Beyoncé made a special appearance at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards on Monday night to accept their prestigious Innovator Award — presented to her by none other than Stevie Wonder — and to deliver a timely message to the music industry by calling out its racial biases.
Three days after the release of her genre defying eighth studio album Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé showed up to Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre in full rodeo regalia: a fringed, double-layered and double-belted all black leather ensemble, with gold stud and concho-esque embroidery.
Icon Stevie Wonder gave Bey an impressive intro, citing her many industry-shifting accolades and calling her a “true visionary.” After thanking Wonder for playing the harmonica on her version of “Jolene” (what a flex) and giving him his flowers, Beyoncé began her acceptance speech from a place of gratitude.
“Innovation starts with a dream, but then you have to execute that dream and that road can be very bumpy,” said the singer. “Being an innovator is seeing what everyone believes is impossible. Being an innovator often means being criticized, which, often, will test your mental strength.”
It’s fair to assume that Bey was referencing the criticism she’s received throughout her career while expanding into other genres, taking up too much space by the industry standards set for Black women, as well as the racist backlash she has gone up against for Cowboy Carter‘s mission to reclaim country music for Black people.
Beyoncé directly responds to the backlash and naysayers in the next part of her speech: “So, to all the record labels, every radio station, every awards show, my hope is that we’re more open to the joy and liberation that comes from enjoying art with no preconceived notions.”
Might those preconceived notions be evident amongst the unwelcoming audience she faced at the 2016 Country Music Association Awards? Or in the Grammys voting room while the country music committee rejected Lemonade‘s “Daddy Lessons” from consideration in the category? Or maybe in the on-air studio of the radio station that refused to play her music due to their understanding that Beyoncé doesn’t make country music?
Beyoncé is redefining, reclaiming, and reshaping the sonic world we all occupy — and no one is going to limit her expansion. As Texan journalist Taylor Crumpton put it in her review of Cowboy Carter for The Daily Beast: “Little Black girls from the South can do anything, and you can’t tell them what to do because you’re not their mama. In layman’s terms, the Recording Academy and any other governing institution of music cannot police Beyoncé Giselle Knowles Carter, because they are not Tina Knowles. And therein lies the album’s true sense of joy and release.”
The “II Hands II Heaven” singer spent the rest of her time on the Dolby Theatre stage delivering a verbal 10-gallon hat tip to the Black innovators who came before her, “who dedicated their art and their lives to creating shifts,” thanking them for their “sacrifices, powerful voices, and dauntless spirits.” Bey spoke the names of Wonder, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Tracy Chapman, Linda Martell, Prince, André 3000, Tina Turner, and Michael Jackson, artists who “defied any label placed upon them.”
Watch Beyoncé’s full acceptance speech for the 2024 iHeartRadio Innovator Award below:
