Taylor Swift was the big winner at this year’s Billboard music awards. Not only did the singer premiere her blockbuster video for Bad Blood – featuring the likes of Cindy Crawford, Kendrick Lamar and Lena Dunham – but the pop star also took home eight prizes including top artist, top female artist, top Billboard 200 Album, top Billboard 200 artist, top Hot 100 artist and top streaming song.
Swift thanked “all the girls I talk to on the Internet and we talk about your feelings and you teach me your teen slang,” during her speech for top female artist, and told her fans that she was “obsessed” with them: “You guys are the reason this year has happened the way that it’s happened,” she said.
It was also a good year for Iggy Azalea, Pharrell Williams and Sam Smith, who each won three awards, while One Direction, Hozier, Jason Aldean, Enrique Iglesias and John Legend, took home two. Calvin Harris also picked up the award for top dance/electronic artist. The Scottish EDM artist joined Swift, his supposed new girlfriend, at the ceremony.
Smith, who was forced to pull out of the ceremony owing to his vocal haemorrhage
, accepted his awards remotely. His acceptance speech for top male artist came with a video featuring a number of cue cards. “First, thank you Billboard for this incredible honour,” he wrote. “Secondly, thank you to my amazing fans. It’s times like this that I realise how lucky I am to have you in my life. Can’t wait to get this surgery out of the way so I can sing my ass off for you again.”
Hosted by Chrissy Teigen and Ludacris, this year’s awards took place at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.
