking and celebrating about criminal actions which cost lives.

“People die in the Mediterranean, they die on the Channel. This is not funny. It is vile. This is a celebration of the loss of life in the Channel.”

The art installation featured an inflatable lifeboat filled with migrant dummies in orange life jackets and was hoisted above the crowd and passed around by festival-goers during several performances at the Worthy Farm festival.

When challenged by Barbet as to whether the stunt could be seen as a commentary on the Conservative Party’s failure to solve the issue of small boat crossings, Mr Cleverly blamed the Labour Party, which he claimed had “hampered” his government’s attempts “at every stage”.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made “stopping the boats” one of the party’s five priorities.

Mr Cleverly went on: “Something like that, I think is deeply distasteful. I mean children die in the Channel because of the actions of these vile criminals and joking about it and celebrating, I think it is completely unacceptable.

“To joke about it to celebrate it, at a pop festival, when there have been children dying in the Channel is completely unacceptable.”

The small boat first appeared during Idles’ set on Friday, while the Bristol-based band were performing Danny Nedelko, a 2018 release which begins with the lyrics: “My blood brother is an immigrant, a beautiful immigrant.”

The band were reportedly not aware it had happened until after the set had finished.

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The small boat appeared again during rapper Little Simz’s set as she performed on the Pyramid Stage on Saturday.

It was later confirmed to be the work of artist Banksy.

The installation also drew criticism from Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, who told Times Radio: “I was really saddened by it, actually.

“If you look at what happens with men, women, children being shoved on to those dinghies – the criminal gangs only fill them half with petrol, so they run out halfway across the English Channel and start to sink, endangering people’s lives.

“I don’t think this is a sort of thing to joke around with at Glastonbury.”

Artist Banksy, whose identity has been the subject of speculation since they first gained attention in the 1990s, often uses their distinctive graffiti and stencil-style street art to make subversive social and political comments.