Teyana Taylor sobbed as Janet Jackson offered her with the Icon of the 12 months Award on the 2026 BET Awards.
And the truth that the “Management” singer was set to current Taylor the distinction was stored a secret, even to the Golden Globe-winning actress herself.
“Oh my God. Bitch, I’m gagging,” Taylor mentioned as she took the stage to simply accept the esteem. “They didn’t inform me Janet was coming, bitch, and it’s so loopy as a result of when Kehlani mentioned, ‘Janet is right here,’ I mentioned, bitch, is that the shock? I wasn’t positive!”
Taylor started by thanking Jackson, whom she referred to as her “largest inspiration.”
“I really like you a lot. Thanks, thanks, thanks for at all times seeing me. Thanks for each textual content, each hug, each discuss. You’re my largest inspiration,” Taylor mentioned of Jackson. “All people who is aware of me know the way I really feel about you, the truth that you even took up the time to be right here to have a good time with me, that is loopy. I really like you a lot. Like, you don’t even perceive.”
The Golden Globe winner mirrored on her tenure within the trade in her speech, noting that she “puzzled if I used to be purported to really feel uncomfortable saying that title out loud,” in reference to her Icon of the 12 months Award.
“However no, I labored my ass off 20 years for this,” Taylor mentioned. “So I’m not accepting what I’ve earned with vanity; I’m accepting what I’ve earned with gratitude. And this yr alone, I proceed to offer the world the artist, actress, director, choreographer, inventive director, stylist, designer, author, producer and chef!”
“I graduated in September, y’all,” she mentioned in reference to her viral enterprise as a culinary college pupil.
She continued, “Most of my profession has been spent constructing my very own dream whereas serving to someone else construct theirs as a result of I imagine there’s room for all of us to win, even when which means pouring from my very own cup into another person’s to allow them to overflow, not as a result of I needed to, however as a result of that’s simply who I’m. That’s fairly rattling iconic in the event you ask me. As a result of this enterprise will be very depraved.
“It teaches us to compete. However I’ve by no means believed that my success needed to trigger another person’s theirs. If I do know one thing, I ought to train it. If I open the door, I ought to maintain it. If I’ve a platform, I ought to make room for one more voice,” she mentioned. “Thanks, as a result of I imagine greatness isn’t measured by how many individuals stand beneath you. It’s measured by how many individuals stand beside you since you’re keen to succeed in again. That’s the one legacy I care about.”
Taylor additionally thanked her mom and father, and her two daughters. “To my biggest masterpiece, my infants, Junie and Rue. If sooner or later individuals keep in mind me as an icon, I pray the 2 of you, at all times keep in mind me merely as house,” Taylor mentioned. “Mommy loves you so, a lot. I really like you, and also you higher be watching me and off them goddamn telephones, per common.”
Earlier than the One Battle After One other actress gave her acceptance speech, she was seen crying within the viewers when Jackson took the Peacock Theater stage. The five-time Grammy Award winner recommended Taylor’s accomplishments whereas introducing her and thanking her for his or her friendship.
“It looks as if solely yesterday a rose from Harlem grew out of the concrete. and blossomed into our Icon of the 12 months. I’ve loved watching you, as you realize, through the years. Watching you defy expectations, rewrite the principles and lead with an unstoppable work ethic,” Jackson mentioned. “You possess an unflinching perfectionism, a devotion woven into every part you contact. Your focus and imaginative and prescient summon into being what most would name unimaginable. You carry a calling from above, and the world is made extra luminous with the artwork that you’ve got given it. This yr, it belongs to you.”
Janet Jackson hugs Teyana Taylor on the BET Awards 2026 held at Peacock Theater on June 28, 2026, in Los Angeles.
Gilbert Flores/Selection by way of Getty Photos
After twenty years within the trade, Taylor had fairly a monumental yr, incomes her first Oscar nomination and Golden Globe tied to her flip in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Academy Award-winning movie One Battle After One other. Other than being offered with the Icon of the 12 months Award on the 2026 BET Awards, Taylor additionally received the Vogue Vanguard Award, finest actress and video director of the yr.
Jackson recommended Taylor’s accomplishments, referencing her “Grammy nomination in your newest album, Escape Room. A number of nominations in your layered efficiency within the Oscar-winning movie, One Battle After One other. You stood toe to toe with a few of main heavyweights, thespians in our trade, and also you picked up a coveted Golden Globe for finest supporting actress. All of that whereas elevating two lovely women, your biggest accomplishment.”
Taylor mirrored on her busy yr in a canopy interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“You may see my endurance being on this recreation since I used to be 15, doing a bit little bit of every part,” she mentioned. “This second hits loads more durable than it might’ve if every part had gone my method after I needed it to.”
The 2026 BET Awards aired dwell on Sunday, June 28, at 8 p.m. from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on BET and different Paramount networks.
See the complete 2026 BET Awards winners checklist right here, and take a look at the entire arrival appears right here.
