Teyana Taylor took home the Icon of the Year Award at the BET Awards 2026, held in Los Angeles. The Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning actress, while accepting the award, delivered an emotional speech on stage, saying, “Tonight they handed me a title, and that title is Icon of the Year.”
Teyana Taylor receives Icon of the Year at BET Awards 2026
In addition to Icon of the Year, which was presented by Janet Jackson, Taylor also won the Fashion Vanguard Award, Best Actress, and Video Director of the Year for her short film Escape Room. The actress said she has been working for 20 years, adding, “For a little minute I wondered if I was supposed to feel uncomfortable saying that title out loud.”
“I’m not accepting what I’ve earned with arrogance, I’m accepting what I’ve earned with gratitude,” she said as per the Deadline report.
Stomp the Yard actress said, “Most of my career has been spent building my own dream while helping somebody else build theirs, because I believe there’s room for all of us to win. Even if that means pouring from my own cup into someone else’s, so they can overflow, not because I had to, but because that’s just who I am. That’s pretty damn iconic, if you ask me.”
Taylor, who first made a name for herself by choreographing a Beyoncé music video, Ring the Alarm, at the age of 15, said the entertainment industry can be “wicked” and competitive, but emphasized that she has never believed her success should diminish anyone else’s. She added that if she knows something, she should teach it; if she opens a door, she should hold it; and if she has a platform, she should make room for other voices.
Taylor was named the honoree on June 9. According to BET, as per Variety, the Icon of the Year award is reserved for a “culture-defining” artist whose influence is not measured in years, but by the lasting impact they leave in every room, every conversation, and every corner of the culture they shape.
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Originally reported by Meenakshi Sengupta on Reality Tea
