Lauryn Hill was honored Sunday night (June 28) at the 2026 BET Awards as the inaugural recipient of the Living Legend Icon Award.
According to BET, the Living Legend Icon Award celebrates “the pioneers who mastered their craft and never let go of the culture.” Connie Orlando, EVP of Specials, Music Programming & Music Strategy, called Hill the very definition of a living legend, while further explaining why she’ll be the award’s first honoree. “Across every era, she has never chased the moment; she has shaped it,” Orlando said. “Her artistry redefined what was possible in our music and gave a generation permission to be fearless, spiritual and free. Her influence is woven into the fabric of the culture, and it is a profound honor to celebrate her legacy on Culture’s Biggest Night.”
The New Jersey singer, rapper and actress first made a name for herself on the silver screen playing the stubborn but talented student Rita Louise Watson in 1993’s Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. She then reinforced herself as one-third of the legendary Fugees alongside Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel in 1994 when the group dropped their debut album Blunted on Reality. However, it wasn’t until 1996’s The Score and Ms. Hill’s rendition of Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly With His Song” that she really catapulted to superstardom. She then upped the ante two years later with her seminal debut solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill that forever changed what a hip-hop album could sound like.
Her tribute started off with Ice Cube setting the table as he broke down her career, which was then followed by her bandmate Wyclef narrating their time with the Fugees. As for the medley, The War and Treaty started things off with a callback to Sister Act 2 as they performed “Joyful, Joyful,” originally performed by the fictional St. Francis Choir in the movie; Doechii and SZA covered “Ready or Not”; Tems and Tierra Whack did “Fu-Gee-La”; Lauryn’s daughter Selah Marley performed the title track from her mother’s solo project; Doja Cat came out for “Superstar”; Nas did their classic collab “If I Ruled the World” with Doja; Hill’s son YG Marley performed “Turn Your Lights Down Low”; Lizzo brought Tierra out again to help her perform “Doo Wap (That Thing)”; her other song Zion Marley did a rendition of a song that’s named after him; Alexia Jayy blew the crowd away with her cover of “Killing Me Softly”; and Queen Latifah and Common ended the tribute with “Lost Ones.”
Hill then surprised the crowd and viewers by performing “Ex-Factor” before accepting her award.
During her speech, she explained why she’s so outspoken and encouraged artists to do the same before she congratulated her children on their many accomplishments.
“I do this because I love y’all,” the singer began. “I do this because I want you to have everything that I experienced, right? I had wonderful parents who loved on me, poured into me, and protected me. 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. And music was a way for me to do that. But also, I had always cared about the expression and the representation of the dignity of our people. So, you know, we put ourselves at times as artists, we put ourselves in places and in situations where we have to say things that aren’t always comfortable. But we understand that people will understand later.”
She added: “I fight for y’all. Everybody may not know about it, but I fight for y’all. And 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. I have a desire to make music as well as I can, or to communicate with people as well as I can because I wan’t people to know that’s what we do. I want people to know what we can do.”
Finally, Lauryn ended the show with an emotional performance of “Everything Is Everything” as the credits began to roll.
You can watch her acceptance speech below.
