Drake
The 2022 Billboard Music Awards were handed out on Sunday night, with Olivia Rodrigo and Drake walking away as the biggest winners. Rodrigo took home seven awards overall, for Top New Artist, Top Female Artist, Top Hot 100 Artist, Top Streaming Songs Artist, Top Radio Songs Artist, Top Billboard Global 200 Artist and Top Billboard 200 Album.
Drake was named the Top Winner, adding to his record total of overall BBMA wins. He was also won for Top Male Artist, Top Rap Male Artist, Top Rap Artist and Top Rap Album. All in all, Drake now has 34 BBMAs in his career, the most of any artist.
In second place on the all-time Billboard Music Awards winner list is Taylor Swift, who now has 29 in total, after winning four more, including Top Billboard 200 artist of the year.
Kanye West (now “Ye“) won six Christian and Gospel BBMAs thanks to his album Donda, sweeping both categories and giving him 17 overall in his career. Justin Bieber won five times, including Hot 100 Song for “Stay,” his collaboration with The Kid LAROI. Doja Cat took home four BBMAs, including Top R&B Artist.
BTS was named the Top Duo/Group and earned Top Song Sales Artist and Top Selling Song (“Butter”). Ed Sheeran was named Top Billboard Global Artist (excluding the U.S.). And Mary J. Blige was honored with the Icon Award, as a number of notable individuals paid tribute to Blige, who was presented with the award by surprise guest Janet Jackson.
As for the show itself, it was packed with wall-to-wall performance. Machine Gun Kelly made headlines calling his partner Megan Fox “my wife.” A different Megan, Megan Thee Stallion, performed her hits “Plan B” and “Sweetest Pie,” before winning for Top Rap Female Artist. Other notable performers included Florence + the Machine, Silk Sonic, Ed Sheeran, Latto and Burna Boy.
The evening’s host Diddy had some unusual moments, bragging about going off-script and declaring the show would be “un-canceling the canceled,” referring to performances from Country artist Morgan Wallen (whose came under fire due to video of him using racial slurs) and rapper Travis Scott (who has kept a lower profile following the 10 deaths at his Astroworld festival last year during his performance). It was Scott’s first TV performance since the Astroworld tragedy.
