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Billboard Music Awards facts for kids

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Billboard Music Awards
Billboard Music Awards logo.png
Presented by Billboard
Country United States
First awarded December 10, 1990; 33 years ago (1990-12-10)
Television coverage
Network Fox (1990–2006)
ABC (2011–2017)
NBC (2018–2022)
Most recent Billboard Music Award winners
← 2022 November 19, 2023 2024 →
  191125 Taylor Swift at the 2019 American Music Awards (cropped).png Morgan Wallen performing at Freedom Fest 2019.jpg
Award Top Artist & Top Female Artist Top Male Artist, Top Billboard 200 Album & Top Hot 100 Artist Top Duo/Group
Winner Taylor Swift Morgan Wallen Fuerza Regida
  191125 Taylor Swift at the 2019 American Music Awards (cropped).png Morgan Wallen performing at Freedom Fest 2019.jpg Zach Bryan performing at Crypto.com Arena on 23 Aug 2023 (cropped).jpg
Award Top Billboard 200 Artist Top Hot 100 Song Top New Artist
Winner Taylor Swift Morgan Wallen
("Last Night")
Zach Bryan

Previous Top Artist

Drake

Top Artist

Taylor Swift

The Billboard Music Awards are honors given out annually by Billboard, a publication covering the music business and a music popularity chart. The Billboard Music Awards show has been held annually since 1990, with the exception of the years 2007 through 2010. The event was previously staged in December, but has been held in May since returning in 2011. On October 19, 2023, it was announced that the award ceremony will be reformatted as a digital-only show and move from broadcast television to its website and Billboard's social media pages, starting with the 2023 edition on November 19.

Awards process

Unlike other awards, such as the Grammy Award, which determine nominations as a result of the highest votes received by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Billboard Music Awards finalists are based on album and digital songs sales, streaming, radio airplay, touring, and social engagement. These measurements are tracked year-round by Billboard and its data partners, including MRC Data and Next Big Sound. The 2018 awards were based on the reporting period of April 8, 2017 through March 31, 2018. Awards are given for the top album, artist and single in a number of different music genres.

Awards

Year Order Date Venue City Host(s) TV network Ref.
1990 1 December 10 Barker Hangar Santa Monica Paul Shaffer & Morris Day with Jerome Benton Fox
1991 2 December 9 Paul Shaffer
1992 3 December 8 Universal Amphitheater Los Angeles Phil Collins
1993 4 December 8
1994 5 December 7 Dennis Miller and Heather Locklear
1995 6 December 6 New York Coliseum New York City Jon Stewart
1996 7 December 4 Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas Chris Rock
1997 8 December 8 MGM Grand Garden Arena David Spade
1998 9 December 7 Kathy Griffin and Andy Dick
1999 10 December 8 Kathy Griffin and Adam Carolla
2000 11 December 5 Kathy Griffin and NSYNC
2001 12 December 4 Bernie Mac
2002 13 December 9 Cedric the Entertainer
2003 14 December 10 Ryan Seacrest with Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson
2004 15 December 8 Ryan Seacrest
2005 16 December 6 LL Cool J
2006 17 December 4
Not held in 2007–2010
2011 18 May 22 MGM Grand Garden Arena Las Vegas Ken Jeong ABC
2012 19 May 20 Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell
2013 20 May 19 Tracy Morgan
2014 21 May 18 Ludacris
2015 22 May 17 Ludacris and Chrissy Teigen
2016 23 May 22 T-Mobile Arena Ludacris and Ciara
2017 24 May 21 Ludacris and Vanessa Hudgens
2018 25 May 20 MGM Grand Garden Arena Kelly Clarkson NBC
2019 26 May 1
2020 27 October 14 Dolby Theatre Los Angeles
2021 28 May 23 Microsoft Theater Nick Jonas
2022 29 May 15 MGM Grand Garden Arena Las Vegas Sean "Diddy" Combs
2023 30 November 19 N/A N/A N/A N/A

Categories

From 1990 to 2006, the show had the same categories and category names every year. In 2011, for the first time, all of the awards were renamed to "Top [award title]". The "of the year" portion of each category title no longer exists, and many of the awards have been further renamed. Other awards, including both "crossover" awards (No. 1 Classical Crossover Artist and No. 1 Classical Crossover Album) were discontinued. As of 2017, there are two fan-voted categories.

Current categories

The general categories are Top Artist, Top Billboard 200 Album, Top Hot 100 Song and Top New Artist. These categories highlighted in each award and other categories are divided by genre.

General

  • Top Artist
  • Top New Artist
  • Top Male Artist
  • Top Female Artist
  • Top Duo/Group
  • Top Billboard 200 Artist
  • Top Billboard 200 Album
  • Top Hot 100 Artist
  • Top Hot 100 Song
  • Top Touring Artist
  • Top Song Sales Artist (since 2016)
  • Top Selling Album (since 2018)
  • Top Selling Song (since 2016)
  • Top Radio Songs Artist
  • Top Radio Song
  • Top Streaming Artist
  • Top Streaming Song (Audio)
  • Top Streaming Song (Video)

R&B

  • Top R&B Artist
  • Top R&B Male Artist (since 2018)
  • Top R&B Female Artist (since 2018)
  • Top R&B Album
  • Top R&B Song
  • Top R&B Tour (since 2017)

Rap

  • Top Rap Artist
  • Top Rap Male Artist (since 2018)
  • Top Rap Female Artist (since 2018)
  • Top Rap Album
  • Top Rap Song
  • Top Rap Tour (since 2017)

Country

  • Top Country Artist
  • Top Country Male Artist (since 2018)
  • Top Country Female Artist (since 2018)
  • Top Country Duo/Group Artist (since 2018)
  • Top Country Album
  • Top Country Song
  • Top Country Tour (since 2017)

Rock

  • Top Rock Artist
  • Top Rock Album
  • Top Rock Song
  • Top Rock Tour (since 2017)

Latin

  • Top Latin Artist
  • Top Latin Male Artist (since 2021)
  • Top Latin Female Artist (since 2021)
  • Top Latin Duo/Group (since 2021)
  • Top Latin Album
  • Top Latin Song
  • Top Latin Touring Artist (since 2023)

K-Pop

  • Top Global K-Pop Artist (since 2023)
  • Top Global K-Pop Song (since 2023)
  • Top K-Pop Album (since 2023)
  • Top K-Pop Touring Artist (since 2023)

Dance/Electronic

  • Top Dance/Electronic Artist (since 2014)
  • Top Dance/Electronic Album (since 2014)
  • Top Dance/Electronic Song (since 2014)

Christian

  • Top Christian Artist
  • Top Christian Album
  • Top Christian Song

Gospel

  • Top Gospel Artist (since 2016)
  • Top Gospel Album (since 2016)
  • Top Gospel Song (since 2016)

Others genres

  • Top Soundtrack (1993, 1998, 2000, 2006, 2015 – present)
  • Top Social Artist (fan-voted)
  • Billboard Chart Achievement (since 2015, fan-voted)
  • Top Collaboration (since 2017, fan-voted)

Retired categories (1990–2017)

  • Top Alternative Album
  • Top Alternative Artist
  • Top Alternative Song
  • Top Classical Crossover Artist
  • Top Classical Crossover Album
  • Top Country Collaboration (2017)
  • Top Dance Artist (until 2013)
  • Top Dance Album (until 2013)
  • Top Dance Song (until 2013)
  • Top Digital Media Artist (until 2012)
  • Top Digital Songs Artist (until 2015)
  • Top Digital Song (until 2015)
  • Top EDM Artist (until 2013)
  • Top EDM Album (until 2013)
  • Top EDM Song (until 2013)
  • Top Independent Artists
  • Top Independent Album
  • Top Modern Rock Artist
  • Top Modern Rock Track
  • Top New Male Artist
  • Top New Female Artist
  • Top New Group/Band
  • Top New Song
  • Top Pop Song (until 2013)
  • Top Pop Album (until 2013)
  • Top Pop Artist (until 2013)
  • Top Pop Punk Artist
  • Top Rap Artist (until 2017)
  • Top R&B Collaboration (2017)
  • Top Rap Collaboration (2017)
  • Top Rhythmic Top 40 Title
  • Top Selling Single
  • Top Soundtrack Single of the Year
  • Milestone Award (2013, 2014)

Special awards

Most wins

191125 Taylor Swift at the 2019 American Music Awards
Taylor Swift is the most awarded artist with 40 awards.

The record for most Billboard Music Awards won by an artist is held by Taylor Swift, who won 40 awards , and the male artist with the most Billboard Music Awards won is Drake with 39 . The record for most Billboard Music Awards won by a group is held by BTS who have won 12 awards.

Rank Artist Number of awards
1 Taylor Swift 40
2 Drake 39
3 Justin Bieber 26
4 The Weeknd 22
5 Mariah Carey 20
6 Garth Brooks 19
7 Adele 18
Usher
Kanye West
8 Eminem 17
9 Whitney Houston 16
10 Morgan Wallen 14
Beyoncé
11 50 Cent 13
13 BTS 12
Carrie Underwood
George Michael
Rihanna
R.Kelly
T.I.
14 Destiny's Child 11
Janet Jackson
Mary J. Blige
15 Imagine Dragons 10
Lady Gaga
Post Malone

Most Wins in a single ceremony

Adele won the most awards by a female artist in one ceremony.
Rank Artist Most wins
1 Drake 13
2 Adele 12
Drake
3 Whitney Houston 11

Performances

Year Performers (chronologically)
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021

Broadcast

Since its inception (created by Rick Garson, Paul Flattery & Jim Yukich), the BMAs had been telecast on the Fox network; however due to contractual expirations and other unforeseen circumstances, the awards were cancelled for 2007. Plans for a new version of the awards in 2008 (in association with AEG Live) fell through, and the BMAs were not held until 2011.

On February 17, 2011, Billboard announced that it would bring the BMAs back to television, moving from its original home on Fox to its new network, ABC, on May 22, 2011. A new award statuette was created by New York firm Society Awards. Dick Clark Productions, which is co-owned with Billboard, began producing the ceremony in 2014. On November 28, 2017, it was announced that the Billboard Music Awards would be moving from ABC to NBC beginning in 2018 under a multi-year contract.

The 2020 ceremony, originally scheduled for April 29, was postponed indefinitely on March 17 due to coronavirus-related public assembly concerns. On August 14, 2020, it was announced that the 2020 ceremony had been rescheduled to October 14.

Ratings

Year Day Date Network 18–49 rating Viewers
(in millions)
Ref.
Rating Share
1990 Monday December 10 Fox 14.50
1991 December 9 11.60
1992 Wednesday December 9 15.00
1993 December 8 14.00
1994 December 7 11.10
1995 December 6 12.10
1996 December 4 11.60
1997 Monday December 8 12.81
1998 December 7 11.36
1999 Wednesday December 8 12.12
2000 Tuesday December 5 5.4 14 11.43
2001 December 4 5.6 15 11.70
2002 Monday December 9 4.3 11 9.36
2003 Wednesday December 10 4.6 12 9.81
2004 December 8 3.1 8 6.87
2005 Tuesday December 6 3.1 8 6.38
2006 Monday December 4 2.7 7 6.09
2007–2010 N/A Not held N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
2011 Sunday May 22 ABC 3.0 8 7.88
2012 May 20 2.7 7 7.40
2013 May 19 3.5 10 9.48
2014 May 18 3.5 10 10.50
2015 May 17 3.8 12 11.18
2016 May 22 3.2 10 9.76
2017 May 21 2.6 9 8.70
2018 May 20 NBC 2.4 9 7.87
2019 Wednesday May 1 2.1 10 8.01
2020 October 14 0.8 5 3.71
2021 Sunday May 23 0.7 4 2.77
2022 May 15 0.7 6 2.56

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Billboard Music Awards para niños

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