2024 BET Awards

Usher won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 BET Awards on Sunday, but his speech was so heavily edited that viewers watching at home weren’t able to make out what the “Confessions Part II” singer was saying. BET has since apologized for what a spokesperson called an “audio malfunction.”

“Celebrating global icon Usher on our stage with a star-studded tribute and having him accept his award with a heartfelt speech was an honor,” the spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter. “Due to an audio malfunction during the live telecast, portions of his speech were inadvertently muted. We extend our sincere apologies to Usher as we couldn’t be more grateful for his participation in culture’s biggest night. Fans can catch his full uninterrupted speech across BET platforms and tonight’s encore on BET.”

As for the contents of his roughly 13-minute speech, Usher talked a lot about forgiveness.

“We’ve got to be willing to forgive. We’ve got to be willing to be open,” he said. “I’m telling you, you’re standing before a man who had to forgive a man who never showed up ever. And look what I made with it. Look what I was able to ‘usher’ in. But that’s what’s real. That’s what makes us human. That’s what makes us women and men.” Let’s see if he forgives BET.

You can watch the full (uncensored) speech below.

If you watched last night’s BET Awards, you probably have a lot of questions about choices the show made with regard to Usher’s Lifetime Achievement Award honor, but one is likely foremost among them — what did he say that made the TV censors go so berserk?

In case you didn’t see it, shortly after taking the stage to begin his speech, Usher used some colorful language while speaking about his absentee father — including a few of George Carlin’s infamous “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television.” From that point on, the S&P watchdogs at BET — already pretty infamously touchy for a network that also aired the “Tip Drill” video (but only well after midnight) — leaned pretty heavily on the mute button, resulting in stretches of silence up to a few minutes long, just in case. So, just what did Usher say during his speech, and was it really all that bad?

Fortunately, thanks to fans in attendance posting the unedited speech online, we can hear it in full. In truth, Usher spent most of the speech talking about being motivated by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who presented his award. The salty language continued, but there was nothing conspiratorial, just a 45-year-old superstar enjoying his moment and talking his sh*t. You can check out the speech below.