Usher Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award at 2024 BET Awards, Despite Technical Glitches During Speech

Usher was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 BET Awards on Sunday night (June 30) at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. However, viewers at home faced frustration as the audio cut out during a significant portion of his speech.

Terry Lewis introduced the segment, remarking, “It is great to see him get the flowers while the garden is still growing, so keep growing them flowers.” Lewis and Jimmy Jam, who produced one of Usher’s iconic tracks, “Bad Girl” from his 2004 album Confessions, invited two other influential figures in Usher’s career, L.A. Reid and Babyface, to present the award. They paid tribute to Usher’s mother, Jonnetta Patton, with Babyface adding, “We were part of your musical birth, and you are worthy of this prestigious award.”

Usher delivered an approximately 12-minute acceptance speech, but around four minutes of it were largely inaudible to those not present in the theater. (Billboard has reached out to BET for comment regarding the audio issues.)

“Getting here has definitely not been easy, but it has been worth it,” Usher began. “I didn’t write anything because I wanted this moment to be exactly what it was: present. In this moment, how I am feeling and the appreciation that I have for each and every person that had anything to do with this moment tonight as well as the 30-plus-year career that I celebrate. … I don’t know, man, is it too early for me to receive it? Because I’m still running and gunning and I still love this like I did when I was eight years old.”

Usher also spoke about the difficulties he faced with his birth name, given to him by a father who was absent from his life. “Or at least, that was my perception of it, because I had to live long enough in order to understand you have to have a forgiving heart in order to understand the true pitfalls and hardships of a Black man in America,” said the eight-time Grammy winner. “And my father, he was a product of that. He made a lot of decisions, he made a lot of choices and the one that probably hurt and helped me at the same time was to stay away. But that’s part of the reason why I say this is the year of the father, where all the fathers gotta stand up for their sons and daughters and be the man that they need them to be for them.”

While praising Jam, Lewis, Reid, and Babyface for their roles in shaping his career, Usher referred to them as “the men who motivated me, who speak to me, who have spoken to me, who have been solid no matter how messed up it may have been.” He candidly used censored expletives to emphasize his genuine feelings. Unfortunately, about four minutes into his speech, the audio began to cut in and out intermittently.

A Billboard reporter inside the awards show noted that Usher used the words “f–k” and “motherf–ker” once each, but overall, his speech was not filled with profanity or inappropriate content.

When the audio was restored, Usher acknowledged his children, who were in the front row and at home. “It is 100% all about my children and making certain that you understand that your dreams can come true if you truly committed, if you are committed to it, if you’re dedicated to something and you find passion and you stay committed to it, this could potentially be you. This could be your moment. Not on this stage, because I’m the only one that’s gonna have this one,” he joked.