The 2015 Billboard Music Awards were held on Sunday, May 17, and were hosted by Ludacris and Chrissy Teigen. The show included many great performances by top artists such as Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, Nick Jonas, Ed Sheeran, and many more.
Taylor Swift stole the show with a total of 14 nominations and eight wins. She also debuted the video for her new single “Bad Blood.” The video has cameos by several of Swift’s friends and features a futuristic action-packed plot. Stars such as Kendrick Lamar, Selena Gomez, Karlie Kloss, Ellen Pompeo and Lena Dunham play characters in the video. The video itself opened the BBMA show. Among Swift’s awards for the evening were Top Artist, Top Female Artist, and Top Billboard 200 Album. She won more BBMAs than any other artist in 2015. Swift also made headlines for bringing along her new boyfriend, DJ Calvin Harris. It was the first red carpet appearance for the couple. Harris also took home an award for Top Dance/Electronic Artist.
Kanye West had one of the more controversial performances of the evening. He combined two of his biggest hits “All Day” and “Black Skinhead.” First of all, there was so much light behind Kanye and so much smoke on the stage that it was difficult to even see him. On top of that, ABC censors had to bleep out much of his performance because of profanity. There were a couple of 30-second intervals where no sound at all was broadcast. Performances by Nick Jonas and Ed Sheeran were much more well-received.
Other big winners for the evening include Sam Smith, Meghan Trainor, Iggy Izalea, Pharrell Williams, Enrique Iglesias, and Jason Aldean. Sam Smith received Top Male Artist and Top New Artist. Recovering from vocal chord surgery, Smith gave his speech through cue cards which the audience loved. All in all, it was a very successful awards show.