Beyoncé thanked the queer community in her historic acceptance speech at last night’s Grammy Awards.
With her win in the Best Dance/Electronic Album category for Renaissance, Beyoncé surpassed Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti for the record of most Grammy Awards in the ceremony’s history, with 32.
When Beyoncé took to the stage, she told the audience that she was “trying not to be too emotional” and was “trying to just receive this night”.
“I want to thank God for protecting me, thank you God,” she said, before paying tribute to her Uncle Jonny, “who’s not here, but he’s here in spirit.”
After thanking her family – including her “beautiful husband” and “three children who are at home watching” – Beyoncé celebrated the “queer community for your love” and “for inventing this genre”.
Ahead of the release of Renaissance, Beyoncé described her Uncle Jonny, who passed away due to complications with HIV/AIDS, as her “godmother and the first person to expose me to a lot of the music and culture that serve as inspiration for this album”.
Led by the Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper Break My Soul, Renaissance is a dance, house and disco collection that honours the Black and LGBTQ+ pioneers of ballroom and music.
The pop icon collaborated with and sampled a plethora of queer artists on the album such as Big Freedia, Syd, Honey Dijon, Ts Madison, Moi Renee and Kevin Aviance.
Renaissance made history for trans visibility when Cozy, which samples Madison’s viral video Bitch I’m Black and features production from Dijon – charted in the US top 40, making them the first Black trans women to do so.
Although the critically-acclaimed album took home four awards at the ceremony, it failed to snag Album of the Year – losing out to Harry Styles’ third album Harry’s House.
Watch Beyoncé’s historic acceptance speech here or below.
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