BET Awards: Queen Latifah gets emotional accepting Lifetime Achievement Award

Queen Latifah couldn’t hold back the tears during the highly-anticipated BET Awards on Sunday night.

The iconic actress received the Lifetime Achievement Award and got emotional on stage after a moving tribute organized by female rappers Lil’ Kim, Rapsody, MC Lyte and Monie Love.

The latent artists delivered a medley of Ladies First and U-N-I-T-Y, making the Hollywood star speechless for the love she received throughout her career and during the ceremony.

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She took a moment to show her appreciation for family and friends, including her late mother, declaring that she wanted to pay tribute to her, as she has “always celebrated the woman because I was raised by a strong Black woman, and raised by a father who loves women.”

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Jada Pinkett Smith also made a virtual appearance, on a special video dedicated to the star, who admitted she was “extremely moved,” praising BET for creating “an outlet for beautiful blackness to thrive, to shine.”

Latifah described the importance of the event, and stated that it has been an incredible platform “when we couldn‘t get played on the radio and other places, we couldn’t get our videos played in other places, there was BET that allowed us to be in our fullness.“