Who won at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards?

Sean “Diddy” Combs hosted the 2022 Billboard Music Awards, held last night (May 15) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

But who took home a gong that night, and why did some of the show’s live performances raise eyebrows?

Here’s everything you need to know.

Drake won Best Top Artist, Male Artist, Rap Artist, Male Rap Artist, and Best Rap Album for “Certified Lover Boy.”

With a total of 34 wins at the Billboard Music Awards, the rapper is the most-grossing winner in the history of the show.

During a non-televised ceremony prior to the main show, Olivia Rodrigo and Kanye West, aka Ye, received the most honors with six. Rodrigo received the award for best new artist.

Ye made his mark in the faith-based categories — again: the rapper won Best Christian Artist for the first time, but he held his own for Best Gospel Artist and Gospel Song for a third straight year. He also received a top gospel album for the second time.

The Kid LAROI won five awards for his song “Stay” with Justin Bieber – the latter bringing his total number of wins at the Billboard Music Awards to 26.

Doja Cat took home four awards. For the second year in a row, she won Best R&B Artist, Best R&B Album, and Best Female Artist.

Taylor Swift – who has the second-most award show wins of all time at 29 – has won four awards. Bad Bunny received two wins, while R&B duo Silk Sonic, consisting of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, scooped their first-ever award for Best R&B Song with “Leave the Door Open.”

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

Mary J Blige received the Icon Award for her contributions to music.

Janet Jackson presented the award to the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul, who was brought onto the stage by Sean “Diddy” Combs, who hosted the show.

As is often the case with high-profile awards shows, the ceremony was not without incident, with performances by Travis Scott and Morgan Wallen stirring up controversy.

Wallen attended his first major awards show after he was caught on camera uttering a racial slur in February 2021, an incident that led to his record label suspending him and his songs being pulled from several major American radio stations became.

After receiving no verbal introduction, the country musician sat next to his four-piece band and performed “Don’t Think Jesus,” followed by his chart-topping single “Wasted on You.”

Wallen was honored for best country artist shortly after his performance, and upon accepting the award, he thanked his mother for attending the ceremony, but did not mention the incident that caused the music industry to censure him.

“Fuck Morgan Wallen and that Jim Crow music.” wrote one user. “With what just happened in Buffalo, we could have left him off the lineup. That’s the problem now, we always give MFs a second chance to play in our face.”

The rapper performed his track “Mafia” in a carefully edited, cool, polar-themed pre-recorded set.

Ed Sheeran performed “2Step” live from Northern Ireland, where he is currently touring, while Becky G performed her hit “MAMIII”, which topped the charts for Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs.

Miranda Lambert, Meghan Thee Stallion and Grammy Award winner Silk Sonic were among the other cast members on the bill.

The BBMAs were broadcast live from Las Vegas at 1am UK time on Sunday 15th May (which means they technically took place in the early hours of 16th May for UK viewers).

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