The 2021 Billboard Music awards is set.
It will air on May 23, 2021.
Billboard also recently revealed the nominees for this year’s awards show.
The Weeknd leads with sixteen nominations. Just close behind him is DaBaby with eleven nods. The late rap artist Pop Smoke has ten nominations, while country singer Gabby Barrett has nine.
Meghan Thee Stallion has seven nominations. Drake, Bad Bunny, Chris Brown and the late Juice WRLD also have seven nods each. Morgan Wallen and Lil Baby has six each and Justin Bieber and Doja Cat has five apiece.
Country music singer Morgan Wallen, despite his six nominations, won’t be invited to the awards show. The singer was caught on camera saying the N-word in a “drunken exchange with friends” last February, a report said. Longtime event organizers, Dick Clark Productions, said in a statement: “His recent conduct does not align with our core values, we will not be including him on the show in any capacity (performing, presenting, accepting).”
The Top Artist plum will be a contest between Taylor Swift, who has four nominations, The Weeknd, Drake, and possible post-humous recognitions for Juice WRLD and Pop Smoke. The Top New Artist award is a toss up between Gabby Barrett, Doja Cat, Pop Smoke, Jack Harlow and Rod Wave.
BTS has four nominations and is poised to win Top Social Artist category. They’ve won said award four straight years. They are also in the running for Top Duo/Group, Top Song Sales Artist and Top Selling Song for “Dynamite.”
Miley Cyrus is nominated for Top Rock Album for “Plastic Hearts.” She shares the category with fellow nominees AC/DC for “Power Up,” Glass Animals’ “Dreamland,” Machine Gun Kelly’s “Ticket To My Downfall,” and Bruce Springsteen for “Letters To You.”
The Billboards show will be the first awards ceremony to benefit from the continued mass vaccination program the new US administration has taken. Recall that last year, the show was pushed back to October 2020 from its annual schedule of May due to the pandemic.
Event organizers has also tapped Joe Jonas to host this year’s show. A departure from three previous shows that had Kelly Clarkson as host.
Due to the nature of its specialty, the Billboard Music Awards boasts a comprehensive listing and perhaps the most diverse music categories of any music awards show.
From Top Artist categories that include Female, Male and Group categories, the awards show also has Top 200 for the best-selling album bracket. The Top Hot 100 for its singles listings, to Top Streaming Song, Top Selling Song, Top Radio, to Top Social Artist, and the eventual different music categories that include rock, pop, Latin, Gospel, Christian and the Electronic and Dance categories.
The Billboard Music Awards has a built-in system for determining nominees and winners. The charts company has their own data culled from physical sales, digital downloads and stream counts to base upon to determine the best performing acts, singles, albums and artists of the past year.
Billboard also acknowledged that beside data, a big determining factor for their nominations and eventual winners are the music fans.
“Nominess and winners at the Billboard Music Award are based on fan interactions with music, including album and digital song sales, streaming, radio airplay, touring and social engagement, tracked by Billboard and its data partners,” Billboard said.
A complete category and nominees list can be found on Billboard’s official website.