Billboard Awards 2022: BBMAs music winners including Taylor Swift and Drake - how to watch NBC live show

Sean "Diddy" Combs has hosted the 2022 Billboard Music Awards, which took place last night (15 May) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Nominations across 62 categories were announced online in April, with The Weeknd receiving the most nominations of any artist, with 17.

But who took home a gong on the night, and why have a couple of the show’s live performances raised eyebrows?

Here is everything you need to know.

Who won?

Drake was named best top artist, male artist, rap artist, and rap male artist, and received the best rap album award for ‘Certified Lover Boy’.

Now with a total of 34 Billboard Music Awards wins, the rapper is the most decorated winner in the show’s history.

During a non-televised ceremony ahead of the main show, Olivia Rodrigo and Kanye West, also known as Ye, received the most honours with six. Rodrigo received the prize for best new artist.

Ye made his mark in the faith-based categories – again: The rapper won top Christian artist for the first time, but he claimed top gospel artist and gospel song for a third year in a row. He also received top gospel album for the second time.

The Kid LAROI won five awards for his song ‘Stay’ with Justin Bieber - the latter brought his total number of Billboard Music Awards victories to 26.

Doja Cat took home four honours. For the second year in a row, she was named top R&B artist and R&B female artist, as well as top R&B album and female artist.

Taylor Swift – who has the second most-ever award show wins with 29 – won four awards. Bad Bunny received two wins while R&B duo Silk Sonic, composed of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, won their first-ever award for top R&B song for ‘Leave the Door Open’.

Billboard chart rankings decide nominees, and winners are chosen based on a variety of factors, including album and digital song sales, airplay and streaming success, and touring.

Mary J Blige was honoured with the Icon Award for her contributions to music.

Janet Jackson presented the award to the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul, who was brought on stage by Sean "Diddy" Combs, who emceed the show.

Why was the show controversial?

As is often the case with high-profile award shows, the ceremony didn’t go by without incident, with Travis Scott and Morgan Wallen inviting controversy with their performances.

Wallen was participating in his first major awards presentation after being caught on camera uttering a racial slur in February 2021, an incident that resulted in his record label suspending him and his songs being pulled from several major American radio stations.

After not receiving a verbal introduction, the country musician sat beside his four-piece band and performed ‘Don’t Think Jesus’, followed by his chart-topping single, ‘Wasted on You’.

Wallen was awarded top country artist shortly after his performance, and in accepting the award, thanked his mother for joining him to the ceremony, but made no mention of the incident that prompted the music industry to reprimand him.

Furious fans took to social media to protest against the musician’s booking, especially in light of the racially motivated Buffalo shooting, which took place this weekend.

“F*** Morgan Wallen and this Jim Crow music,” one user wrote. “With what just happened in Buffalo, we coulda cut him from the lineup. That’s the problem now, we always giving out second chances for MFs to play in our faces.”

Travis Scott was performing for the first time on television since a massive crowd surge at his Astroworld Festival in Houston in November 2021 killed ten people and injured thousands more.

The rapper performed his track ‘Mafia’ in a tightly edited, chilly, polar-themed pre-recorded set.

Who else performed?

Ed Sheeran performed ‘2Step’ live from Northern Ireland, where he is presently on tour, while Becky G performed her smash song ‘MAMIII,’ which has topped Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart.

Miranda Lambert, Meghan Thee Stallion, and Grammy Award winners Silk Sonic were among the other performers on the bill.

How can I watch it?

The BBMAs were aired live on Sunday 15 May at 1am UK time (meaning they technically took place in the early hours of Monday 16 May for British viewers) from Las Vegas.

You can watch the awards show with a YouTube TV subscription.