H.E.R. to Perform at 2023 ESPY Awards: Exclusive

H.E.R. is set to deliver a special tribute performance at the 2023 ESPY Awards, which will broadcast live coast-to-coast on ABC on Wednesday, July 12, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. The show will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

H.E.R. is set to perform her latest single “The Journey” in a tribute to the 30th anniversary of the V Foundation and late basketball coach Jimmy Valvano’s iconic speech at the first ESPYs.

Valvano was an American college basketball player, coach and broadcaster. While serving as head coach at North Carolina State University, his team won the 1983 NCAA men’s basketball title against the heavily favored Houston Cougars.

Valvano is also remembered for an inspirational speech delivered at the 1993 ESPY Awards while he was terminally ill with cancer. Valvano implored the audience to laugh, think and cry each day. He also announced the formation of the V Foundation for Cancer Research, whose motto would be “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.” He gave the speech less than two months before his death in April 1993 from adenocarcinoma. 

ESPN has helped raise more than $195 million for the V Foundation over the past 30 years, according to the network.

As previously announced, Chicago White Sox pitcher and cancer survivor Liam Hendriks will be honored with this year’s Jimmy V Award for Perseverance; the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team will be given the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage; and the Buffalo Bills training staff will be awarded with the Pat Tillman Award for Service.

The ESPYs, which are presented this year by Capital One, are co-produced by ESPN and Full Day Productions.

H.E.R., 26, has won five Grammys and an Oscar. In 2021, she and her collaborators D’Mile (Dernst Emile II) and Tiara Thomas won both a Grammy for song of the year for the Black Lives Matter anthem “I Can’t Breathe” and an Oscar for best original song for “Fight for You” from the film Judas and the Black Messiah.

H.E.R. has received three Grammy nominations for album of the year, all as lead artist. She was nominated in three out of four years from 2018-21.

Watch Jimmy V’s famous ESPY speech below: