Eminem and teen idol Justin Bieber dominated the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday, winning six awards each with the 38-year-old rapper taking the top honour for Artist of the Year.
With Eminem absent, Bieber helped lead the way on stage beside some of pop’s biggest current stars at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, marking the music magazine’s efforts to revive what was once an annual event following a four-year hiatus.
Sporting his now short, spiky hair and a sparkling gold tuxedo jacket, Bieber beat singer Bruno Mars and rapper Nicki Minaj for best new artist and marvelled to the audience, “I’m 17 . . . every day is crazy to me because I see so many people and I get to make so many people smile.”
The Canadian pop star, who has gained a huge following of Beliebers through YouTube and social media websites, also won awards for top pop album, streaming artist and song, as well as social and digital media artist. He thanked “everybody who helped me get out of my home town and live my dream”.
Detroit native Eminem, who released the critical and commercial success Recovery last year, including the hit single Love The Way You Lie featuring singer Rihanna, won awards for top male artist, billboard 200 album, rap artist, rap song and rap album.
Rihanna (23) kicked off the show with a performance of S&M from her 2010 fifth studio album Loud and was joined on stage by Britney Spears before going on to win three awards including top female and top radio artist of the year.
She thanked her biggest fan devotees, who call themselves the “Rihanna navy”, and hailed her native Barbados.
The last Billboard artist of the year was Rihanna’s former boyfriend Chris Brown, who pleaded guilty to assaulting her in 2009 and did not attend the awards.
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