I think it might be fair to say that Mary J Blige somewhat dominated the 2006 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas last night, given that she won no less than nine awards for her album 'The Breakthrough', which was released a year ago and which has netted 2.6 million sales in the US since then. She won, among other things, R&B/Hip Hop Artist Of The Year, Female R&B Artist Of The Year and R&B/Hip Hop Album Of The Year at the industry trade magazine's annual awards, which recognise the best selling artists from different genres in the US in the last twelve months.
Seventeen year old R&B singer Chris Brown also captured some headlines taking three awards for his eponymous debut album, also released just over a year ago. He won Artist Of The Year, Male Artist Of The Year and New Artist Of The Year. Elsewhere Canadian rockers Nickelback won Rock Album Of The Year for 'All The Right Reasons', former American Idol Carrie Underwood took Album Of The Year and Country Album Of The Year for 'Some Hearts', and TI was named Rap Artist Of The Year and won Rap Album Of The Year for his fourth solo album 'King'. Tony Bennett, meanwhile, was presented with a Lifetime Achievement award.
Following those media reports that both Britney Spears and Paris Hilton had pulled out of hosting the awards event, the latter over disagreements regarding her script, the show went ahead without a central host, with a series of guests presenting each award.