US music industry magazine and chart coordinators Billboard held its pre-Christmas awards in Las Vegas last night. First up, the winners:
Artist of the year: Nelly
Male artist of the year: Nelly
Female artist of the year: Ashanti
Top new pop artist of the year: Ashanti
Group/duo of the year: Creed
Album of the year: Eminem - The Eminem Show
Group/duo albums artist of the year: Creed
Hot 100 singles artist of the year: Ashanti
Hot 100 Singles male artist of the year: Nelly
Hot 100 singles group/duo of the year: Nickleback
Hot 100 single of the year: Nickelback - How You Remind Me
Hot 100 airplay single of the year: Nickelback - How You Remind Me
Top 40 track of the year: Nickelback - How You Remind Me
R&B/hip-hop artist of the year: Ashanti
R&B/hip-hop male artist of the year: Nelly
R&B/hip-hop female artist of the year: Ashanti
New R&B/hip-hop artist of the year: Ashanti
R&B/hip-hop album of the year: Eminem - The Eminem Show
R&B/hip-hop single of the year: Ashanti - Foolish
R&B/hip-hop singles artist of the year: Ashanti
R&B/hip-hop single (sales) of the year: B2K - Uh Huh
Rap artist of the year: Nelly
Rap track of the year: Nelly - Hot in Herre
Country singles artist of the year: Toby Keith
Rock artist of the year: Puddle Of Mudd
Rock track of the year: Puddle Of Mudd - Blurry
Modern rock artist of the year: Puddle Of Mudd
Modern rock track of the year: Puddle Of Mudd - Blurry
Dance/club play artist of the year: Cher
Electronic album of the year: Moby -18
Electronic albums artist of the year: Moby
Catalog artist of the year: Creed
Catalog album of the year: Creed - Human Clay
Century Award: Annie Lennox
Artist Achievement Award: Cher
Special Billboard Award: Michael Jackson (recognizing his 1982 Epic album ‘Thriller’ which spent more weeks at No. 1 (37 weeks) than any other album in the history of The Billboard 200).
After all the back slapping and award giving, at the end of the evening Nelly, Busta Rhymes, Ja Rule Naughty By Nature, Queen Latifah, and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry took the stage to pay tribute to DJ Jam Master Jay performing a medley of Run DMC favourites.
"Since Jay passed, it has been so hard, but I had fun just now," Jam Master Jay's widow, Terri Mizell told reporters. "Thanks for your love and continuous support. If Jason was here, he'd be so happy."
"America, you gotta love that!," Public Enemy frontman Chuck D said as the performance ended.