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| ▲ This photo shows pop star The Weekend. [AP=Yonhap News] |
SEOUL, May 24 (Yonhap) -- Pop artist The Weekend, who suffered from the fallout at the Grammy Awards, became the main star at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards.
The Weekend was the most nominated artist at this year's award ceremony, which was held on May 24th (KST) at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, and took home 10 prizes from different categories.
In addition to the highest award of "Top Artist," The Weekend was nominated in 16 categories including, "Top Male Artist," "Top Hot 100 Artist," and "Top Radio Songs Artist."
The artist's fourth studio album "After Hours" won the "Top R&B Album" award, while his mega hit song "Blinding Lights," which caused a retro synth-pop craze, was nominated for "Top Hot 100 Artist" and "Top Radio Songs Artist."
Despite receiving positive responses for "After Hours," The Weekend was not nominated for a single category in the 2021 Grammy Awards.
The Weekend's infamous declaration of boycotting the Grammys sparked a major controversy, ultimately leading the U.S. Recording Academy to remove its anonymous nomination committee.
However, the artist finally got his recognition for his hard work by winning 10 of the 16 nominations at this year's Billboard Music Awards.
After winning the "Top Artist" award, The Weekend thanked his parents, saying, "Thanks to you guys, I'm here today," while also acknowledging his fans.
Apart from winning a number of awards, The Weekend's bizarre performance of "Save Your Tears" in a setting of what looked like a huge parking lot with dozens of cars also made headlines.
In addition, Drake or the so-called "King of Hip hop" was honored the title of "Artist of the Decade" as the representative artist of 2010. The trophy was awarded to Mariah Carey in the 1990s and Eminem in the 2000s.
Drake also has an impressive record of entering 232 songs on the Billboard's main singles chart "Hot 100" and 45 songs in the "Top 10."
The Canadian rapper, who went on stage to accept his award with his son Adonis, expressed his humble feelings, saying, "I've spent an incalculable amount of hours trying to analyze all the things I did wrong, but tonight, for once, I'm sure as hell we did something right."
This year, American singer-songwriter P!nk became the youngest winner of the Icon Award. The singer also went on stage with her daughter Willow to hold an acrobatic performance during the award ceremony.
Rapper Pop Smoke, who died after being shot by robbers who broke into his home last year, won five awards, including the Rookie of the Year award.
The rapper's posthumous work "Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon" was selected as the winner for "Top Billboard 200 Album" and his mother, Audrey Jackson took the stage to accept her son's award, saying, "Thank you to the Billboard Awards leadership for honoring my young warrior."
The Weekend's 10 winning streak was followed by the late Pop Smoke with five, and BTS and Bad Bunny with four awards.
After the former first lady Michelle Obama introduced Alicia Keys, the singer celebrated her 20th anniversary with a medley of songs from her "Songs in A Minor" album. In addition, Duran Duran, a popular rock group from the 80s also attracted attention.
This year's performances were held both inside the Microsoft Theater and at an outdoor stage. Although audiences wore masks, the sound of people cheering at the outdoor performances revived the live atmosphere that was temporarily lost due to the pandemic.
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