appeared on the season finale of The Voice singing "Get Her Back" with finalist Josh Kaufman. Thicke then performed the song "Forever Love" at the BET Awards 2014. At the end of June 2014, during a Q&A session on Twitter and hosted by VH1, Thicke asked followers to submit questions by using the hashtag #AskThicke. The tag was quickly overrun by people protesting against his lyrics criticized as misogynistic, his lifestyle choices and other detractors leading to what The Guardian called "an epic PR fail". When a Twitter user pointed out that the comments directed at Thicke were "brutal", Thicke responded: "I can handle it, I'm a big boy". The album, originally set for a Fall release, was pushed forward and released on July 1, 2014, five weeks after the release of its lead single. Paula peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard 200, and sold 24,000 copies in its first week of release. In a 2015 interview with Jody Rosen of The New York Times, Thicke expressed both embarrassment over his public dedications and regret over giving the album a commercial release, stating, "my record company didn't want me to put it out, but they stuck by me. In hindsight, the only thing I would have done differently was, I wouldn't have promoted it or sold it. I would have given it away." Following the release of Paula, Thicke spent several months largely away from media appearances and performing in order to focus on his personal life and to work on new music. Thicke returned to the spotlight at the BET Awards 2015 to sing the classic Smokey Robinson and The Miracles hit "Ooo Baby Baby" in tribute to Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Smokey Robinson and joined Robinson on stage for a group rendition of "My Girl" alongside Tori Kelly and Ne-Yo. On June 29, on the heels of his BET Awards performance, Thicke debuted the lyric video for his new single "Morning Sun", on Vevo followed by the official release of the single on June 30. "Morning Sun" rose to the number 4 position on the Billboard Adult R&B Songs chart becoming Thicke's 11th top 10 hit on Urban AC radio. Speaking with Prestige Hong Kong, Thicke explained: "The new album is call[ed] Morning Sun. It's about fresh starts, new beginnings, and the heralding in of a new day. It's about the last year of my life, the