The 2018 Billboard Music Awards, hosted by The Voice coach, Kelly Clarkson, was an emotional and celebratory night of nostalgic and one-of-a-kind musical performances and touching moments all to celebrate this year’s biggest and best in music.
Kendrick Lamar and Ed Sheeran were the night’s big winners, receiving six awards each. Lamar received Top Billboard 200 Album, Top Rap Artist, Top Rap Male Artist, Top Rap Album, Top Streaming Artist and Top Streaming Song (Audio).
Accepting his awards all the way from Dublin, Ireland, Sheeran took home Top Artist, Top Male Artist, Top Hot 100 Artist, Top Song Sales Artist, Top Radio Songs Artist and Top Radio Song.
Bruno Mars, Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber follow close behind, winning five awards each. Mars took home awards for Top R&B Artist, Top R&B Male Artist, Top R&B Tour, Top R&B Album and Top R&B Song.
For “Despacito,” Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber won for Top Hot 100 Song, Top Collaboration, Top Selling Song, Top Latin Song, Top Streaming Song (Audio) and Top Streaming Song (Video).
Other multi-category winners include: Imagine Dragons (Top Duo/Group, Top Rock Artist, Top Rock Album, Top Rock Song); Chris Stapleton (Top Country Artist, Top Country Male Artist and Top Country Album); The Chainsmokers (Top Dance/Electronic Artist, Top Dance/Electronic Album, Top Dance/Electronic Song); Taylor Swift (Top Female Artist and Top Selling Album); Tasha Cobbs Leonard (Top Gospel Artist and Top GospelAlbum); Ozuna (Top Latin Artist and Top Latin Album); and U2 (Top Touring Artist and Top Rock Tour).
The two fan-voted award winners were BTS for Top Social Artist and Camila Cabello for Billboard Chart Achievement Award.
The show had special moments, catering to audiences of all ages. Perhaps the most memorable was a medley from ICON Award recipient Janet Jackson, who electrified the stage with a performance of some of her biggest hits including “If” and “Nasty.”
Ariana Grande opened the show with a rousing performance of her new hit single “No Tears Left to Cry.” Host Kelly Clarkson took the stage next, welcoming the audience in the arena and at home to what was sure to be an unforgettable night and was joined on stage by the famous Las Vegas entertainers.
Dua Lipa delivered a visually entertaining performance of her single “New Rules,” which featured a stage full of dancers and a giant flamingo. Jennifer Lopez and DJ Khaled fired up the stage with their new collaboration, “Dinero,” while new dad John Legend had the audience grooving to “A Good Night.”
Khalid pulled double duty, first performing with Normani for his song “Love Lies” and returning to the stage for an emotional duet of “Youth” alongside Shawn Mendes and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Show Choir from Parkland. Prior to being joined by Khalid, Mendes took the stage to sing his new pop hit “In My Blood.”
Ed Sheeran gave a special performance of “Galway Girl,” appropriately coming to viewers from Galway.
The Chainsmokers and Halsey delivered touching remarks in memory of the late DJ, Avicii, who passed away earlier this year.
Christina Aguilera and Demi Lovato brought the house down with the show-stopping world television debut of Aguilera’s empowering new song “Fall In Line.”
The evening featured more memorable group performances including Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey with their catchy single “The Middle,” Macklemore featuring Kesha on his song “Good Old Days,” and Pharrell Williams and Camila Cabello on “Sangria Wine,” before Cabello performed solo on her fan- favorite hit “Havana.”
Global music stars BTS performed the world television premiere of their new single “Fake Love” from their recently released album Love Yourself: Tea” and were nearly drowned out by the sounds of their fans screaming.
The show closed with a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between Salt-N-Pepa and En Vogue, who joined together to perform legendary hit songs “Shoop,” “Let’s Talk About Sex,” “Push It,” and “Whatta Man.”
Presenters throughout the evening included Hailey Baldwin, Tyra Banks, Alison Brie, The Chainsmokers, Ciara, Andy Cohen, Simon Cowell, Darren Criss, Halsey, Tip “T.I.” Harris, Justin Hartley and Chrissy Metz, NickJonas and Mustard, Chloe Kim, Mila Kunis, Padma Lakshmi, Des Linden, Julia Michaels, French Montana, NE-YO, Derek Hough and Jenna Dewan, Bebe Rexha, Evan Ross and Ashlee Simpson, Grace VanderWaal and Rebel Wilson.
The 2018 Billboard Music Awards aired live on Blue Ant Entertainment with encores tomorrow at 12:25 a.m. and 4:25 p.m., Saturday at 10:25 a.m. and Sunday at 2:40 p.m..