By Michael Lopez
It may not hold the same weight as the Grammys, but the Billboard Awards still pack a powerful punch in the music biz, particularly because the winners are based on record sales numbers. And last night, tons of heavy hitters were recognized, including the late great Jenni Rivera.
La Diva de la Banda won two posthumous awards last night, including Latin Artist of the Year. Her "La Misma Gran Señora" took home Latin Album of the Year, beating hitmakers like Romeo Santos and Prince Royce.
The other big Hispanic winner was Brazil’s Michel Telo, whose “Hasta Que Salga el Sol” knocked down tracks from Don Omar and Wisin y Yandel for Latin Song of the Year. Unfortunately, fans didn’t get a chance to see Michel perform the song live, but several other Tr3s faves got a moment in the spotlight.
Bruno Mars riled the crowd up with a live rendition of his new single, “Treasure” and Selena Gomez took the stage in a gold-studded dress to perform “Come And Get It.” Gomez was actually the first act of the night and wowed the crowd with the same Bollywood moves she pulled at the MTV Movie Awards.
Pitbull actually got two songs on the Billboard set list. He stepped up with Christina Aguilera for an inspired performance of “Feel This Moment” and joined the one-and-only JLo for the summer anthem, “Live It Up.”
Miguel also got a song in and earned a few headlines for his over-the-top “Adorn” performance. Apparently during a stunt, he accidentally kicked a female fan (who was later revealed to be ok).
But despite the strong Latino presence, it was a country artist who scored the most love. Taylor Swift nabbed an amazing eight awards during the night, including Top Artist, Female Artist of the Year and Country Artist of the Year.
Teen heartthrobs One Direction weren’t far behind, earning Billboard statues for Top New Artist and Group of the Year (just to name a few). Madonna took home the coveted Top Touring Artist award and Pop Song of the Year went to Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.”
Selena’s on-again/off-again man Justin Bieber made a flashy appearance and had the paparazzi wondering whether the two of them would show off some PDA. For the record, that didn’t happen. But Justin did ignite the crowd with some impressive dance moves during a live performance of “Take You.” He also nabbed Male Artist of the Year and Social Artist of the Year.
Tracy Morgan took on the hosting duties and definitely kept the audience in stitches (particularly when he channeled Korean pop star PSY). You can find out all the details of who won what by visiting the official Billboard Music Awards site.
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