Billboard Music Award

Billboard Music Awards
2015 Billboard Music Awards
Awarded for	Outstanding chart performance
Country	United States
Presented by	Billboard
First awarded	1989
Official website	www.billboardmusicawards.com

The Billboard Music Award is an honor given by Billboard, a publication and music popularity chart covering the music business. The Billboard Music Awards show had been held annually since 1989 in December until it went dormant in 2007. The awards returned in 2011 and is held annually in May. The 2016 Billboard Music Awards will air live on May 22 at 8/7c on ABC.^[1]

Ceremonies

Award process

Unlike other awards, such as the Grammy Award, which determine nominations as a result of the highest votes received by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Billboard Music Awards finalists are based on United States year-end chart performance according to Nielsen data for sales, number of downloads and total airplay. Awards were given for the top album/artist/single in different genres. Since 1992, the awards also give out a Billboard Century Award—the magazine's highest honor for creative achievement and named for Billboard's centennial in 1994. The award was renamed the Icon Award in 2011. Janet Jackson has won the most awards with 33 wins.

Categories

From 1989 to 2006, the show had the same categories and category names every year. In 2011, for the first time, all of the awards were renamed to "Top [award title]". The "of the year" portion of each category title no longer exists, and many of the awards have been further renamed. Other awards, including both "crossover" awards (No. 1 Classical Crossover Artist and No. 1 Classical Crossover Album) were discontinued.

Current categories

The most important categories are Top Artist, Top Billboard 200 Album, Top Hot 100 Song and Top New Artist. These categories highlighted in each award and other categories are divided by genre.

Retired categories (1989–2014)

Special awards

Artist of the Decade

• 1950s: Elvis Presley
• 1960s: The Beatles
• 1970s: Elton John
• 1980s: Madonna
• 1990s: Mariah Carey ^[2]
• 2000s: Eminem

Billboard 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

The Billboard Icon Award was first made in 2011.

• 2011: Neil Diamond^[3]
• 2012: Stevie Wonder^[4]
• 2013: Prince^[5]
• 2014: Jennifer Lopez^[6]

Billboard Millennium Award

Recognizes music singers and contributions. To date, there have only been two recipients of this award:

• 2011: Beyoncé Knowles
• 2012: Whitney Houston (award accepted by her daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown)

Billboard Spotlight

In 1988, Michael Jackson was honored with Billboard's first Spotlight Award for being the first artist in history to have five consecutive number ones singles on Billboard Hot 100 from one album. In 2012, Katy Perry was honored with Billboard's second Spotlight award for being the second and first female artist in history to have five consecutive number ones singles on Billboard Hot 100 from one album.

Artist Achievement Award

• 1993：Celine Dion
• 1996: Madonna
• 2001: Janet Jackson
• 2002: Cher
• 2004: Destiny's Child

The awards show

Since its inception (created by Rick Garson, Paul Flattery & Jim Yukich), the BMAs had been telecast on the Fox network; however due to contractual expirations and other unforeseen circumstances, the awards were canceled for 2007. Plans for a new version of the awards in 2008 (in association with AEG Live) fell through, and the BMAs were not held until 2011.

On February 17, 2011, Billboard announced that it would bring the BMAs back to television, moving from its original home on Fox to its new network, ABC, on May 22, 2011.^[7] A new award statuette was created by New York firm Society Awards. Dick Clark Productions produces the ceremony, giving it control of both of ABC's non-country music awards specials, including the November American Music Awards.

See also

• Billboard Touring Awards
• Billboard Japan Music Awards
• Billboard Latin Music Awards
• Billboard Women in Music

References

External links

• Official website