February 12, 2017 10:00 PM EST
Beyoncé delivered a moving speech while accepting the award for Best Urban Contemporary Album for Lemonade during the 2017 Grammys . The singer said her album intended to “confront issues that make us uncomfortable.”
“It’s important to me to show images to my children that reflect their beauty so they can grow up in a world where they look in the mirror — first through their own families, as well as the news, the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the White House and the Grammys — and see themselves,” she said.
Read her speech in full below.
Thank you to the Grammy voters for this incredible honor. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to beautifully capture the profundity of deep Southern culture. I thank God for my family, my wonderful husband, my beautiful daughter, my fans for bringing me so much happiness and support. We all experience pain and loss, and often we become inaudible. My intention for the film and album was to create a body of work that would give a voice to our pain, our struggles, our darkness and our history. To confront issues that make us uncomfortable. It’s important to me to show images to my children that reflect their beauty so they can grow up in a world where they look in the mirror — first through their own families, as well as the news, the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the White House and the Grammys — and see themselves. And have no doubt that they’re beautiful, intelligent and capable. This is something I want for every child of every race, and I feel it’s vital that we learn from the past and recognize our tendencies to repeat our mistakes.”
More Must-Reads From TIME The 100 Most Influential People of 2024 The Revolution of Yulia Navalnaya 6 Compliments That Land Every Time What's the Deal With the Bitcoin Halving? If You're Dating Right Now , You're Brave: Column The AI That Could Heal a Divided Internet Fallout Is a Brilliant Model for the Future of Video Game Adaptations Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time