This year’s BET Awards, under the theme “The Year of the Black Woman”, honored Queen Latifah with the Lifetime Achievement Award at their in-person ceremony.
What We Know:
- Latifah has already won a Grammy, an Emmy, been nominated for an Oscar, and previously nominated for four BET Awards. She came into the music scene in the late 1980s with her debut album All Hail the Queen. Her music career would span six albums that transitioned from hip-hop to soul and jazz.
- In 1993, Latifah landed a role on the sitcom Living Single, which launched her acting career. Her musical talent gave her an edge, leading to an Oscar nomination for the 2002 film adaptation of Chicago and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her portrayal of Bessie Smith in HBO’s Bessie. Latifah would go on to launch her own talk show, The Queen Latifah Show, which she would revive 15 years later for two seasons on CBS.
- Currently Latifah stars and executive produces The Equalizer, a broadcast drama on CBS. The crime show has garnered critical acclaim and rose to the top of new series this season.
- At the ceremony, musicians Rapsody, MC Lyte, Monie Love, and Lil’ Kim performed two of Latifah’s hits in tribute to what began her career. Latifah gave a heartfelt speech thanking her family, friends, producing partner Shakim Compere, and the BET Awards.
“I want to thank BET for creating an outlet for beautiful blackness to thrive, to shine, when we couldn’t get played on the radio and other places…BET allowed us to be in our fullness and to shine.”
- Prior to the show, host Taraji P. Henson praised Latifah for carving out space for herself on multiple media platforms, allowing other black women to follow in her footsteps. She told Variety, “She built a brand. She came from hip-hop, she had a record label and flipped that, she became a TV executive producer and had her own show. She did movie after movie. She just reinvents herself.”
Latifah closed her speech by shouting out her longtime partner Eboni Smith, their son, and Pride month. She now joins the likes of Whitney Houston and Mary J. Blige as BET Lifetime Achievement Award recipients.
