The 2015 Billboard Music Awards were brought to us live from the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Many of the artists with hits from the past year made appearances like Taylor Swift, Iggy Azalea, John Legend, Meghan Trainor and One Direction to name a few.
Hosted by Ludacris and Chrissy Teigan, the duo played off each other pretty well, without having to resort to raunchy jokes to try to squeeze a laugh out of the audience, as many hosts are known to do.
For the audience’s viewing pleasure, there were over a dozen performances, some of which have been at the top of our playlists for the past months and others, that were fairly new to our ears, but sure to be hits this upcoming summer. In fact, far more performances of nominated and popular artists were presented than there were awards handed out.
It was clear that much thought went into picking performers and their songs, instead of choosing the obvious, overly played radio pieces. Some of the more memorable performances of the night included: Mariah Carey impressively performing a mash-up of her popular hits, Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” ft. Charlie Puth as a contribution to the late Paul Walker, Simple Minds singing “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” in celebration for the 30th anniversary of The Breakfast Club and Imagine Dragons performed “Stand By Me” remembering the late Ben E. King, had audiences on their feet, singing along.
While many appearances by singing celebrities delighted viewers, there were many disappearances as well: Ariana Grande, Katy Perry and Sam Smith (who was recovering from surgery) were nowhere to be found. Also awkwardly missing was Zayn Malik, who recently left One Direction yet the now 4-some band dedicated their “Top Duo/Group” award to “their brother”, showing no hostility among the boys, though weeks ago, Twitter said otherwise.
As we all knew it was coming, pop-sensation Taylor Swift swept the categories, walking away with eight awards total. She also kicked off the entire night by premiering her latest music video for “Bad Blood”, filled with her growing girl-posse and promoting female empowerment. A nail in the rumor coffin was thrown down as the alleged couple of Swift and Calvin Harris was publicized as she kissed him on the cheek before each time she went on stage to accept an award.
Collaborations across the board had audiences on their feet in approval. Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea performed their new hit “Pretty Girls”, Meghan Trainor and John Legend sung a sweet duet of “Like I’m Going To Lose You”, Nicki Minaj and David Guetta gave us summer vibes with “The Night Is Still Young” and “Hey Mama” and even the incomparable Faith Hill joined Little Big Town for “Girl Crush”. Stars who did not get the cheers? Kendall and Kylie Jenner as they were boo’ed while announcing Kanye West, (who was censored for a full minute of his performance), ending all of the performances of the night on a sour note.
Yet, the night was neatly tied together with the final award for “Top Artist of the Year” going to none other than Taylor Swift, as her speech left fans excited for her 1989 world tour coming to the U.S. this summer.
Billboard Music Awards recap: Swift sweeps as other memorable performances fill in the blank space
Audrey Bittner
May 17, 2015
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