Mary J. Blige to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at BET Awards

By Dano Nissen

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Mary J. Blige will soon add a BET lifetime achievement award to her crowded shelf of recognitions.

Blige will receive the honor at the 19th annual , airing live on the cable network June 23 at 8 p.m. ET from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

The singer has nine Grammy Awards, eight multi-platinum albums, two Academy Award nominations, two Golden Globe nominations and a SAG nomination. For her work in “Mudbound” she made history as the first person to earn an Oscar nomination in the acting and music categories in the same year.

Blige looked back on her estimable career in an interview with Variety last year . She named her emotional 1994 album “My Life” as the most significant milestone of her recording career, because “those songs were written from a place where I was crying out for help. I was writing songs to heal myself. And that’s where all this started: 4 million fans, that I didn’t know I had, bought the album. I didn’t know so many women were suffering like I was suffering.”

Other BET lifetime achievement award winners include James Brown, Whitney Houston, Prince, Samuel L. Jackson, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross and Gladys Knight.

Regina Hall will host the awards ceremony. Cardi B leads the packs of nominees with seven nods, followed by Drake’s five. Beyonce, Travis Scott and J. Cole each have four nominations.

Performers announced for the show include , DJ Khaled, Migos, H.E.R., Lil Nas X with Billy Ray Cyrus, Lizzo, Mustard, Lil Baby, Yung Miami of City Girls, Lucky Daye and Kiana Ledé. Taraji P. Henson, Lena Waithe, Morris Chestnut, Yara Shahidi and Marsai Martin are among the announced presenters.