Lauryn Hill Honored By Three Of Her Own Children At BET Awards living Legend Moment

June 29, 2026

Lauryn Hill became the first-ever Living Legend Icon at the BET Awards, closing the show with “Everything Is Everything” after an epic tribute.

Lauryn Hill shut the Peacock Theater down Sunday night in ways nobody’s going to forget anytime soon, walking away from the 2026 BET Awards as the inaugural recipient of the brand-new Living Legend Icon Award, and the night belonged to her from the jump.

The tribute was so massive it required a commercial break just to get through it all.

The War and Treaty kicked things off with a gut-punch callback to Sister Act 2, with Tanya Trotter delivering “Joyful, Joyful” directly to Hill, the same song the two performed together as teenagers back in 1993.

It set the tone for what was coming: a full-court press of hip-hop’s best honoring the woman who taught them all how to do it.

SZA and Doechii locked in on “Ready or Not” while Tems and Tierra Whack handled “Fu-Gee-La” with just as much conviction.

Doja Cat ran through “Superstar” before linking up with Nas for “If I Ruled the World,” and Nas capped his set with “Ms. Hill, you’re the greatest!” to a crowd that wasn’t disputing it.

Then her daughter Selah Marley took the stage to perform the title track from The Miseducation, and Hill visibly lost it.

YG Marley brought the Bob Marley classic “Turn Your Lights Down Low” before son Zion Marley performed the reggae-inspired “To Zion,” the song written about his own birth, making the whole room feel like a family reunion.

Lizzo and Rapsody followed with “Doo Wop (That Thing),” and Queen Latifah and Common closed the guest set with “Lost Ones” before Latifah screamed “Respect the Queen of Jersey!” to a standing ovation that shook the room.

Then Hill herself walked out and performed “Ex-Factor” live, an unplanned appearance after she heard someone had dropped out of the tribute. Ice Cube, who opened the night calling her “one of the greatest voices in Black music history,” returned to hand her the award.

In her acceptance speech, Hill kept it focused on the community, saying “I fight for y’all. Everybody might not know about it, but I fight for y’all. And fight for y’all, it’s fighting for me.”

She then closed the entire show with “Everything Is Everything,” a song she’s been making feel new again on stages around the world, as the credits rolled.

Billboard ranked the Hill tribute as the best performance of the entire night, and with a 20-minute medley featuring three of her own children plus hip-hop’s biggest current stars, that wasn’t even a debate.

Hill kicks off a series of intimate acoustic performances globally on July 2 in the Canary Islands.

View Original Source