The R&B legend and 10-time BBMA winner is the eleventh artist and seventh girl to obtain the accolade.
Mary J. Blige obtained the Icon Award throughout Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards.
The R&B legend and 10-time BBMA winner is the eleventh artist and seventh girl to obtain the respect, which acknowledges artists who've achieved excellence on the Billboard charts and have made an indelible mark on music.
Earlier Icon Award recipients embrace Neil Diamond, Stevie Surprise, Prince, Jennifer Lopez, Celine Dion, Cher, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Garth Brooks and Pink.
“I’m in a dream proper now,” Blige stated after taking the stage, escorted from the viewers by BBMA host Sean “Diddy” Combs, as the group continued to erupt in applause. Janet Jackson introduced the award to Blige.
Blige went on to replicate on what it actually means to be an icon and the journey to “obtain greatness.”
“What an icon means to me is overcoming obstacles to perform the unthinkable and be broadly admired for having affect over a mess of individuals and that's what I at all times represented,” she continued. “I’ve been on this journey for a very long time, one which didn’t at all times look the way in which you see me now, one that's full of plenty of heartache and ache however God helped me to channel these experiences and feelings in my music, which is the place I began in music.”
Blige went on to say how when she was launched to the music scene it was the “starting of a motion,” given “each inside metropolis lady was acknowledged in their very own and will relate to every thing I used to be saying.”
She additionally stated that “each feminine artist that got here into the sport” wished to emulate what she was doing. “I used to be ghetto fabulous and I nonetheless am,” she stated laughing. “So ghetto, so fabulous and other people have been threatened by that. And now all people need to be ghetto fabulous.”
Blige continued to replicate on how the “message of my music has at all times been that we're not alone in our struggles. And I’m not alone now. For thus lengthy I used to be looking for an actual love however I lastly discovered my actual love and that actual love is me. Who’s managing Mary J. Blige now? Me.”
Blige later thanked everybody on her workforce together with her household, associates, Diddy, Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. She concluded her speech with a recognition to her “phenomenal, diehard, unbelievable followers.”
.@maryjblige is an icon with a multi-decade profession stuffed with hits! 👏 Congrats on being the recipient of the 2022 #BBMAs Icon Award! #IconMJBpic.twitter.com/4tIcYUMryR
— Billboard Music Awards (@BBMAs) Might 16, 2022
Previous to taking the stage, Blige was honored in a montage that additionally included particular shout-outs from Taraji P. Henson, Queen Latifah and Gabrielle Union.
In keeping with Billboard, Blige has collected 4 No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 (Share My World, Love & Life, The Breakthrough and Rising Pains) and a No. 1 single (“Household Affair”) on the Billboard Scorching 100.
The present, hosted by Combs, is airing dwell from the MGM Grand Backyard Area in Las Vegas on NBC and Peacock.
The Billboard Music Awards ceremony is produced by MRC Stay & Various, a division of MRC, which is a co-owner of The Hollywood Reporter by a three way partnership with Penske Media titled P-MRC.