Jazmine Sullivan is now a two-time Grammy Award winner. During the Sunday (April 3) ceremony, the singer took home the 2022 best R&B album award for her work on 2021’s Heaux Tales— her second award of the night — and delivered a touching speech about the album’s inspirations.
“I wrote this project to deal with my own shame and unforgiveness around some of the decisions I made in my 20s that weren’t favorable. But what it ended up being was a safe space for Black women to tell their stories, for us to learn from each other, laugh with each other and not be exploited at the same time and that’s what I’m most grateful for,” Sullivan said. “Shout-out to all Black women who are just living their lives and being beautiful.”
Sullivan’s road to the Grammys has been a long one. The artist won her first-ever Grammy award earlier in the evening for best R&B performance with “Pick Up Your Feelings” in a tie with Silk Sonic’s “Leave the Door Open.” The 34-year-old was nominated for best new artist in 2009 and has since racked up nominations in the best traditional R&B vocal performance, best female R&B vocal performance and best R&B song categories.
Heaux Tales found commercial success, with the LP hitting the Billboard 200 chart at No. 4, where it spent a total of 19 weeks. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Top R&B Albums chart, while its lead single, “Pick Up Your Feelings,” peaked at No. 7 on the Hot R&B Songs tally and earned top 10 placements on the R&B Streaming Songs, R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, R&B Digital Song Sales and Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay charts.
Watch Sullivan’s acceptance speech below:
