Lauryn Hill will receive the Living Legend Award at the 2026 BET Awards, which will air live on Sunday, June 28, at 8:00 PM ET/PT from the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles. Drusky will host the show.
According to BET, the Living Legend Icon Award "recognizes trailblazers who have mastered their craft and never forgotten the culture.".
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«Lauryn Hill is the very definition of a living legend,» said Connie Orlando, executive vice president of special projects, music programming, and music strategy at BET, in a statement. “In every era, she never chased the moment; she shaped it. Her work redefined the possibilities of our music and empowered an entire generation to be fearless, spiritual, and free. Her influence is woven into the fabric of culture, and we are honored to celebrate her legacy on culture’s most important night.”.
Lauryn Hill, 51, rose to fame as a member of The Fugees, whose 1996 album The Score topped the Billboard 200 chart for four weeks. In 1998, she released her debut solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill — a soulful, uncategorizable work that received near-unanimous critical acclaim. The album also topped the Billboard 200 for four weeks and spawned the number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, "Doo Wop (That Thing).". Miseducation became the first hip-hop album to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, and contributed to Hill becoming the first woman to win five Grammys in a single night. The album was inducted into the National Recording Registry in 2014 and the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2024.
Earlier this year, Hill returned to the Grammy Awards stage with an extended set dedicated to the memory of Roberta Flack and D'Angelo.
The Living Legend: Icon Award is a new honor. In 2015, BET established the "Major Icon" award, with Janet Jackson being its first recipient. Last year, four artists received the award for the first time: Mariah Carey, Jamie Foxx, Snoop Dogg, and Kirk Franklin.
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