Not everyone showed up to the Las Vegas ceremony even though they had quite a few nominations.
While most of the shining stars of the music, film and television industry did show up for the Billboard Music Awards this year, held in Las Vegas recently, some didn’t make an appearance and fans definitely missed them.
Ariana Grande, The Dangerous Woman singer doesn’t really have a beef with the BBMA unlike the Grammys so it was pretty strange that she didn’t show up. Grande was nominated for several awards at the Billboard Music Awards: Top Artiste, the Billboard Chart Achievement Award, Top Female Artiste, Top Billboard 200 Artiste, Top Hot 100 Artiste, Top Streaming Song Artiste, Top Song Sales Artiste, Top Radio Song Artiste, and Top Social Artiste this year.
So before rumours could swirl, the singer clarified why she was unable to attend - she’s touring, you guys. “happy @bbmas day everybody! So wish we were there with u in person tonight. thank you @billboard for all of your endless support, love and for having us perform for u remotely from the sweetener world tour. We love you,” she tweeted along with a gorgeous picture from her Sweetener tour. She did, however, treat fans with a pre-recorded performance of her hit 7 Rings. Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin were also a no show at the awards along with Kylie Jenner and boo Travis Scott. Scott was nominated for Top Artiste, Top Male Artiste, Top Billboard 200 Artiste, Top Rap Artiste, Top Male Rap Artiste, Top Rap Tour, Top Billboard 200 Album, and Top Rap Album.
However, it isn’t entirely surprising that we didn’t see them. The couple celebrated Scott’s birthday in Los Angeles on Tuesday with a late-night party. Jenner posted on her Instagram story earlier that day that she was sick but “still gonna go hard for my baby.” Plus, Scott is performing in Dallas the next day, so fitting in the BBMAs as well in his over packed schedule was perhaps a bit too much.
As for Justin and Hailey, it totally makes sense since Biebs isn’t really making any music at the moment. He did have one shared nomination for a collaboration he did with Khalid, Chance the Rapper and Quavo called No Brainer. However, he’s been out of the award show scene since 2016 - his last appearance was in the 2016 Grammys. The couple was photographed out and about in New York though so clearly he’s not missing anything.
Selena Gomez hasn’t been attending the ceremony since 2013 - in case you didn’t know. She does, however, have an appearance scheduled for Cannes later this month for her movie The Dead Don’t Die. Gomez’s first big interview of 2019 came out earlier that week. She appeared on the first episode of Coach’s new podcast Dream It Real, where she candidly discussed why she chose to be authentic and real with her fans, rather than hiding behind a celebrity persona.
“I think there came a point in my life where I just started not to care....” she started “Obviously my situation is different and very weird but when I was younger, I was exposed to all of this [fame]. It was just all these pictures and all the things and all I would do is look at the flaws. [That kind of attention], it is hard. And I think that you kind of create this other persona of yourself and then when I started going through real, really difficult things, it [not caring and ultimately being authentic] just allowed me to have worth, to know that I’m worthy and that I am who I am. And who is that? And do I like that person? I think that it’s important for me. I don’t want to be anything that’s a show or a persona. I just don’t.”