Pioneering the game decades ago for many of today's hottest female MCs and entertainment personalities, Queen Latifah will be recognized and celebrated at the 2021 BET Awards. She is set to receive the show's Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to Black music and pop culture.
As part of the show's "Year of the Black Woman" theme, actress Taraji P. Henson will serve as its host, which is fitting as the pair have crossed paths multiple times throughout their careers. For Queen Latifah, who began her entertainment career as a rapper on her 1989 debut All Hail the Queen, she continues to bolster her hall-of-fame-level career as an actress, currently leading CBS' crime drama The Equalizer. She's had a long run in front of the camera, starring in FOX's Living Single in the 90s and earning a Best Supporting Actress nod at the 2002 Academy Awards for her role in Chicago.
On the music side, she has sold more than two million records across her seven studio albums, carried by the strength of her gold-selling Black Reign record in 1993. Songs like "U.N.I.T.Y." capture Latifah's magnetic presence behind the mic, and while her music career seems to have been put on hold in favor of her acting efforts, she's among some of the first Black entertainers to prove that their entertainment ability spans across different mediums.
And Latifah has been recognized as such throughout her career, winning a Grammy award for "U.N.I.T.Y.," an Emmy award for her HBO film Bessie, a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award for her role in Life Support, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, along with countless other honors. The BET Lifetime Achievement award only adds to Latifah's impressive and long-form resume of accomplishments within the entertainment industry.
Catch Queen Latifah receiving her Lifetime Achievement award at the 2021 BET Awards on June 27 at 8 p.m. ET. What's your favorite Queen Latifah album, song, or film? Let us know in the comments below.