There is nothing small about this Sunday nights Billboard Music Awards at Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena airing live on ABC at 8 ET hosted by 30 Rocks Tracy Morgan. Just consider for a moment the sheer star power of those appearing: living legends like Prince, Madonna and Christina Aguilera; pop superstars like Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Lil Wayne and Bruno Mars; and the next generation of luminaries like Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Miguel, the Band Perry and Ed Sheeran, among many others.
Prince, one of the most inspirational and influential musicians of all time, will perform at Sundays ceremony and is being honored with Billboards prestigious Icon Award. Other performers include Christina Aguilera & Pitbull, Taylor Swift, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Bruno Mars, Miguel, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, the Band Perry, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Chris Brown, Ed Sheeran, Akon, Ne-Yo, David Guetta and Icona Pop.
Madonna will be honored with the Top Touring Artist award, an achievement earned by the worldwide success of her MDNA tour which sold out all of its 88 date run and was 2012's top-grossing tour with $305 million. It's the pop icon's latest chart landmark in a career full of them, including records for Hot 100 top 10 singles (38 of her overall 56 Hot 100 hits) and Dance Club Songs No. 1s (43).
This is the 4th time madonna wins this award. Every tour she's embarked on has become the highest grossing tour of the year; Re-Invention tour 2004 ($125 million) The Confessions Tour 2006 ($194.7 million) The Sticky & Sweet tour ($408 million) and the MDNA tour 2012 ($305 million) all together her tours since 2004 have grossed more than $1.2 billion on ticket sales.
Bieber, Swift and Mars are also vying for the Milestone Award, a fan-driven honor that one voter will get to present at the show alongside Cee Lo Green.
Swift, fun. and Maroon 5 top the finalists at the 2013 awards, with each included in 11 categories. Rihanna competes in 10 categories, including Top Artist against Swift, Maroon 5, Justin Bieber and One Direction, while a pair of younger artists -- Carly Rae Jepsen and 1D themselves -- are finalists in nine and eight categories, respectively.
Billboard Music Awards finalists are based on key fan interactions with music, including album and digital singles sales, radio airplay, touring, streaming and social interactions on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, VEVO, Spotify and other popular online destinations for music. These measurements were tracked year-round by Billboard and its data partners, including Nielsen Entertainment and Next Big Sound.
