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Lauryn Hill receives inaugural Living Legend Icon Award at 2026 BET Awards, honored with star tribute, delivers emotional speech on love, community, and artistic gifts
Lauryn Hill Named Living Legend Icon at 2026 BET Awards
It was one of the most emotional moments of the 2026 BET Awards. Surrounded by fellow artists and cheered on by the audience, Lauryn Hill took the stage to accept a special honour that celebrated her lasting impact on music and culture.
The singer-songwriter was presented with the inaugural Living Legend Icon Award at the BET Awards held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday. Before accepting the honour, Hill was celebrated with a star-studded tribute featuring performances by Lizzo, Rapsody, Doja Cat, Common, Queen Latifah, Nas, War and Treaty and SZA. Three of her children — Selah, Joshua “YG” and Zion — also appeared during the tribute.
As she accepted the award, Hill thanked her fans and spoke about what has always driven her music.
“I do this because I love y’all. You know?” she said during her speech. “I do this because I want you to have everything that I experienced.”
The Grammy-winning artist also reflected on the role her parents played in shaping her life.
“I had wonderful parents who loved on me, poured into me and protected me,” said Hill. “And once I realized that not everybody got to have that experience, I felt like it was my duty, my responsibility to share as much love and to pour into [as] much people as I possibly could. Music was a way for me to do that.”
Hill said her work has always been about standing up for people and using music to bring them together.
“I fight for y’all. Everybody may not know about it, but I fight for y’all. Fighting for y’all is me fighting for myself. It’s me fighting for my children. It’s me fighting for my parents. It’s me fighting for my grandparents. It’s me fighting for my community, alright? I have a desire to make music as well as I can to communicate with people as good as I can. I want people to know that that’s what we do. I want people to know that that’s what we can do.”
She also encouraged people to value their own talents, no matter what they may be.
“We hold different gifts. Someone else’s gifting might be fashion. Might be hair. Might be consoling someone. It might be this microphone. But that gifting is very important because somebody out there needs your gift. So don’t sell your gift short.”
The emotional evening became even more special when Hill’s son, John, walked onto the stage on his 23rd birthday to hug his mother. Speaking about her children, Hill shared that they inspired her iconic debut album.
“When I made The Miseducation [of Lauryn Hill], I was inspired by you. Know that. I was inspired by the beauty. I was inspired by our potential. I knew it was possible. I dreamed it. I saw it, and I had to manifest it through song. Thank you so much, and I’m so glad that you love the music. Love and respect y’all. God bless you.”
She ended her speech by urging people to celebrate and support one another.
“Thank you all the legends and all the greats who paved the road for all of us. Let’s celebrate each other. Let’s honor each other. Let’s respect each other. If nobody else shows us respect, let’s respect each other. If nobody else loves us, let’s love on each other. And you know what’s gonna happen? They gonna start loving us. Yeah. They already do, first of all. But we’re gonna show them how we wanna be loved.”
Before leaving the stage, Hill closed with one final line that drew loud applause from the audience.
“It’s intimidating sometimes we shine so great.”
The tribute had one more surprise. Realising that no one was performing one of her biggest hits, “Ex-Factor,” Hill stepped on stage and sang it herself, telling the crowd, “I wasn’t supposed to perform, but I heard nobody was doing this one.”
According to BET, the inaugural Living Legend Icon Award recognises artists whose work has remained deeply connected to culture over the years. In a press release, Connie Orlando, EVP of Specials, Music Programming & Music Strategy for BET, described Hill as “the very definition of a living legend.”
“Across every era, she has never chased the moment; she has shaped it,” Orlando said.
Hill rose to global fame as a member of The Fugees before releasing her landmark solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, in 1998. At last year’s BET Awards, she also performed alongside her son YG Marley before being joined by her Fugees bandmate Wyclef Jean.
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