Entertainment

Mary J. Blige Receives The Icon Award At The 2022 BBMAS

Published

2 years ago

May 16, 2022

Janet Jackson Presented Mary J. Blige With The Icon Award At The 2022 BBMAS

Congratulations are pouring in for Mary J. Blige. During Sunday’s 2022 Billboard Music Awards ceremony, the singer received the coveted Billboard Icon Award, presented by 2018’s winner Janet Jackson.

After calling Jackson, 56, one of her “biggest inspirations growing up,” Blige, 54, said that becoming a legend “takes a lot of time, hard work and a lot of surviving trial and error to achieve greatness.”

“What an icon means to me is overcoming obstacles to accomplish the unthinkable and be widely admired for having influence over a multitude of people, and that is what I’ve always represented,” the nine-time Grammy Award winner said, as the crowd cheered.

From one Icon to another, @JanetJackson is here to present the #BBMAs Icon Award to @maryjblige ✨ #IconMJB pic.twitter.com/UnkJ6jzguZ

— Billboard Music Awards (@BBMAs) May 16, 2022

.@maryjblige is an icon with a multi-decade career full of hits! 👏 Congrats on being the recipient of the 2022 #BBMAs Icon Award! #IconMJB pic.twitter.com/4tIcYUMryR

— Billboard Music Awards (@BBMAs) May 16, 2022

Later in her speech, after reflecting on how far she has come and the women whose lives she touched with her music, Blige joked “I was ghetto fabulous, and I still am,” adding: “So ghetto, so fabulous, and people were threatened by that.”

“The message in my music has always been that we are not alone in our struggles. And I’m not alone now,” she added. “For so long, I was searching for a real love, but I finally found my real love. And that real love is me.”

Ahead of the honor, she expressed gratitude for earning the esteemed award.

“My career has been such an incredible and unexpected journey that has included many turns into avenues I never could have imagined like acting, producing, launching businesses and now even my own music festival,” she said in a statement.