thank you Queenie everyone's done such a great job of um reading from that atic Cube but there's no way I'm going to be able to do that I've never done it in my life so I will be reading off of my own stuff can I clear this so I don't get confused and start reading somebody else's hello good morning I am jet lagged as anything hell it's definitely um nighttime to me ready for a drink I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this event tonight um the scholarship had me in floods of Tears girls
congratulations absolutely beautiful to watch you my boyfriend Rich was cussing me out cuz I cry at anything but obviously that's absolutely worth it for everything that you guys were saying and doing so congratulations Carrie you know I love youo also finally got to meet du leipa bit Star Struck absolutely love her love Londa and um I'm just going to listen disclaimer I'm not really a motivational words kind of girl I'm just going to be upfront about it straight away I'm also not really a speeches kind of girl um so well um they're really not my
Forte I can't lie when I'm nervous I swear forgive me I'm British what can I say I've never prepared one of these in my life I do of course though as quite a few few people in the room know I have the gift of the gab I can absolutely talk for hours and eat your ear off but when I talk for hours it's about nothing really so writing this has become um well not become it's been quite a challenge um I can't really lie and suddenly it dawned on me last night I flew in from
London last night and it dawned on me when I was writing this that there is no way I'm not saying at this event but there is no way that all these big long speeches that we're always hearing from people people can cannot be writing those themselves it's impossible it's such a hard task I'm convinced I could have hired someone to write this but it's too late now you're going to have to listen to what I've got so easy peasy first obviously thank you so so much to The Hollywood Reporter is an absolute honor to be
here today in full clam at 8:00 a.m. on a Thursday [Applause] morning no no no seriously thank you so much for having me at this this event it really is incred I'm being serious I am honored to be here I'm just saying it's listed as a branch this is breakfast and like I said earlier congratulations to the scholarship winners and the mentor program that's incredible to the other to the other honores tonight um and of course the most um the reason I'm here to Sher Lansing what a done not really sure where to begin Sherry
I mean I guess this award um you know is pretty self-explanatory I suppose I'm not quite this is still this hard with this microphone isn't it do we're very very tall as supermodels um well you are I'm not but anyway um but having a whole award named after yourself in your legacy is quite a flex so it is I'm going to get serious for one second myself Sherry you are the absolute epitome of what it is to open doors and more importantly to leave them open I'm Blown Away to even be sitting next to you
tonight tonight see I told you this morning let alone receiving your award so thank you for everything you've done and of course everything that you continued to do thank you so much yeah give her another round of applause this award feels very big and grown up um and I feel a little bit out of my dip receiving it considering that I'm only 35 and I've only released four albums it feels like I only really kind of just arrived that's at least how I feel but um upon writing this speech and like reflecting a little bit
and trying to work out what to say I realized it's actually been 17 years um that I've been a signed artist which is kind of crazy um and sometimes I wonder within those 17 years if like people think that I'm calculated you know when I disappear for years on end that I'm Elusive and that I believe that less is more or you know something like that but the real reason that I've only had four albums um and I don't think that many people know this they might know that I have a child and that I'm
my mom but my son is 11 years old right so if you do the math that means the right at the height of 21 I could only call it pandemonium because that's how it felt to me overnight it was like I was famous it was the strangest most surreal experience of my life still to this day I felt pregnant and um to many that would be and it was considered career suicide however always want to go against the grain it was there and then that I chose to reject the scarcity of success and the idea
that you have to be constantly relevant to be successful and that perhaps just maybe I could be a hit both on and off the stage and you'll never guess what got away with it and why because of all the sacrifices that the women before me have made it's because of them that I have every right to be the boss at work and the boss at home so thank you now when it comes to how I might be here accepting this award I'm not particularly sure I'm not entirely sure but I can't help but think and
I'm not that's not me being self-deprecating or humble or anything like I was genuinely quite shocked but I I you know I I can't help but think is it's much to do with my character as it does my talent like Talent can't dictate how you move Talent can't decide how you treat people it doesn't have a moral compass Talent cannot read a room you can be the most talented person on the planet and only make bad decisions and to be honest Talent is kind of it's random you know it's like you might have it but
what does it mean but character well character is observed it is witnessed character is taught and it's passed down my character as I'm sure you can tell just from like the last minute I've been on stage has a roughness and a toughness to it I trust no one and yet I'm completely fearless and I 100% got it from the women who raised me as a child you're a sponge you learn what you're shown my mother my aunties my grandmothers they were all strong loud boisterous loyal and Cutthroat women like me always ready to jump for
you kind of women chaotic but focused soft in the middle but solid on the outside like me they are a force to be reckoned with and quite frankly terrifying at times like me but that was because they had to be they had to learn the hard way what it is to be a woman and so in turn they hardened their character was their armor but thanks to them my character is my skin as a child you're a sponge you learn what you're shown my teachers my school teachers my God I had some of the most
amazing teachers who gave me my love of literature of words of poems and Rhymes stories and writing they were far too qualified to be teaching at a school like mine and could easily have made double the money at private schools but they stayed with us to give us a chance and that taught me loyalty these are my leaders and I'm eternally grateful to them all for making me who I am today so thank you guys none of them are here they're all in England all right so my manager right this is where the lines get
a bit blurry for me I don't am I allowed to talk about a man like having a really positive impact on me at an event for women you never know you know what let just to be safe let me thank his mom first Jill Dickens thank you for giving birth to Jonathan woo Jonathan I'm not going to cry you might though and this might be controversial in the room because I'm about to Big this man the up okay I've never done it before in my life really he thinks I hate him no one has ever
believed in me the way that you have from day one when I was a teenager or maybe I might get a bit emotional actually you had me in every room and every meeting if I didn't understand something you'd go over and over it with me like a kid doing maths in the kitchen with an irritated parent you've never tried to change me never told me to pipe down or be small never told me to lose weight or gain weight never told me to hurry up or Rush an Alum and you were the happiest for me
when I told you I was pregnant not only have you helped me become a top tier artist Jonathan but you've helped me become a top tier person which in the end is all that actually matters I know give him a big clap I'm going turn to off later Jonathan is the example I actually have many men in my life who I love and who love me but in the spirit of this morning and in fear of bras being burned um I'm going to thank their mothers and not them so along with Jill um I would
like to thank manura Martin Rosemary Ki and Rosaline Russell to name a few thank you to them for raising good men who do not think that a woman's power diminishes their own that's a Vibe it's nearly over thank goodness and so I stand here today day Rose is crying her eyes out my other manager you're all right I love you too I do I do and so I stand here today as a testament to all of you all of the women before me and beside me who broke down doors and left them open for us
I don't have stories of how my path to success was hard because it wasn't and I know that's rare and I know I'm lucky but that's because of you a lot of you had to claim your power and you've given me mine thank you for leaving the key I accept this leadership award as an invitation to carry on being myself it's got to be quite far but also as a reminder that I'm following you I'm following you and that every single person has the right to be the boss at work and the boss at home
and like I said at the top even though it's morning it only feels right to say good night so thank you very [Applause] much
