Photo: iHeartRadio
Brandi Carlile delivered a heartfelt message as she received the Elton John Impact Award at iHeartRadio’s Can’t Cancel Pride 2023 on Thursday evening (June 15). In its fourth year, the annual event recognizes the community and celebrates organizations that seek to create a more inclusive and equal world.
Recognizing Carlile as an artist who is “changing the world for the better,” Billy Porter shared with the crowd that the In These Silent Days icon would receive the award that Elton John accepted last year for his work with the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Now, the Impact Award is bearing its new name as the Elton John Impact Award for the first time. Carlile received it for her work with Looking Out Foundation, the nonprofit that Carlile and others founded in 2008 and that Carlile’s wife, Catherine Carlile, serves as the executive director (Catherine also recently received an honor for her activism with the foundation, which Carlile shared on Instagram as she celebrated: “I’m incredibly proud of my wife!”).
“It’s my privilege to present the Elton John Impact Award to Brandi Carlile for the work she’s done with the Looking Out Foundation that she founded in 2008 with her beautiful wife, Catherine,” John said as he presented his namesake award to Carlile in a recorded message. “She’s an amazing person, an amazing friend, and apart from the great music she makes, she is an incredible philanthropist and she cares. We need more people like her that cares. So, congratulations, Brandi. I love you so much.”
Read Carlile’s powerful acceptance speech as she received the Elton John Impact Award during iHeartRadio’s Can’t Cancel Pride 2023 here:
“Thank you, Elton. There is no greater champion to all LGBTQIA+ people than Sir Elton John, and of all the heroes I’ve known and loved, there is no one more important to me as a mentor and a soul mate than you, Elton. Receiving this honor from the likes of you is not something I will ever be able to take lightly. I learned about this beautiful man and the Elton John AIDS Foundation when I was barely a teenager, and I promised myself even back then that I would dedicate my voice to radical, unapologetic inclusion and dignity for all LGBT+ people. When I started Looking Out Foundation in my early 20s, Elton and David’s life-saving work was my North Star and it always will be. Look, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it for you. It’s rough out there, friends. Queer folks need visibility, allyship, even protection maybe more than ever right now. Our lives depend on it, and that is not an exaggeration. But that’s the bad news. The good news is that the support exists. I can feel it. I can feel it everywhere I go with my wife and babies. And I can feel it in the existence of this very award. Can’t Cancel Pride: truer words have never been spoken. Healthcare, drag, freedom of expression, marriage, adoption, reproductive rights, all these things are in the literal crosshairs right now. And they can come for these things, and fabricate divisive culture wars based on the fear of fabulousness temporarily. But what they really want is our pride, our dignity, and they can’t even touch it. I have been to the movies. I have seen how it ends, and the joke’s on them. Thank you so much, Elton, iHeart and Can’t Cancel Pride for this incredible honor. ...I promise to try and make you proud.”
Carlile also delivered a stunning acoustic performance of “Hallelujah” to close out the show. She was one of many celebs to appear during this year’s Can’t Cancel Pride event, hosted by JoJo Siwa for the second time. Others include Adam Lambert, Big Freedia, Ciara, Billy Porter, Fletcher, Hayley Kiyoko, Kesha and more.
Can’t Cancel Pride, a one-hour benefit special, aims to raise awareness and funds for GLAAD, SAGE, The Trevor Project, the National Black Justice Coalition, CenterLink and OutRight Action International. The annual event began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many Pride events had to be canceled. Over the last four years since it started, Can't Cancel Pride has raised over $11 million for participating LGBTQ+ charitable organizations. Fans can follow along on social media using the hashtag #CantCancelPride, and support the participating nonprofits by visiting cantcancelpride.com or texting "RAINBOW" to 513-654-2622. The event will then be available on-demand throughout Pride Month, until Friday, June 30.
Photo: iHeartRadio