Each year, the Billboard Awards give out accolades to deserving artists, songs, and producers. This year, the awards ceremony was held at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The event has been taking place at the end of the year since 1990. Originally, the show was in December until 2006, when it was eventually discontinued. However, it was brought back in 2011 with a new flare. Instead of airing in December, Billboard opted to be the last of the big three music awards. Eight years later, the Billboard Awards have thrown themselves back in the mix and sit at the third most prestigious awards show in music. 

     The 2019 Billboard Awards shed light on both new and familiar artists. Renowned musician Kelly Clarkson hosted the annual event and performed her job well. Prior to the show, Cardi B had the most nominations (21) in the most categories (18). However, Drake collected a historic 12 awards to bring his all-time total to 27 billboard awards. Drake’s lengthy and accomplished career has helped him gain respect in the music industry. He collected Top Artist, Top Male Artist, Top Billboard 200 Artist, Top 100 Artist, Top Streaming Songs Artist, Top Song Sales Artist, Top Radio Songs Artist, and more. He even referenced the popular series, “Game of Thrones” in his speech, which eventually went viral.

This year, the awards event reached 5.2 million viewers. Among those viewers were various LHS students. Lafayette senior Christian Hankins expressed his discontent, “I feel like one person always wins these award events. It seems pointless and I changed the channel after 30 minutes of watching.” Another LHS Senior, Jarel White, said, “I’m not a huge fan of Drake’s music. He’s popular, but not always the most creative when it comes to his music.” LHS Senior and a student in the music appreciation class Elim Utterback said, “The idea behind an awards show is good. It recognizes the accomplishments of artists in the music industry. However, I feel like the execution is poor. Billboard seems to really drag out the show. It seems like there are commercials every few minutes.” Utterback is right. The Billboard awards lasts three hours. Although there are live performances, awards, and celebrities, the show includes a large amount of commercials in between.

Some may be wondering, how can this be improved? Well, one way would obviously be to cut down on commercials. Besides that, The Billboard Awards could simplify their awards. Instead of having tons of awards, they could broadcast only a few. For example, some of the lesser known genre awards could be posted somewhere online or published in the magazine. Another way that this award show could be

streamlined is by cutting down on speeches. This could make room for more live performances and celebrity appearances that people want to see. LHS senior Jacob Barton said, “I agree that limiting some of these things would help the Billboard Awards. Cutting down on speeches may not be an optimal idea, but finding a way to give more time to other aspects of the awards show is on the right track to gain more viewership.” Each year, awards shows are losing viewership. Therefore, they need to find solutions to reverse this. Nowadays, it seems as if politics make their way into almost everything. As a result, a decreasing number of people are choosing to watch.

Overall, The Billboard Awards are an up-and-coming awards show that recognizes the best in the music industry. There may need to be some changes that need to be made, but the show includes many enjoyable aspects such as live performances, celebrity appearances, and most importantly awards. In future years, people should expect Billboard to make adjustments according to viewership and ratings. For now, viewers can expect that the Billboard Awards will only get better in years to come.