BET posts ‘unfiltered’ Usher speech after censorship during live awards ceremony

Usher accepted his BET Lifetime Achievement Award with large portions of his speech muted during the live broadcast, to the dismay of his fans — and BET is now sharing the whole “unfiltered” speech.

In his speech at the 2024 BET Awards on Sunday, June 30, Usher championed fatherhood and industry professionals like Babyface, who have helped him throughout his career. Many parts of his speech aired without sound, which caused uproar from fans on social media. Then, on July 1, BET posted his full uncensored speech on YouTube.

BET titled their YouTube video of the speech, “Usher is Unfiltered & Motivated While Accepting His Lifetime Achievement Award.” The video description called Usher a “star and a legend” and expressed gratitude for his contributions.

TODAY.com reached out to Usher and BET for comment and has not heard back. The reason for the sound being muted remains unclear.

During, and immediately after the awards show, fans turned to social media to express frustration and confusion around the sound issues.

“They really cut Usher‘s whole damn speech. Cannot believe we really waited around for Usher to FINALLY get on the damn mic and #BETAwards really cut the whole damn thing other than 4 words and claps,” one X user wrote.

“Is Usher telling industry secrets because the censoring is crazy,” another said.

“Me trying to read usher’s lips when they censored his speech,” a fan wrote.

“Usher started talking talking about Black fatherhood and they muted him,” another user added.

“The censor person in the back during Usher speech #BETAwards,” someone wrote, sharing a gif of Pharrell Williams pressing his chair button multiple times while he was a judge on “The Voice.”

In the BET video on YouTube, Usher said during one of the parts muted in the live broadcast: “At one point, it got really thick. When mother------- were f---ing with me. And I get it. I understand. Sometimes you gotta go through some s--t to get to something.”

“But Imma tell you, they solid,” he said gesturing to the people on stage with him, all Black male industry professionals.

“And it ain’t about a mother----ing record,” he said.

The parts of his speech that were originally audible touched on subjects like how he found his identity, the importance of fatherhood and more.

Born as Usher Raymond IV, the eight-time Grammy-winning singer said he originally went by another name as he worked to find an identity outside his father.

“I really was searching for some identity and I was doing that because I was trying to make sense of this name that a man gave me that didn’t stick around because he didn’t love me,” he said.

“Or, at least that was my perception of it because I had to live long enough in order to understand that you have to have a forgiving heart in order to understand the true pitfalls and hardships of a Black man in America,” he continued.

Usher then championed fatherhood and Black men specifically who have been father figures to him. The crowd roared intermittently with applause.

“This is the year of the father,” he later added.

Fans online took notice of his vulnerability.

“I believe he truly is still battling w/ the absence of his father & emotional wounds that’s caused. It’s clear that there’s still a lot of healing that needs to happen there & therapy that needs to take place,” one person said.

“Usher is still processing his father’s abandonment and I hope he continues to heal. I want to give him a hug,” another said.

“Usher started talking about black father need to be more active on national TV and literally got muted,” a third added, tying it back to the sound issues.