NEED TO KNOW
- Jamie Foxx was presented with the Ultimate Icon Award at the 2025 BET Awards
- In his acceptance speech, the 57-year-old award-winning actor, comedian and musician addressed surviving his near-fatal stroke that happened in April 2023
- The BET Awards are airing live on Monday, June 9
Jamie Foxx is getting his flowers at the 2025 BET Awards.
On Monday, June 9, the multi-hyphenate accepted the Ultimate Icon Honor at the awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
Before Foxx, 57, was presented with the award, Stevie Wonder — who goes “way back” with him — delivered a thoughtful introduction.
“He hit me up because of his win – Academy Award – for Ray. And I said, ‘You know Jamie, just because you play a blind man that don’t mean that we’re besties, okay?'” he quipped.
A series of artists then appeared on stage to pay tribute to Foxx.
Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds teamed up with Ludacris to cover the honoree’s 2005 track “Unpredictable” before Tank took the stage to transition into Foxx’s “Oscar era” with a performance with Jennifer Hudson for a performance of Ray Charles’ 1958 classic “Night Time Is the Right Time (To Be with the One You Love).”
Hudson, 43, then belted a snippet of Kanye West’s 2005 track “Gold Digger,” which featured Foxx.
Doug E. Fresh, Teddy Riley and T-Pain then covered his 2008 hit “Blame It.”
Wonder then returned to the stage and recalled the first time he met Foxx.
“Jamie. Jamie! Look at me. Listen, you know, I remember seeing you the first time at a club playing the piano and singing. But I knew from the moment I heard you sing that you had so much more. I admire and celebrate your talent.”
Wonder, 75, then jokingly praised Foxx’s “love for blind people.”
“I’m very happy to be here tonight to see you honored as you very well deserve,” he concluded.
Foxx then took the stage and embraced Wonder before sharing an emotional speech.
“Man, we used to take this thing for granted — that God is good,” he began. “All the time. I cannot even begin to express the love that I feel from everybody out there.”
Foxx then began to tear up as he discussed surviving a near his near-fatal stroke in April 2023: “I gotta be honest — when I saw the ‘in memoriam’ [portion of the awards show], I was like man, that could have been me. But I don’t know why I went through what I went through, but I know my second chance I’m not going turn down. I’m not going to turn down.”
Foxx then recalled he asked for “one more crack” at life.
“I said whatever reason you put this on me, I promise I’mma do right. I’mma do right in front of y’all, because I know a lot of times, when we get on we forget about where we come from,” he said.
Foxx then addressed how his 2024 Netflix special Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was… was for the Black community.
“When I did my special, it was for the Black people. Black people was the ones that said, ‘Man, we got you.’ Not to say that white people can’t pray either — I know that sounds weird, but y’all know what I’m saying,” he said.
Foxx continued: “It’s like, you guys held me down. And I don’t want to make this whole speech about that, but you can’t go through something like that and not testify.”
The Collateral actor then shared his gratitude for his team.
“Thanks so much for pulling me through,” he began. “I’m seasoned. I don’t want to say I’m old, but I am older. So, usually at this time, at this age, you’re playing that father on Disney. You know, you got that big-ass sweater and the coffee mug? But luckily, I have a great team that stabilized me.”
Foxx then addressed the current political landscape and the significance of the award coming from the Black community. “The Icon Award is the most important award because it comes from us,” he said.
Foxx then thanked his family for caring for him during his health crisis, paying special tribute to his “beautiful daughter,” Corinne.
“I cannot say enough about you,” he said of his daughter, 31. “You’ve always taken the backseat to everything. But when you needed to drive it, you drove. And you made sure I was here. And I ain’t going to turn down.”
Foxx then noted that he wasn’t going to stop crying “just yet” and thanked Wonder for his kind words.
He then shared his love for his younger daughter Anelise, 16, who was sitting in the audience.
“My baby with the big hair,” said Foxx. “She hides under that hair because she’s got something special. You’re so beautiful man.”
He added that when he was “fighting for my life” and his vitals were “bad,” he didn’t want his youngest daughter to see him “like that.”
“But my Anelise overheard the conversation and she snuck into my hospital room with her guitar and said, ‘I know what my daddy need.’ And as she played the guitar, my vitals dropped,” Fox recalled.
The BET Ultimate Icon Award celebrates “decades of groundbreaking contributions to music, entertainment, advocacy, and community impact,” the network said ahead of Monday’s show.
Mariah Carey, Kirk Franklin and Snoop Dogg were also recognized in the category.
Foxx is no stranger to the BET Awards, as the Academy Award winner not only hosted the show in 2018, but took the stage as well for a televised tribute to Anita Baker. The “Angel” singer, 67, sat in the audience, swaying back and forth as he performed a medley of her hits while playing the piano.
“I said one day I’m going stop crying. But I got a feeling I’ll never stop crying because you were special,” Foxx told Corinne at Netflix’s FYSEE LA event on May 29 during a humorous and heartfelt Q&A that included jokes, impressions and the actor’s gratitude towards healthcare workers that helped him recover.
“I’m glad God gave me an opportunity to get back so I could see what you’re going to do because you’re going to shock the world,” he continued, adding that Corinne has “always been grounded” and “held me down” during the health scare.
He also recalled meeting the medical team at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta for the first time after he’d been sedated. Foxx was unconscious for 20 days before waking up in a wheelchair.
Foxx had been in Atlanta to film his Netflix movie Back in Action opposite Cameron Diaz.
The Charlie’s Angels alum, 52, thanked him for ending her decade-long acting hiatus.
“I had 10 years of not paying attention to anything; not accepting any advances, and then I got this script and thought that maybe it was time,” Diaz said of Foxx on the Jan. 17 episode of The Graham Norton Show. “If I was going to leave my family for 10 hours a day I wanted to do it with the most talented man in the entertainment business.”
In 2013, Foxx also won the BET Award for best actor.
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During his acceptance speech, he thanked those who came before him, such as Sidney Poitier and “another acting god” Harry Belafonte.
The BET Awards are airing live on Monday, June 9 from Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater on BET.
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