Entertainment

The Weeknd tops Billboard Music Awards

SOUNDS FAMILIAR - Baby A. Gil - The Philippine Star

May 25, 2016 | 12:00am

The Weeknd brings home eight Billboard trophies

I say welcome to the Billboard Music Awards (BMA). Add this to your yearly music awards fare somewhere near the Grammys, the Brits and the American Music Awards, that honors the hits of a designated year. This is not reaIly a new award-giving body. This one is from Billboard Magazine, the bible of the music industry.

You know Billboard. This is the publication that hosts the most coveted hit charts in the world. Anybody involved with the music industry has at one time or another dreamed of one day seeing his name in a Billboard chart. So it follows that a Billboard Music Award carries major credibility and while music stars always covet a Grammy, they would also love a Billboard or two or more nearby.

I used to look at the Billboard Music Awards as some sort of trade show, something serious that refers to official sales figures to choose the winners, which is all very well. I thought it was more about the industry than glitz and glamour. But this changed these past few years. The big stars all make it a point to show up at the annual event. No one wants to snub Billboard. And when you have names like Taylor and Justin and Jennifer, etc., around, the media coverage follows.

As a result, the latest BMA now comes with a red carpet pre-show for the stars to parade in and live telecast and streaming to all over the world including the Philippines. If I am not mistaken, this is the first time that we got the Billboard Music Awards live on local TV and it turned out to be really worth-watching.

The 2016 Billboard Music Awards was held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas featuring spectacular performances from by names like Justin Bieber in a light show singing Sorry and Company; Rihanna, Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton, Shawn Mendes, Demi Lovato, Meghan Trainor, Nick Jonas and others.

They were great but it was two great ladies of music who effortlessly ran away with the show. Celine Dion performed The Show Must Go On with her stunning pipes and to her big surprise was presented with the Icon Award by her son. It was her first performance since the death of her husband Rene Angelil and Celine wept copiously. There was not a dry eye in the arena.

The other one was, of course, Madonna in a tribute to the much-lamented Prince. The Material Girl perched herself on a purple throne to sing Nothing Compares to U and then brought in Stevie Wonder to join her in Purple Rain as the darkened hall was brought back to life by flickering purple candles. Beautiful.

And now here are the winners of the Billboard Music Awards 2016. Note that the winners are called, Top, as in Top Artist or Top R&B Song, which is just as well for these are indeed the top songs and artists in the music industry today.

And tops of them all is The Weeknd who brought home eight Billboard trophies: Top Hot 100 Artist; Top Song Sales Artist; Top Radio Songs Artist; Top Streaming Songs Artist; Top R&B Artist; Top R&B Song: The Hills; Top R&B Album: Beauty Behind The Madness; and Top Audio Streaming Song: The Hills.

The other winners are:

Top Artist: Adele

Billboard Chart Achievement Award (Fan Voted): Rihanna

Top Billboard 200 Album: 25 by Adele

Top Male Artist: Justin Bieber

Top Country Song: Die A Happy Man by Thomas Rhett

Top Hot 100 Song: See You Again by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth.