Your Shockingly Hilarious 2014 Billboard Music Awards Recap

The 2014 Billboard Music Awards, hosted by rapper Ludacris, aired on ABC Sunday, May 18 live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Where else can you get Kendall Jenner to show her true feelings about Harry Styles and see an exclusive hologram performance by the king of pop? According to Billboard’s Instagram it was the most watched program of the night with the highest ratings in 13 years! This comes as no shock to some, seeing as the night was jam packed with celebs, teleprompter slip-ups, incredible performances, fashion royalty and fashion fo paws.

From Michael Jackson’s heavily awaited hologram performance to Kendall Jenner’s One Direction moment, this awards show was one to remember and quite surprising to say the least. Before we dive into the music excitement, as always, we must hit the red carpet fashion first!

Most celebs graced the carpet looking better than ever. Jennifer Lopez can do no wrong because she looked radiant as ever in a red Donna Karan see-through gown. The only flaw she had was her Ariana Grande hair, but she seemed to make that work. Miranda Lambert made the best dressed list for many on the Billboard red carpet in a hot pink, plunging mini. Her recent weight loss has brought her tons of positive press and she is killing it as Women’s Health June cover girl. Another surprising addition to the best dressed list was Kesha (yes we got the spelling correct), as BUnow previously reported, the singer has dropped the dollar sign from her name. This was one of the first red carpets for the new host of NBC’s Rising Star since her rehab stay. Whatever she is doing, she is doing it right, because this was her best red carpet to date. Kesha looked ravishing as she walked the carpet in an up-do and a figure-flattering, strapless, black dress.

Other stars who rocked gorgeous looks were Chrissy Teigen in an embellished black and white dress, showing off her fabulous legs, and Kelly Rowland who proved that married life is doing her a world of good in a two piece black number with a bralette top! Even though it was a not-so-good night for one of the Jenner’s (we will explain later) both of the famous sisters looked amazing! Kendall showed off some major side boob in a white halter and leather pants that really showed us why she is an up-and-coming model to look out for. Kylie on the other hand debuted her new blue punk hair (which we love), wearing a white frock and strappy sandals. For more best dressed looks of the night head to E! News!

There are always fashion fo paws on every carpet and even though it was a night to dress and impress, some stars dressed to stress. Let’s start with Natasha Bedingfield. The singer must have been minus a mirror when getting dressed for the event because she showed up in a see-through white top with flowers and plain white pants. Definitely a fashion DON’T. It was such a shame that Cher Lloyd was poorly dressed in a purple over-embellished gown that made her look like she was a Dancing With The Stars contestant, because her music career has really been taking off lately. Maybe next time Cher. America’s girl next door, Sarah Hyland had too many zippers for anyones liking. The Modern Family star walked the carpet in an over-the-top metallic print jacket and skirt combo that was anything but Billboard red carpet fashion. Check out all of the worst dressed stars here. For all of the red carpet arrivals click here.

Now that the red carpet fashion is covered, it’s time for the Billboard recap. Trends seemed to be on the red carpet and on the stage. Being the hard-hitting journalists we are here at BUnow, we investigated some similarities in the most recent iHeart Radio Music Awards and the Billboard Music Awards. Both shows opened with a performance from Pitbull, but the only difference at the Billboard awards was when Jennifer Lopez and Claudia Leitte joined him on stage for the opening fun to. Some stars walked away with similar awards. Lorde being one of them, who won the New Artist award at iHeart and Billboard!

Justin Timberlake, who accepted his honors via satellite because of touring, was the biggest winner of the night taking home seven Billboard awards! He walked away with the Top Artist, Top Male Artist, Top Billboard 200 Artist, Top Radio Songs Artist, Top R&B Artist, Top Billboard 200 Album “The 20/20 Experience,” and Top R&B Album “The 20/20 Experience.”  Timberlake made his acceptances quite entertaining singing his ‘thank yous’ and even cracking a Donald Sterling joke. Imagine Dragons have built quite the fan base. Right behind JT they took home five awards, Top 100 Artist, Top Rock Artist, Top Duo/Group, Top Rock Album, and Top Streaming Song (Audio).

Katy Perry was honored with Top Female Artist and gave a Nicki Minaj esque performance of her newest song, “Birthday“. Minaj has been toning down her colorful looks and even debuted a new single at the awards show, but by the looks of it Katy Perry just seems to be kicking it up a notch, or 50. She proved to the audience that she definitely knows how to throw a party. She performed on film from the UK and wowed the audience by flying through the air, on a huge birthday cake in very interesting costumes. Even though Justin Bieber was not in attendance he still made everyone remember he is a force to reckon with by taking home Top Social Artist. Before his summer tour with Rihanna by his side, Eminem took away Top Rap Artist and Top Rap Album, “The Marshall Mathers LP 2,” which beat out some tough competition. The ever so handsome Luke Bryan took Top Country Artist and Top Country Album.

Even though Robin Thicke spent the awards show trying to swoon back Paula Patton, he was pretty lucky in the awards category. Thicke was honored with Top Hot 100 Song, Top Digital Song, and Top Radio Song featuring T.I. and Pharrell for “Blurred Lines.” One of his acceptance speeches contained the statement, “I want to thank my wife, for putting up with me all of these years,” which sent a viral confusion all through social media, seeing as him and Patton were headed for splitsville weeks ago. Glamour magazine even tweeted, “WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN,” about Thicke’s comment. He debuted his newest song “Get her Back” at the awards show for the first time as a believed plea to get his estranged wife back.

Miley Cyrus shocked viewers with a fantastic vocal performance covering “Lucy In The Sky Of Diamonds” by the Beatles with Flaming Lips leader, Wayne Coyne. It was a colorful performance and she was barefoot. Cyrus had to put her own creative twist on it of course. Ariana Grande took the stage to perform her Billboard number one song, “Problem” which features the popular up-and-coming singer, Iggy Azalea who took the stage with Charlie XCX right before to sing “Fancy.” Both artists knocked it out of the park with upbeat performances. Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood’s highly anticipated duet rocked Las Vegas right out of their seats! They collaborated on “Somethin Bad,” which will hit Lambert’s upcoming album. The performance featured fierce fashion, smoky eyes, and Carrie’s trending legs. Speaking of Underwood, she took home the fan-voted Milestone Award. Lorde performed “Tennis Courts” with stellar slicked back hair and of course she nailed it. John Legend’s performance of “All of Me” and “You and I” was introduced by his supermodel wife, Chrissy Teigen, and sent chills throughout the audience and through TV screens as he hit every note perfectly.

Last but certainly not least was the flawlessly sexy performance Jennifer Lopez gave debuting her newest song “First Love.” The 44 year old multitalented super woman received the well-deserved Icon award and had everyone shedding a tear with her moving acceptance speech. A-list celebs like Britney Spears, Rihanna, Cameron Diaz, Taylor Swift, and Pitbull all spoke kind words about Lopez in a video montage honoring her many accomplishments. The camera panned to her absolutely adorable mother tearing up in the crowd as she looked prouder than ever to see her daughter up on stage. Lopez thanked everyone from her little babies, to her family, and her easy-on-the-eyes beau, Casper Smart. The chilling moment was when she pointed to the camera and told “little ones” who were watching from home, as she once did, to follow their dreams. It’s safe to say that just about everyone felt like they could take over the world after that motivational speech. Other performances that had the crowd moving were from Shakira, Ricky Martin, Jason Derulo, Imagine Dragons, and One Republic.

Other hilariously shocking moments at the awards show included Mark Cuban and Kendall Jenner. Cuban, entrepreneur and NBA owner of the Dallas Mavericks hit the stage with Shark Tank costar, Kevin O’Leary, to introduce performances by Florida Georgia Line and Luke Bryan. The NBA owner was feeling funny when he cracked a joke about the infamous Solange Knowles elevator stunt when she attacked her brother-in-law Jay Z. “We’ve just spent $3.2 billion to buy a hot new company, it’s called “Beatdowns by Solange.” Ouch, but lets face it, it was only a matter of time the joke trend would start, seeing as Saturday Night Live performed a HILARIOUS skit of the unfortunate event. Us Weekly were on top of their reporting game as usual, watch the video here. Probably the most talked about moment that went insanely viral was Kendall Jenner’s teleprompter fail. The stunning model took the stage to introduce the boy band heartthrobs, 5 Seconds of Summer, when she must’ve had her ex flame Harry Styles on the brain. Jenner started her introduction, awkwardly paused, then all she could stutter up was “Now welcome…One….” and then almost dropped to the floor in embarrassment. She tried to play it cool by laughing it off and telling the audience she was the “worst reader.” The Kardashian sister later tweeted that she left her contacts at home. That seemed hard to believe seeing as that is like saying “sorry I forgot to take off my sweatpants before getting to the red carpet.” She also took to Instagram to upload a video of Scott Disick poking fun at her flub and reenacting the embarrassing moment. The video was deleted shortly after its Instagram debut. It is safe to say that just about everyone was feeling some second hand embarrassment for the genetically gifted star, even Us Weekly. They tweeted, “Umm, Kendall Jenner, are you ok?” which we thought was quite funny. For all of the buzz worthy moments, catch all of the action on Billboard’s website

In 2007 Michael Jackson was asked about his musical work during an Ebony interview. He said, “Music has been my outlet, my gift to all of the lovers in this world. Through my music I know I will live forever,” and indeed proved that. The talked about hologram performance by Michael Jackson left viewers in awe. According to Billboard, the king of pop performance “was the result of nearly half a year of planning choreography and filming, not to mention the development of new technology. Producers of the Billboard Music Awards did not even see a portion of the film until eight days before the broadcast.” Wearing a gold jacket, white t-shirt and red pants, Jackson, in hologram form, performed “Slave to the Rhythm.” Billboard revealed the performance featured a five-piece band, 16 dancers, and a background set modeled on the artwork from Jackson’s “Dangerous” album recorded with L.A. Reid and Babyface. This was another moment during the awards show that caused a viral frenzy. Mixed emotions hit the internet with tweets claiming the performance was creepy. But, excited and emotional tweets by dedicated fans overshadowed the negative comments. Cosmopolitan magazine tweeted, “Not quite sure what’s happening, but it’s INCREDIBLE (emoji heart) MJ.” Us Weekly then tweeted, “Is anyone else getting chills watching MJ moonwalk?” The performance was a touching tribute to the late star who is showing the world that his music will live on forever. To watch the chilling performance catch it all here.

Every awards show seems to always top the last, but the 2014 Billboard Music Awards has certainly set the bar at a high level. There is no telling what can happen next in Hollywood, but it will be hard to top this awards show. Since the show was larger than life with a running time of three hours, all of the winners were not highlighted. For the full list of winners click here

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