Drake was the big winner at the Billboard Music Awards ceremony on Wednesday night, picking up a total of 12 golden mics during the three-hour live broadcast at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV. The 32-year-old Toronto rapper urged his peers to support each other after tragic losses of their peers, including West Coast rapper Nipsey Hussle. “We’ve obviously had an unfortunate series of losses within our business and I just wanna encourage everybody to let other artists know how you feel about them; let them know that you love them, respect them, while we’re all still here.”
Drake thanked his mom, Sandra “Sandi” Graham, during his acceptance speech for the Billboard Top Artist prize. “I wanna thank my mom for all the times you drove me to piano (classes), when I didn’t wanna take piano, all the times you drove me to basketball and hockey – that clearly didn’t work out,” he joked. “No matter how long it took me to figure out what I wanted to do, you were always there to give me a ride.”
Drake also claimed the Top Billboard 200 Album honor for “Scorpion” and gave a shout out to Maisie Williams’ Game of Thrones character Arya Stark “for putting in that work last week.”
Cardi B was also a big winner walking away with 6 Billboard awards. Cardi B scored the Top Hot 100 Song award for her Maroon 5 collaboration “Girls Like You”. She collected the Top Rap Song prize for “I Like It”. And she also urged fans to show their favorite artists some love. “If you got a favorite artist, support them, stream their music, listen to their music, tell a friend about their music to get them on the chart,” she said. Cardi also won trophies for Top Hot 100 Song for “Girls Like You” and Top Rap Female Artist.
K-pop boy band BTS were double winners, landing the Top Social Artist for the third successive year and Top Duo/Group, prompting band member RM to assure screaming fans that all the adulation and accolades haven’t changed him or his bandmates. “We’re still the same boys from six years ago,” he said. “We still have the same dreams… we still have the same thoughts.”
Legendary singer Mariah Carey was the Icon Award winner. She was among the night’s big performers, along with Ciara, Taylor Swift and Brendon Urie, who opened the show with the live debut of their new hit single “ME!”, Madonna and Maluma, who also debuted Medellin – featuring the Material Girl’s own holograms, and the return of the Jonas Brothers, who made their first awards show performance since officially reuniting earlier this year.
Kelly Clarkson hosted the show for a second year.
The list of winners at the 2019 Billboard Awards:
ICON AWARD
Mariah Carey
TOP ARTIST
Drake
TOP HOT 100 SONG
Maroon 5 ft. Cardi B – Girls Like You
TOP COUNTRY SONG
Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line – Meant to Be
TOP ROCK SONG
Panic! at the Disco – High Hopes
TOP RAP SONG
Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin – I Like It
TOP MALE ARTIST
Drake
TOP DUO/GROUP
BTS
TOP NEW ARTIST
Juice WRLD
TOP BILLBOARD 200 ALBUM
Drake – Scorpion
TOP ROCK ARTIST
Imagine Dragons
TOP R&B ARTIST
Ella Mai
BILLBOARD CHART ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Ariana Grande
TOP FEMALE ARTIST
Ariana Grande
TOP BILLBOARD 200 ARTIST
Drake
TOP 100 ARTIST
Drake
TOP STREAMING SONGS ARTIST
Drake
TOP SONG SALES ARTIST
Drake
TOP RADIO SONGS ARTIST
Drake
TOP SOCIAL ARTIST
BTS
TOP TOURING ARTIST
Ed Sheeran
TOP R&B MALE ARTIST
The Weeknd
TOP R&B FEMALE ARTIST
Ella Mai
TOP R&B TOUR
Beyonce & JAY-Z
TOP RAP ARTIST
Drake
TOP RAP MALE ARTIST
Drake
TOP RAP FEMALE ARTIST
Cardi B
TOP RAP TOUR
Beyonce & JAY-Z
TOP DANCE/ELECTRONIC ARTIST
The Chainsmokers
TOP CHRISTIAN ARTIST
Lauren Daigle
TOP GOSPEL ARTIST
Tasha Cobbs Leonard
TOP SOUNDTRACK
The Greatest Showman
TOP R&B ALBUM
XXXTentacion – 17
TOP RAP ALBUM
Drake – Scorpion
TOP COUNTRY ALBUM
Luke Combs – This One’s For You
TOP ROCK ALBUM
Panic! at the Disco – Pray For The Wicked
TOP LATIN ALBUM
Ozuna – Aura
TOP DANCE/ELECTRONIC ALBUM
The Chainsmokers – Sick Boy
TOP CHRISTIAN ALBUM
Lauren Daigle – Look Up Child
TOP GOSPEL ALBUM
Tori Kelly – Hiding Place
TOP STREAMING SONG (AUDIO)
Travis Scott – SICKO MODE
TOP STREAMING SONG (VIDEO)
Drake – In My Feelings
TOP SELLING SONG
Maroon 5 ft. Cardi B – Girls Like You
TOP RADIO SONG
Maroon 5 ft. Cardi B – Girls Like You
TOP COLLABORATION
Maroon 5 ft. Cardi B – Girls Like You
TOP R&B SONG
Ella Mai – Boo’d Up
TOP LATIN SONG
Casper Magico, Nio Garcia, Darell, Nicky Jam, Bad Bunny & Ozuna – Te Bote
TOP DANCE/ELECTRONIC SONG
Zedd, Maren Morris & Grey – The Middle
TOP CHRISTIAN SONG
Lauren Daigle – You Say
TOP GOSPEL SONG
Koryn Hawthorne – Won’t He Do It
Photos by Ethan Miller/Getty Images, Kevin Winter/Getty Images for dcp, Judy Eddy/WENN.com, Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for dcp
