Lizzo Cries After Meeting Lauryn Hill at 2026 BET Awards and Shares Advice from the Icon: ‘She Lit a Fire Under Me’

Jack IrvinTue, June 30, 2026 at 4:58 PM UTC

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Lizzo at the 2026 BET Awards; Lauryn Hill and LizzoCredit: Entertainment Tonight/Instagram; Lizzo/X -

Lauryn Hill received the inaugural Living Legend Icon Award at the 2026 BET Awards and performed two surprise songs

Lizzo honored Hill with a performance of "Doo Wop (That Thing)" and shared an emotional backstage moment with her hero

The "Bitch" singer cried while speaking to Entertainment Tonight after meeting Hill

Lauryn Hill shared some wisdom with Lizzo.

Hill was honored with the inaugural Living Legend Icon Award at the 2026 BET Awards on Sunday, June 28, and Lizzo honored her with a cover of "Doo Wop (That Thing)" alongside Rapsody during a star-studded tribute performance at the ceremony.

Lizzo, 38, got the chance to meet Hill, 51, at the ceremony and spoke to Entertainment Tonightabout the moment through teary eyes in a backstage interview. "I just met my hero. I don't have words," she told the outlet.

"I'm gonna go wipe my face," she added. "That is my hero. Y'all don't understand. I'm a Beyoncé sun, Lauryn Hill moon, Missy Elliott rising. Like, that's my DNA, and wow. And I got to sing 'Doo Wop'?"

In a social media post on Tuesday, June 30, Lizzo shared a photo of herself posing with Hill to X and dished on their time together. The "Bitch" singer wrote, "Ms. Hill told me to never stop speaking the truth! She lit a fire under me and spoke life to my soul!"

The tribute to Hill at the 2026 BET Awards also included performances from the War and Treaty, Doechii, SZA, Tierra Whack, Tems, Doja Cat, Nas, Alexia Jayy, Queen Latifah, Common and Hill’s children Selah, Joshua “YG” and Zion Marley.

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Hill then delivered a surprise performance of two songs: "Ex-Factor" and "Everything Is Everything."

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While accepting the Living Legend Icon Award, Hill opened up about the importance of respecting others' dignity. "I fight for y'all. Everybody may not know about it, but I fight for y'all," she said.

Lauryn Hill in June 2026Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty

"Fighting for y'all is me fighting for myself. It's me fighting for my children. It's me fighting for my parents," added the Fugees alum. "It's me fighting for my grandparents. It's me fighting for my community, alright? I have a desire to make music as well as I can to communicate with people as good as I can. I want people to know that that's what we do. I want people to know that that's what we can do."

Hill also spoke to the next generation. "We hold different gifts. Someone else's gifting might be fashion. Might be hair. Might be consoling someone. It might be this microphone. But that gifting is very important because somebody out there needs your gift. So don't sell your gift short," she said.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”