Kelly Rowland Salutes Sylvia Rhone With Ultimate Icon Award at 2026 BET Awards: ‘Music Needs Us to Stand Up for It Like Never Before’

Trailblazing record industry executive Sylvia Rhone received the Ultimate Icon Award at the 2026 BET Awards. The special award — honoring a groundbreaking career that includes her recent six-year tenure as chairman/CEO of Epic Records — was presented by Kelly Rowland.

Rowland recalled first meeting Rhone as one of the six members of Girls Tyme, the precursor to the Grammy-winning group Destiny’s Child. “Let me tell y’all, there we were standing before the same woman that worked with Metallica and signed Erykah Badu and Missy Elliott, just to name a few,” said Rowland. “I was nervous as hell; Sylvia has a particular aura that engulfs any room she walks in. Her vision, her drive and her commitment to create quality artists for the masses to enjoy is something only a true icon can do.”

Walking onstage accompanied by a standing ovation and to the tune of “Free Your Mind,” a hit by En Vogue — another act she mentored to fame — Rhone noted that while the award bears her name, “it really belongs to all of us who create culture.” Adding that’s she’s been “fortunate to spend my life around extraordinary artists,” she shouted out a who’s who that included Busta Rhymes, Badu, Gerald Levert and Brandy, as well as Future, Travis Scott and Tyla.

She continued, “Working at various companies like Atlantic, Elektra, Motown and Epic have been my sword and shield. We’ve seen musical ideas become movements, and what we know is this: Black creativity is one of the most powerful forces in the world. It has shaped culture and continues to show the world new ways to see and feel that creativity. And that deserves our continued protection.

“Music needs us to stand up for it like never before because we are living through a time of massive technological change,” an emotional Rhone further noted. “The possibilities are super exciting, but we must stay as active on the tech side of music as we are on the soulful side. We make the algorithm. The algorithm doesn’t make us. We must honor the musician. We must compensate the creator. So let us celebrate music as the art form it is, and let us make sure the next generation of artists has the opportunity to create the songs that will change the world.”

Earlier during BET Week (June 25), Grammy winner Missy Elliott also hosted “The Sylvia Rhone Legacy Celebration” presented by Mona Scott-Young’s Monami Entertainment in association with the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC). Among the music stars, executives and creatives packed inside The Sun Rose West Hollywood were Stevie Wonder, Lil Wayne, songwriter-producers Jimmy Jam and Bryan-Michael Cox (the latter of whom doubled as the evening’s DJ) and HYBE America president of music Ethiopia Habtemariam.

Grammy- and Emmy Award-winning producer/multi-instrumentalist Adam Blackstone curated the evening’s musical salute. The performances encompassed the wide scope of Rhone’s career and the diverse array of artists whose careers she helped develop and guide. Among the hosts of artists that rocked the stage were Jozzy, who performed Elliott’s “Sock It to Me” and Flo, who sang En Vogue’s “Don’t Let Go (Love).”