The coveted Lifetime Achievement Award went to Usher in the Los Angeles, California, 2024 BET Awards.
At the June 30 celebration, Usher’s significant career spanning more than three decades was honored.
Several performers, including Childish Gambino and Keke Palmer, paid homage to the U Got It Bad hitmaker throughout the event by performing versions of his hit songs.
Even though there were momentary technical difficulties that interrupted the event, Usher gave a moving acceptance speech.
He thought back to the difficulties he encountered as a child growing up without his father and how those events influenced his career path in music.
“I was trying to make sense of this name that a man gave me that didn’t stick around because he didn’t love — or at least that was my perception of it,” Usher stated in his address.
He went on, “Because I had to live long enough to realize that the real dangers and struggles faced by Black men in America are best understood through forgiveness,” and he added, “My father was a product of it. He made a lot of decisions, and the one to stay away was probably the one that both benefited and wounded me.
