Adele, LMFAO sweep tribute-filled Billboard awards

Energetic performances and heart-felt tributes took centre stage at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday, as Adele, LMFAO, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift took top awards, reports Reuters.

British Grammy-winning singer Adele won 12 awards from 18 nominations for her juggernaut album 21, including top artist, top female artist and top album. Her awards were not presented during the live show and the singer was not present.

But LMFAO, the uncle-nephew duo Redfoo and SkyBlu, showed in trademark outrageous fashion and picked up two awards, song of the year for “Party Rock Anthem” and the top duo/group, along with four more honours.

Rappers Wiz Khalifa, Lil Wayne and R&B singer Chris Brown took honours for top new artist, male artist of the year and R&B artist of the year, respectively.

LMFAO kicked off the show with an energetic medley of their hits “Party Rock Anthem” and “Sexy And I Know It”. They were followed later by a shirtless Chris Brown performing his dance single “Turn Up The Music” with BMX bikers doing stunts.

Katy Perry, clad in a white dress, hung above the stage in a swing to sing her latest “personal and intimate” heartbreak single “Wide Awake”, while Justin Bieber, one of last year’s big winners at the Billboard show, presented a grown up image this year after turning 18-years-old. He sang  “Boyfriend” with dancers dressed as clowns and neon geisha girls.

Justin Bieber scooped the first award for Social Artist, presented to him by Julianne Hough. Lisa Marie Presley then awarded the special Spotlight gong to Katy Perry. Taylor Swift was honoured with a Woman of the Year award by Zooey Deschanel.

One of the highlights of the night was when John Legend and Jordin Sparks paid tribute to Whitney Houston, as Sparks gave a beautiful rendition of Houston’s hit “I Will Always Love You”.

Alicia Keys presented Stevie Wonder with the Billboard Icon Award and paid tribute to the singer before the twosome took over the stage for a soulful duet. Wonder’s performance of his hit “Superstitious” made for an epic ending to the memorable evening.

(With additional information from Daily Mail and E!online)

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2012.