The 2001 Billboard Music Awards kicked off December 4th at the MGM Grand in (Viva) Las Vegas. The night was filled with glitz, glam, rock stars, humor and performances. Britney opened the show with I'm A Slave 4 U on a floating stage outside. It looked pretty cool as water fountains shot up into the air behind her. Did anyone else notice that there wasn't a lot of singing going on? At least not LIVE singing... And I'm pretty sure that Brit wasn't even there and that the opener was pre-taped cuz she wasn't in the audience and she wasn't on stage for the tribute tune at the end.
The host, Bernie Mac, did a great job MCing the show. He was pretty funny, like when he told all the rap artists to accept their awards by themselves - minus the posse. The crowd got a good mix of music with performances by No Doubt, who performed their new single Hey Baby and Alicia Keys who started off singing her latest single, A Woman's Worth but ended up in a medley of another tune, Brotha Pt. II, with Eve and Angie Stone.
Rock fans got a taste of Incubus and country lovers were roped in by super star Tim McGraw. Of course, the performance that got the most screams was *NSYNC, who floated above the audience on a platform as Justin and the gang belted out their latest tune Gone. Speaking of gone... did anyone notice Joey's shaved head? On the other hand Justin's curls seem to be coming back nicely. The guys sounded great - but I missed the dropping to his knees and clutching his chest moves Justin usually pulls when he sings Gone live.
Shaggy also took to the stage for his gazillionth performance of It Wasn't Me. I think he's performed It Wasn't Me at every awards show over the past year. Okay, okay, it wasn't you, Shaggy - now get a new tune already!
Destiny's Child snagged a ton of awards including Artist of the Year and Hot 100 Singles Artist of the Year - duo/group. Way to go girls! Shaggy walked away with Male Artist of the Year, Alicia Keys grabbed Female Artist of the Year and Lifehouse won Male New Artist of the Year.
R. Kelly took home R&B/Hip-Hop artist of the Year and a few other R&B awards while Tim McGraw cleaned up in the country category. The lil' rappers each walked away with awards - Lil' Romeo won Rap Artist of the Year and Lil Bow Wow won Rap Single of the Year for Bow Wow (That's My Name.)
A few special awards were given out including the Artistic Achievement Award to Janet Jackson and Biggest One-Week Sales for an Album in 2001 to *NSYNC for Celebrity.
The show closed with several musicians coming together to sing What's Going On, the song recorded to benefit AIDS and the September 11th attacks. It was cool to see such a huge group come together and jam together live. Billboard wrapped up another successful year, recognizing artists who made their mark on the music charts. For a complete list of winners
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- 2001 MTV Video Awards
- 2001 Teen Choice Awards Review
- 2001 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards Review
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2001 Source Hip-Hop Music Awards
