Whitney Houston Tribute From Mom at BET Awards Sets Web Abuzz [STATS]

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If social networks could cry, they would have last night during Cissy Houston's emotional performance of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" in memory of her late daughter Whitney at Sunday's BET Awards.

The moment helped the broadcast become the third most-popular entertainment event ever on Twitter and Facebook, attracting more than 3 million tweets and 41,000 status updates, data from Bluefin Labs shows.

Correction: Because of a calculation error on Bluefin's end, the initial figures reported are incorrect. The BET Awards generated 7.98 million tweets and 81,000 status updates.

Pop legend Mariah Carey, often dubbed as Houston's rival, lead off the tribute with tales of their sometimes diva-ish relationship. Singers Monica, Brandy and Chaka Khan also performed some of Houston's hits.

The show's mobile app, which featured gaming elements tied to voting and predicting the order of performers, helped spur social engagement. #BETawards was even trending on Twitter before the broadcast began.

That tribute (watch above) was among the highlights of the ceremony featuring host Samuel L. Jackson and stars Beyonce, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. Jay-Z even mocked Kanye's 2009 outburst:

"Excuse me, Kanye, I'm gonna let you finish but ... " ~ Jay-Z while accepting their Video of the Year award at #BETawards— Brian A. Hernandez (@BAHjournalist) July 2, 2012

Meanwhile, on social entertainment platform GetGlue, roughly 15,000 people checked in for the ceremony, pre-show and post-show. GetGlue had partnered with BET for the Fandemonium award, which went to Chris Brown. Users checked in some 720,000 times to vote for him, GetGlue spokeswoman Claire Gendel told Mashable.

Bluefin shows us which moments popped the most: