2012 Billboard Music Awards
This past Sunday, A-list celebrities and Musicians gathered at The MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas for the 2012 Billboard Music Awards. LMFAO kicked off the show with a high energy performance of “Party Rock Anthem” and “I’m Sexy And You Know It”, but the night was filled with emotional performances as well.
Tributes to Donna Summer, Whitney Houston, and Adam Yauch of The Beastie Boys were heartfelt and a moment of silence was held for Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees who passed away on Sunday. Billboard honored Whitney Houston with the Millennium Award which was accepted by her daughter Bobbi Kristina.
The show was also a chance for musicians like Kelly Clarkson, Usher, Carrie Underwood, and Katy Perry to perform their new songs. Nelly Furtado showcased her comeback song, Big Hoops (Bigger The Better). Katy Perry was presented the Spotlight Award while Taylor Swift was honored as the Billboard Woman of the Year and Stevie Wonder with the Billboard Icon Award.
Adele topped the Billboard Music Awards by winning 12 awards including Top Artist and Top Billboard 200 Album. Other winners include LMFAO (6 awards), Coldplay and Lil Wayne (4 awards each), Jason Aldean, Lady Gaga, Lady Antebellum, Shakira, and Wiz Khalifa. The complete list of winners can be found here.
For this year’s award show, Billboard planned many ways to integrate social media into the event. During the telecast on ABC, viewers were reminded to tweet about the show and join in the conversation using the hashtag, #BBMA. Billboard also partnered with Shazam where fans could use the app to get a free download of Diplo’s remix of Usher’s song, Climax from his upcoming album “Looking 4 Myself”. The Shazam app also had a complete list of performers, nominees, and links to buy music performed on the show. On Billboard.com, fans could watch behind-the-scenes footage and live streaming backstage interviews. Launched in late 2010, Billboard has even started keeping track of weekly additions of friends, fans, and followers (in respective social networks) and ranks Musicians on the Social 50 Chart. With no surprise, Justin Bieber took home the title of Social Artist of the Year Award this year, topping the chart for 40 weeks!
For Independent Musicians, Patent Pending - a pop-punk band from Long Island, NY who won against five other acts competing in the final round of Battle of Bands, won the chance to perform at this year’s award show. A dream came true when Billboard and Chevy presented the 2012 Battle of the Bands winners this past Friday. For a recap of the Battle of the Bands competition, check out Billboard.biz.
For more music industry news, visit www.billboard.com.
Photos are courtesy of BBMA 2012.
