Michael Tran/FilmMagicLil Mama joins the ladies of TLC—Rozonda "Chili" Thomas and Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins—for a very special American Music Awards performance at the Nokia Theatre in L.A. on Sunday, Nov. 24. The rapper, who played the late Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes in the band's recently released Vh1 biopic, joined the remaining members onstage during the star-studded show.
The trio sang "Waterfalls," the group's megapopular hit from 1995. The single helped the girl group earn two American Music Awards nominations in 1996, though they lost to Boyz II Men in both categories. TLC made its first appearance at the annual awards show in 1993.
Chili, T-Boz and Lil Mama concluded Sunday's performance by paying tribute to Left Eye, whose image was projected onto a giant screen behind them. The hip-hop artist was tragically killed in a car crash in 2002.
For Lil' Mama, getting to portray Left Eye in CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story was a dream come true. "TLC has helped me to know that as a musician I can talk about anything; that there are no barriers, and that you can be yourself. That's what I love about them," she told Ebony in October.
"Left Eye in particular helped me to stay on top of my A game," she added. "She's one of the best female MCs that I've heard. Her lyrical content was up there with the MC Lytes, the Lauryn Hills and Missy Elliotts of the world. She helped me to understand that if I'm going to go in and talk about something, [I have to] be poetic, be expressive and do it in a way that the average person can't."