At the 2022 Billboard Music Awards, Mary J. Blige will be honoured with the Icon Award. Besides receiving the award, she will also perform at the show. The show will be live telecasted from coast to coast on Sunday, May 15 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Blige is the 11th artist to win the Icon Award, which honours exceptional musicians who have excelled on the Billboard charts and left an everlasting influence on music. Neil Diamond, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Jennifer Lopez, Celine Dion, Cher, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Garth Brooks, and P!NK are among the previous honorees.

Also reads: Grammys 2022: PM Narendra Modi congratulates Indian musician Ricky Kej on his win

Blige said in a statement. “My career has been such an incredible and unexpected journey that has included many turns into avenues I never could have imagined, like acting, producing, launching businesses, and now even my own music festival,” Blige said in a statement. Through it all, I always, one way or another, gravitated back to my first love, music. To be recognised in this way at this moment, with the Icon Award at the Billboard Music Awards, is an incredible honour and one that I am truly humbled by. “

Blige won the R & B Album of the Year award in 1995 and nine awards at the 2006 Billboard Music Awards.

Blige has received nine Grammy Awards. For her work in Mudbound, she became the first artist in Oscar history to be nominated for both acting and songwriting in the same year. Blige, who sang alongside Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar in the all-star Super Bowl halftime show in February, could receive her first Emmy award this year.

Also read: Cardi B shares first photos of her son, see pics

In 2017, she was awarded the icon of the year award at the Billboard Women in Music event, and in 2019, Blige was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the BET Awards.

Blige, 51, is in the age category of previous Icon Award winners. P!nk, who won last year, was the youngest recipient to date, at 41. Diamond and Cher are the most senior awardees. They were both 70 years old when they were honoured.