Pink Accepts 2017 VMAs Video Vanguard Award, Delivers Powerful Speech
In a sentimental moment during the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, Ellen DeGeneres presented Pink with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. With the poise and strength that have come to define the singer, she used her acceptance speech time not to thank those who gave her the award, but to address a poignant moment she had shared with her young daughter while driving her to school one morning.
Pink's daughter had told her mother she felt ugly because she looked like a boy with long hair. Pink—of course known for her iconic pixie cut and lack of concern for anyone who criticizes her or her body—was disturbed and made a "PowerPoint presentation for her daughter."
"In that presentation were androgynous rock stars and artists that live their truth, [who] are probably made fun of every day of their life and carry on and wave their flag and inspire the rest of us," Pink said. "And these are artists like Michael Jackson and David Bowie and Freddie Mercury and Annie Lennox and Prince and Janis Joplin and George Michael [and] Elton John. So many artists. Her eyes glazed over."
Pink closed her speech by thanking those inspiring artists for being powerful role models, as well as offering hope to her daughter who watched from the audience.
"So, baby girl, we don't change," Pink shared. "We take the gravel and the shell and we make a pearl. We help other people to change so that they can see more kinds of beauty."
Congratulations, Pink—you deserve it.
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