--- title: Mariah Carey Throws Used Tissue on Stage at Billboard Awards description: Mariah Carey throwing her used tissue on the stage before giving her acceptance speech for the BBMA Icon award is peak Mariah. canonical: https://time.com/5582061/mariah-carey-throws-tissue-billboard-music-awards/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-05-02T18:11:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:58:53.199Z og:title: Mariah Carey Throws Used Tissue on Stage at Billboard Awards og:description: Iconic og:url: https://time.com/5582061/mariah-carey-throws-tissue-billboard-music-awards/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb637af0fe157321e/6989495d8fd2ee91e735e390/mariah-carey-throwing-tissue-billboard-awards.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: 2019 Billboard Music Awards - Show og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mariah Carey Throws Used Tissue on Stage at Billboard Awards twitter:description: Iconic twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb637af0fe157321e/6989495d8fd2ee91e735e390/mariah-carey-throwing-tissue-billboard-awards.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mariah Carey Throwing Her Used Tissue on Stage While Accepting an Award Is Peak Mariah > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 2, 2019 6:11 PM UTC  LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MAY 01: Honoree Mariah Carey performs onstage during the 2019 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 01, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for dcp) LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MAY 01: Honoree Mariah Carey performs onstage during the 2019 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 01, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for dcp) Kevin Winter—Getty Images for dcp  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 2, 2019 6:11 PM UTC What becomes an icon most? In [Mariah Carey](http://time.com/5560782/mariah-carey-ariana-grande-no-beef/)‘s case, it’s giving fans a very on-brand moment (and we all know how much [she loves a “moment”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka%5Fb9sB1GmA)) while accepting an award for being an icon. Mimi was in peak form as the Elusive Chanteuse on Wednesday night when she took to the stage to accept her gold Icon award from Jennifer Hudson at the [2019 Billboard Music Awards](http://time.com/5581047/billboard-music-awards-2019-best-worst-wildest-moments/) in Las Vegas. Carey, who had earlier performed a medley of her greatest hits, which included “Always be My Baby” and “We Belong Together,” has an emotional moment before accepting her award and wiped her face with a tissue that she later tossed on to the stage before giving a touching emotional speech, much to the delight of fans and viewers everywhere. In her speech, Carey thanked her twin children before reflecting on her career’s highs and lows, even joking about the memes that have come along the way. She also graciously thanked her fans, the Lambily. “Seriously, thank you _Billboard_ for letting me grow up on the charts with you and for this incredible honor. Icon? I really don’t think of myself in that way…I just wanted to create something so I could feel worthy of existing,” she said. “And if I’ve learned anything, anything at all in this life it’s that truly all things are possible with God. Without getting into all the drama, all the ups and downs of my career, we’ve all seen them, we all make mistakes…there’s been a few memes.” Carey’s Icon award is well-deserved; with a grand total of 18 no. 1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest record for any solo artist. She’s also the reigning champion of total weeks of topping the Hot 100 at a whopping 79 weeks. The diva received her first charting single in 1990 and led the Billboard Hot 100 in every year of the decade. She is also the only artist to top the chart in every year of any decade. See Carey’s iconic on-stage moment at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards below. > [](https://twitter.com/Murtaza%5FMurad/status/1123774218611634177) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5582061/mariah-carey-throws-tissue-billboard-music-awards/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5582061/mariah-carey-throws-tissue-billboard-music-awards/"},"headline":"Mariah Carey Throwing Her Used Tissue on Stage While Accepting an Award Is Peak Mariah","datePublished":"2019-05-02T18:11:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:58:53.199Z","description":"Iconic","url":"https://time.com/5582061/mariah-carey-throws-tissue-billboard-music-awards/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb637af0fe157321e/6989495d8fd2ee91e735e390/mariah-carey-throwing-tissue-billboard-awards.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb637af0fe157321e/6989495d8fd2ee91e735e390/mariah-carey-throwing-tissue-billboard-awards.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2019 Billboard Music Awards - Show","caption":"2019 Billboard Music Awards - Show","creditText":"Kevin Winter—Getty Images for dcp","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5582061/mariah-carey-throws-tissue-billboard-music-awards/","name":"Mariah Carey Throwing Her Used Tissue on Stage While Accepting an Award Is Peak Mariah"}}]}] ```