Teyana Taylor won four awards and Icon of the Year at the 2026 BET Awards

Teyana Taylor showed up to Culture's Biggest Night and left holding most of it. At the 2026 BET Awards on Sunday at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, she walked away with four trophies, and the last one came with Janet Jackson attached. Janet, in a surprise appearance, presented her with Icon of the Year. Taylor cried. Honestly, fair.

Billboard had her down as the night's big winner before the broadcast even wrapped. The Source called it the same way.

The four she took home

Here is the full pull, per Billboard's running winners list:

• Icon of the Year, the special honor, handed over by Janet Jackson.
• Best Actress, where she beat last year's winner Cynthia Erivo and the 2023 winner Angela Bassett, among others.
• Video Director of the Year, credited under her director name, Teyana "Spike-Tey" Taylor.
• The Fashion Vanguard Award, a brand-new category this year, in a field that also had Beyoncé, Rihanna and Zendaya in it.

So she out-acted Angela Bassett and out-styled Rihanna on the same night. That is a sentence.

This did not come out of nowhere

Taylor has been on a run that makes the BET sweep look almost overdue. Billboard notes she won a Golden Globe and picked up an Oscar nomination for One Battle After Another, plus a Grammy nomination for best R&B album for Escape Room. The "Spike-Tey" director credit is not a bit either, given she won Video Director of the Year off the strength of her own visuals.

The rest of the room

Druski hosted, and the night leaned hard into honoring people. Ms. Lauryn Hill took the inaugural Living Legend Icon Award, presented by Ice Cube, with a tribute that pulled in SZA, Doechii, Doja Cat, Lizzo, Nas, Queen Latifah, Common, Rapsody, Tems, Tierra Whack, and her kids Zion and YG Marley, according to The Source. Hill then closed the show herself with "Ex-Factor" and "Everything Is Everything." Epic Records chief Sylvia Rhone got the Ultimate Icon Award from Kelly Rowland.

There was a tribute to the late D'Angelo introduced by his three children, Michael Archer Jr., Imani and Morocco. On the competitive side, Billboard reports Clipse won Album of the Year for Let God Sort 'Em Out, Cardi B took Best Female Hip-Hop Artist for the third time, and Kehlani and Leon Thomas won their R&B/pop categories for the first time. The Source clocked a Jamie Foxx performance with his daughter Anelise, plus a video message from Barack Obama about the Obama Presidential Center.

Good night to be Teyana. Better night to be the person who booked Janet Jackson for the reveal.