Last night, music industry greats gathered together in Los Angeles to accept their awards and break a few records at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards.
Records were broken across multiple different genres, from Morgan Wallen to Drake and Taylor Swift. Morgan Wallen walked out of the awards with the second-most awards won in a single year; Wallen’s 11 awards sits just behind Drake’s record of 12 awards from 2019.
However Morgan Wallen set his own record of being the first in nearly 20 years to win the awards for both Top Billboard 200 Album, for ‘One Thing at a Time,’ and Top Hot 100 Song, for “Last Night.” The last time this feat was accomplished was by Usher in 2004 for ‘Confessions’ and “Yeah!” The 11 awards that Wallen took home last night, on top of his previously existing 4, bumped him up to the second-most BBMA-decorated country artist, only behind Garth Brooks with 20.
Taylor Swift walked away with some familiar awards, including her third Top Artist award, her sixth Top Billboard 200 Artist award and her fifth Top Female Artist award. With her 10 new awards, Swift has reached a tie at the top with Drake, both with 39 total BBMAs.
Drake continued to clean up the rap genre, with his fifth win for Top Rap Artist, his second win for Top Rap Tour. He also claimed the awards for Top Rap Album, for ‘Her Loss,’ and Top Rap Song, for “Rich Flex.”
The R&B category was dominated by SZA, as she won 4 BBMAs this year. SZA took home the awards for Top R&B Female Artist, Top R&B Album for ‘SOS,’ and Top R&B Song for “Kill Bill.” Beyoncé also made an appearance in the genre, claiming her award for Top R&B Touring Artist.
Beyoncé claimed a total of 3 awards this year, one in the R&B genre and the other two in dance/electronic. Queen Bey took awards home for Top Dance/Electronic Artist and Top Dance/Electronic Album for ‘Renaissance.’ With these 3 awards, her grand total BBMAs is 16, placing her in a 3-way-tie for most BBMAs by a woman of color with Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey.
Zach Bryan showed up and showed out with 4 wins in the rock genre at his first-ever Billboard Music Awards. Bryan won Top New Artist, Top Rock Artist, Top Rock Album for ‘American Heartbreak,’ and Top Rock Song for “Something in the Orange.”
Bad Bunny took home the win for Top Latin Artist for the fourth year in a row, along with the award for Top Latin Album for the third year in a row. Kanye West, now referred to as Ye, won a single award for Top Gospel Artist, claiming his title as category leader with 4 wins.
The Weeknd accepted 2 new awards to his collection, bringing his grand total of BBMAs to 22. At 22 awards, The Weeknd sits in 4th place on the all-time BBMAs leaderboard. Drake and Taylor Swift currently sit in the No. 1 and No. 2 slots at a tie with 39 each, Justin Bieber is next in the running with 26, Garth Brooks sits at No. 5 with 20 awards, finally followed by a 3-way- tie between Adele, Usher and Kanye at 18 awards.
You can check out the full list of BBMA winners here.