Billboard Icon Janet Jackson Stands With the Women of #MeToo in Her Acceptance Speech

Janet Jackson used her Billboard Icon Award acceptance speech to stand with the women of #MeToo. Jackson's performance was the most anticipated moment of the 2018 Billboard Awards, and the icon, who received the night's Icon Award (the first black woman to do so), did not disappoint. To mark the 25th anniversary of Jackson's groundbreaking album janet., the singer brought three of her most iconic singles to the Billboard stage, and the audience could not get enough. At 52, Jackson not only revisited the best moments of her career, she honored her family legacy, and showed the world that the scandal of 2004's Super Bowl halftime with Justin Timberlake only made her stronger.

Bruno Mars introduced Jackson, who took off with a performance of her 80s mega-hit "Nasty" from Control. She followed it up with a few dance breakdowns and music from "If" (which audience members like Tyra Banks and Andy Cohen enjoyed immensely, according to several cutaways), and by singing "Throb," both hits from her number one album janet. When accepting her Billboard Icon Award, however, Jackson proved that being a female artist goes beyond musical staying power.

After expressing gratitude for receiving recognition at the ceremony, Jackson turned her speech to another theme of the night: her status as a female powerhouse and trailblazing woman in an industry long dominated by men. "We live at a glorious moment in history," Jackson said. "It's a moment at long last women have made it clear that we will no longer be controlled, manipulated, or abused." She went on to express solidarity "with those women and with those men equally outraged by discrimination, who support us in heart and mind," all but naming the #MeToo movement that has seen victims of violence, intimidation and harassment speaking out against their abusers (including those in the music industry).

The Billboard audience was rightly moved by Jackson's acceptance speech, as was the audience on Twitter, who raved about her performance as well as her explicitly feminist message:

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