Rapper-singer Drake took home 13 honours, surpassing Grammy winner Adele’s mark as the artiste with the most Billboard Music Awards wins in one night.
“It’s crazy that we’re all here on earth for a limited amount of time, and we gotta show love while we’re here,” he said on stage, reports billboard.com.
He even praised actress Vanessa Hudgens. “Vanessa Hudgens, you look incredible tonight.”
Hudgens acknowledged that shortly afterward by asking if she was on the invite list for Drake’s afterparty.
Drake won Top Hot 100 Artist, Top Billboard 200 Artist and Top Rap Artist, and took home awards for song sales, song streams and several rap and R&B categories.
The evening’s final honour, Top Artist, also went to him that helped him to overtake Adele’s previous record of 12 in 2012.
“Life is like toilet paper,” he said while accepting his final award. “Either you’re on a roll, or taking sh** from a******s.”
Singer Beyoncé Knowles earned Top Female Artist, Zayn Malik was awarded Top New Artist and Blake Shelton (Country), Beyoncé (R&B), Twenty One Pilots (Rock), Juan Gabriel (Latin), The Chainsmokers (Dance/Electronic) and Lauren Daigle (Christian) and Kirk Franklin (Gospel) won top artist honours in their respective genres.
Twenty One Pilots and Beyoncé were also big winners on the night, with five awards, while The Chainsmokers earned four, reports billboard.com.
Singer Cher was presented with the Icon Award and she went back in time with her iconic songs “Believe” and “If I could turn back time”.
Rapper Nicki Minaj opened the show with a star-studded medley.
Singers Camila Cabello and Miley Cyrus delivered the live debuts of their new singles — Cabello’s first solo song since leaving Fifth Harmony group, an emotional-yet-brief “I have questions” and a heated-up “Crying in the club” and Cyrus’s comeback release “Malibu”.
It was Hudgens first year as a host. She was joined by veteran host Ludacris.
Hudgens showed off her rapping skills with cappella versions of singer Celine Dion’s “Power of love” and Minaj’s verse from “Monster”.
Dion performed her iconic song “My heart will go on” 20 years after its initial prominence as the main song from the blockbuster ‘Titanic”.
Diddy also took the stage to pay tribute to The Notorious B.I.G. on what would have been the rapper’s 45th birthday and debuted the trailer for his upcoming Bad Boy Records documentary “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop”.
Singer Bruno Mars got passionate with his latest single “Versace on the floor” as the show went towards its conclusion.
