Music, politics and Billboard

 

This was an interesting evening to the least: hosted (virtually) by the great Kelly Clarkson, the event unfolded in a way extremely characteristic of the year we’ve all been having. First off, with an overall atmosphere of unease: it was obvious for people in or out of the room(s) that October 2020 is a strange month indeed, a mere few weeks away from a historic political moment for the United States — and therefore the world. Between Killer Mike receiving the first ever Change Maker award to Demi Lovato introducing her new and rather straightforward tune “Commander in Chief” to Lizzo accepting her award wearing a dress with the word “Vote” printed on every inch of the fabric, we all felt that the impending election was indeed on everyone’s mind. Understandably so…

The other non-political highlights of the evening were also generally pretty heartfelt: from Clarkson opening the show with Whitney Houston’s classic “Higher love” to Alicia Keys performing a bona fide ode to everlasting relationship bliss to John Legend dedicating “Never break” to his wife Chrissy Teigen amidst her recent miscarriage, many of the performances yesterday were resolutely emotionally charged. That also includes the surprise 30th-anniversary appearance of pioneering RnB group En Vogue or the Icon award being presented to legendary Country artist Garth Brooks — and introduced by none other than Cher — which he then proceeded to dedicate to the love of his life… All in all, a fairly historic affair through and through!

As for music itself, the event brought home an impressive bounty for singing sensation Post Malone, who received no less than nine awards during the evening, including Top artist. And he was quite obviously overwhelmed by such an accomplishment — at 25 years of age and after only 3 albums released, 2 of which made it straight to #1 on the Billboard 200… Another hit making machine, Korean superstars BTS, effectively ended the festivities with an impeccable rendition of “Dynamite”, their first American #1 hit which took over the Billboard 100 just last month…

These 2020 Billboard Music Awards sum up pretty well the state of the US music industry right now: tense, emotional, yet terribly talented, interesting and resourceful… Here’s to hoping the next edition is equally interesting — although perhaps less high-strung…