Beyoncé, Blue Ivy Carter, Kendrick Lamar Win NAACP Image Awards

Beyoncé and Blue Ivy both took home trophies at the 56th annual NAACP Image Awards. Other winners during the two-night awards ceremony included Kendrick Lamar, Doechii, Chris Brown, Samara Joy, Malcolm Washington, and Tamela Mann.

Beyoncé won two awards, Outstanding Female Artist and Outstanding Album for Cowboy Carter (Outstanding Male Artist went to Brown). Lamar earned Outstanding Song – Hip-Hop/Rap for “Not Like Us,” while Doechii was named Outstanding New Artist. Blue Ivy won Outstanding Character Voiceover Performance for her work in recent film Mufasa: The Lion King, in which she voiced young lion Kiara. Netflix film The Six Triple Eight also earned several awards, including Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture.

The winners were announced during a virtual, non-televised ceremony that aired on the NAACP Image Awards YouTube channel. The NAACP will hand out its Creative Honors on Feb. 21 and the televised 2025 NAACP Image Awards ceremony will air on Feb. 22 on BET and CBS. Dave Chappelle, Kamala Harris, and the Wayans family are among this year’s honorees.

Mufasa, a prequel to The Lion King, was directed by Barry Jenkins and tells the origin story of Simba’s father Mufasa. In the film, Mufasa’s tale is told via flashback, with the mandrill Rafiki sharing the story with Simba and Nala’s daughter, Kiara. Blue Ivy voices Kiara, while Beyoncé voices Nala and Donald Glover rounds out the family as Simba. The role marked Blue Ivy’s feature film debut.

In a behind-the-scenes clip released last year, the actress spoke about working on the film, saying, “This is just a great experience for me and I’m really happy for girls that look like me, all around the world, to watch this movie and hear and see themselves in it.” 

Blue Ivy also collaborated with Beyoncé during her NFL halftime show that aired on Christmas Day. As part of the performance at NRG Stadium in Houston, Beyoncé performed “Texas Hold ‘Em” for the first time, declaring: “It’s only right that we do ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ for the first time in Texas.” Blue Ivy took her mother’s side for the celebratory moment, wearing a Cowboy Carter sash.