Billboard Music Awards facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Billboard Music Awards

Presented by	Billboard
Country	United States
First awarded	December 10, 1990; 34 years ago (1990-12-10)
Television coverage
Network	Fox (1990–2006) ABC (2011–2017) NBC (2018–2022)

Most recent Billboard Music Award winners

← 2022

November 19, 2023

2024 →


Award	Top Artist & Top Female Artist	Top Male Artist, Top Billboard 200 Album & Top Hot 100 Artist	Top Duo/Group
Winner	Taylor Swift	Morgan Wallen	Fuerza Regida

Award	Top Billboard 200 Artist	Top Hot 100 Song	Top New Artist
Winner	Taylor Swift	Morgan Wallen ("Last Night")	Zach Bryan

Previous Top Artist

Drake

Top Artist

Taylor Swift

The Billboard Music Awards' are special honors given out every year by Billboard magazine. Billboard is famous for tracking how popular music is, like with its well-known music charts. These awards celebrate artists who have done amazingly well on those charts. The show has been happening every year since 1990, except for a few years between 2007 and 2010. The event used to be in December, but since 2011, it has been held in May. In 2023, it was announced that the awards would become an online-only show, moving from TV to Billboards website and social media pages. This change started with the 2023 show on November 19.

How Winners Are Chosen

Unlike some other awards, like the Grammy Awards, where people vote for nominees, the Billboard Music Awards pick their finalists based on how well their music performs. This includes things like how many albums and digital songs are sold, how many times songs are streamed online, how often they are played on the radio, how many people attend their concerts, and how much fans talk about them on social media.

Billboard and its data partners, like MRC Data and Next Big Sound, keep track of these numbers all year long. For example, the 2018 awards looked at data from April 8, 2017, to March 31, 2018. Awards are given for the best album, artist, and song in many different music genres.

Award Shows Through the Years

The Billboard Music Awards have been held in different cities and hosted by many famous people over the years.

Year	Order	Date	Venue	City	Host(s)	TV network
1990	1	December 10	Barker Hangar	Santa Monica	Paul Shaffer & Morris Day with Jerome Benton	Fox
1991	2	December 9	Barker Hangar	Santa Monica	Paul Shaffer
1992	3	December 8	Universal Amphitheater	Los Angeles	Phil Collins
1993	4	December 8			Phil Collins
1994	5	December 7			Dennis Miller and Heather Locklear
1995	6	December 6	New York Coliseum	New York City	Jon Stewart
1996	7	December 4	Hard Rock Hotel	Las Vegas	Chris Rock
1997	8	December 8	MGM Grand Garden Arena		David Spade
1998	9	December 7			Kathy Griffin and Andy Dick
1999	10	December 8			Kathy Griffin and Adam Carolla
2000	11	December 5			Kathy Griffin and NSYNC
2001	12	December 4			Bernie Mac
2002	13	December 9			Cedric the Entertainer
2003	14	December 10			Ryan Seacrest with Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson
2004	15	December 8			Ryan Seacrest
2005	16	December 6			LL Cool J
2006	17	December 4			—
Not held in 2007–2010
2011	18	May 22	MGM Grand Garden Arena	Las Vegas	Ken Jeong	ABC
2012	19	May 20			Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell
2013	20	May 19			Tracy Morgan
2014	21	May 18			Ludacris
2015	22	May 17			Ludacris and Chrissy Teigen
2016	23	May 22	T-Mobile Arena		Ludacris and Ciara
2017	24	May 21	T-Mobile Arena		Ludacris and Vanessa Hudgens
2018	25	May 20	MGM Grand Garden Arena		Kelly Clarkson	NBC
2019	26	May 1	MGM Grand Garden Arena
2020	27	October 14	Dolby Theatre	Los Angeles
2021	28	May 23	Microsoft Theater	Los Angeles	Nick Jonas
2022	29	May 15	MGM Grand Garden Arena	Las Vegas	Sean "Diddy" Combs
2023	30	November 19	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Award Categories

From 1990 to 2006, the awards had the same categories each year. In 2011, all the awards were renamed to "Top [award title]". The "of the year" part was removed, and many awards got new names. Some older awards were stopped. As of 2017, fans can vote in two categories.

Current Categories

The main categories are Top Artist, Top Billboard 200 Album, Top Hot 100 Song, and Top New Artist. These and other categories are also divided by music style.

General

Top Artist
Top New Artist
Top Male Artist
Top Female Artist
Top Duo/Group
Top Billboard 200 Artist
Top Billboard 200 Album
Top Hot 100 Artist
Top Hot 100 Song
Top Touring Artist
Top Song Sales Artist (since 2016)
Top Selling Album (since 2018)
Top Selling Song (since 2016)
Top Radio Songs Artist
Top Radio Song
Top Streaming Artist
Top Streaming Song (Audio)
Top Streaming Song (Video)

R&B

Top R&B Artist
Top R&B Male Artist (since 2018)
Top R&B Female Artist (since 2018)
Top R&B Album
Top R&B Song
Top R&B Tour (since 2017)

Rap

Top Rap Artist
Top Rap Male Artist (since 2018)
Top Rap Female Artist (since 2018)
Top Rap Album
Top Rap Song
Top Rap Tour (since 2017)

Country

Top Country Artist
Top Country Male Artist (since 2018)
Top Country Female Artist (since 2018)
Top Country Duo/Group Artist (since 2018)
Top Country Album
Top Country Song
Top Country Tour (since 2017)

Rock

Top Rock Artist
Top Rock Album
Top Rock Song
Top Rock Tour (since 2017)

Latin

Top Latin Artist
Top Latin Male Artist (since 2021)
Top Latin Female Artist (since 2021)
Top Latin Duo/Group (since 2021)
Top Latin Album
Top Latin Song
Top Latin Touring Artist (since 2023)

K-Pop

Top Global K-Pop Artist (since 2023)
Top Global K-Pop Song (since 2023)
Top K-Pop Album (since 2023)
Top K-Pop Touring Artist (since 2023)

Dance/Electronic

Top Dance/Electronic Artist (since 2014)
Top Dance/Electronic Album (since 2014)
Top Dance/Electronic Song (since 2014)

Christian

Top Christian Artist
Top Christian Album
Top Christian Song

Gospel

Top Gospel Artist (since 2016)
Top Gospel Album (since 2016)
Top Gospel Song (since 2016)

Other Genres

Top Soundtrack (1993, 1998, 2000, 2006, 2015 – present)
Top Social Artist (fan-voted)
Billboard Chart Achievement (since 2015, fan-voted)
Top Collaboration (since 2017, fan-voted)

Special Awards

Artist Achievement Award

1993: Rod Stewart
1994: Whitney Houston
1995: Janet Jackson
1996: Madonna
1997: Garth Brooks
1999: Aerosmith
2001: Janet Jackson
2002: Cher
2004: Destiny's Child
2005: Kanye West

Artist of the Decade Award

1980s: Madonna
1990s: Mariah Carey
2000s: Eminem
2010s: Drake

Millennium Award

2011: Beyoncé
2012: Whitney Houston (award accepted by her daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown)
2016: Britney Spears

Century Award

1992: George Harrison
1993: Buddy Guy
1994: Billy Joel
1995: Joni Mitchell
1996: Carlos Santana
1997: Chet Atkins
1998: James Taylor
1999: Emmylou Harris
2000: Randy Newman
2001: John Mellencamp
2002: Annie Lennox
2003: Sting
2004: Stevie Wonder
2005: Tom Petty
2006: Tony Bennett

Icon Award

2011: Neil Diamond
2012: Stevie Wonder
2013: Prince
2014: Jennifer Lopez
2016: Celine Dion
2017: Cher
2018: Janet Jackson
2019: Mariah Carey
2020: Garth Brooks
2021: P!nk
2022: Mary J. Blige

Spotlight Award

In 1988, Michael Jackson received Billboard's first Spotlight Award. This was because he was the first artist in music history to have five songs from one album reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This happened before the awards were shown on TV.
In 2012, Katy Perry received the second Spotlight Award for being the second artist, and first female artist, to have five number one songs from one album on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Change Maker Award

2020: Killer Mike
2021: Trae tha Truth
2022: Mari Copeny

Other Special Awards

1992: Special Award for the 10th Anniversary of Thriller: Michael Jackson
1992: No. 1 World Album for Dangerous and No. 1 World Single for "Black or White": Michael Jackson
1993: Special Award for the first single with most weeks at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (14 weeks for "I Will Always Love You"): Whitney Houston
1996: Special Award for most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (16 weeks for "One Sweet Day"): Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men
1997: Special Award honoring "Candle In the Wind 1997" as the all-time best selling single: Elton John and Bernie Taupin
1998: Special Award for the most No. 1s ever by a female artist (13): Mariah Carey
2000: Special Award for biggest one-week sales ever of an album: No Strings Attached, NSYNC
2000: Special Award for biggest one-week sales of an album ever by a female artist, Oops!... I Did It Again, Britney Spears
2001: Special Award for biggest one-week sales for an album in 2001: Celebrity, NSYNC
2002: Special Award for 1982 album Thriller, which spent more weeks at No. 1 (37) than any other album in the history of the Billboard 200: Michael Jackson
2003: Special Award for Most weeks at No. 1: Beyoncé (17 weeks with "Crazy in Love" featuring Jay-Z and "Baby Boy" featuring Sean Paul)

Artists with the Most Wins

Taylor Swift is the most awarded artist with 40 awards.

The artist who has won the most Billboard Music Awards is Taylor Swift, with 40 awards. The male artist with the most wins is Drake, with 39 awards. The group with the most Billboard Music Awards is BTS, who have won 12 awards.

Rank	Artist	Number of awards
1	Taylor Swift	40
2	Drake	39
3	Justin Bieber	26
4	The Weeknd	22
5	Mariah Carey	20
6	Garth Brooks	19
7	Adele	18
	Usher
	Kanye West
8	Eminem	17
9	Whitney Houston	16
10	Morgan Wallen	14
10	Beyoncé	14
11	50 Cent	13
13	BTS	12
	Carrie Underwood
	George Michael
	Rihanna
	R.Kelly
	T.I.
14	Destiny's Child	11
	Janet Jackson
	Mary J. Blige
15	Imagine Dragons	10
	Lady Gaga
	Post Malone

Most Wins in a Single Show

Adele won the most awards by a female artist in one ceremony.

Rank	Artist	Most wins
1	Drake	13
2	Adele	12
2	Drake	12
3	Whitney Houston	11

How the Awards Are Broadcast

The Billboard Music Awards first aired on the Fox network. However, the show was canceled in 2007 because of contract issues. There were plans to bring it back in 2008, but they didn't work out. So, the awards didn't happen again until 2011.

On February 17, 2011, Billboard announced that the awards would return to TV. They moved from Fox to a new network, ABC, and the show aired on May 22, 2011. A new award trophy was designed for the return. Dick Clark Productions, which works with Billboard, started producing the show in 2014. In 2017, it was announced that the awards would move again, this time to NBC, starting in 2018.

The 2020 show was supposed to happen on April 29, but it was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was later rescheduled for October 14, 2020.