Teyana Taylor couldn’t contain herself Sunday night as BET honored her with its inaugural Icon of the Year award at the BET Awards. The Grammy-nominated singer and Oscar nominee almost immediately broke down in tears as Janet Jackson emerged to present her with the honor.
“It seems like only yesterday our rose from Harlem grew out of the concrete and blossomed into our Icon of the Year,” Jackson said.
From one icon to another, the pop legend poured into Taylor, telling her, “You possess unflinching perfectionism, a devotion woven into everything you touch … You carry a calling from above, and the world is made more luminous with the art that you have given it,” while also acknowledging Taylor’s recent Grammy and Oscar nominations, as well as her Golden Globe win for her role in “One Battle After Another.”
Still crying tears, Taylor finally sauntered onstage to accept her award from Jackson, whom she called her “biggest inspiration.”
“Oh my God, bitch, I’m gagging,” Taylor joked at the start of her speech while looking over at Jackson. “I love you so much,” she continued, “Thank you, thank you, thank you for always seeing me … There would be no me without you.”
Taylor went on to discuss the significance of her award, saying, “Tonight, they handed me a title: Icon of the Year. For a little minute, I wondered if I was supposed to feel uncomfortable saying that title out loud. But nah, I worked my ass off 20 years for this. So I’m not accepting what I’ve earned with arrogance. I’m accepting what I’ve earned with gratitude.”
The Icon of the Year recipient added: “Most of my career has been spent building my own dream while helping somebody else build theirs, because I believe there’s room for all of us to win, even if that means pouring from my own cup into someone else’s so they can overflow. Not because I had to, but because that’s just who I am. That’s pretty damn iconic if you ask me, baby.”
In addition to Icon of the Year, Taylor also won Best Actress, Video Director of the Year and the first Fashion Vanguard Award at this year’s BET Awards.
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