NEW YORK (Top40 Charts) - R&B and hip hop dominated the Billboard Awards last night in Las Vegas, with
50 Cent scoring the Artist Of The Year award and
Beyonce and R.
Kelly among the other big winners of the night.
The
Destiny's Child diva's solo breakout was rewarded with four honours including new female artist of the year and best new R&B artist.
R.
Kelly also took home four awards and closed the show with a flamboyant performance featuring the singer riding down the aisle in a horse-drawn chariot.
Among the winners are Shania Twain (country), 3 Doors Down (Hot 100), OutKast (best digital track), Clay Aiken, (bestselling single) Black Eyed Peas (mainstream/top40), Evanescence (soundtrack single), Trapt (rock & modern rock track), Chingy (new male R&B artist), Josh Groban (No1 1 classical crossover artist/album and Sting (Century Award).
British rock star Sting was handed the Century Award for Creative Achievement by Stevie Wonder! The accolade marked 100 million album and single sales during his time with The Police and as a solo artist.
For the first time, the Billboard Awards recognised the sales of legally downloaded music tracks, honouring Hey Ya! by OutKast as the digital track of the year.
The event was broadcast on Fox-TV and the winners were chosen from information compiled from Billboard's weekly charts during the period of December 2002 to November 2003.
The 2003 Billboard Music Awards winners:
Artist of the year: 50 Cent
Duo / Group Artist of the year: 3 Doors Down
New artist Group: Evanescence
New Female artist: Beyonce
Best selling single: Clay Aiken - "This Is The Night/Bridge Over Troubled Water"
Hot 100 award for most weeks at No 1: Beyonce (17 weeks with "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy")
R&B/Hip-HopP artist: 50 Cent
New artist R&B male:Chingy
New artist R&B Female: Beyonce Knowles
R&B Songwritter: R. Kelly
R&B producer: R. Kelly
Rap artist: 50 Cent
Rock artist: Audioslave
Rock track: Trapt - "Headstrong"
Modern Rock artist: Audioslave
Modern track: Trapt - "Headstrong"
Country artist: Shania Twain
Country Albums artist: Shania Twain
Country album: Shania Twain for - "Up!"
Top crossover classical artist:Josh Groban
Top crossover classical album: Josh Groban, Closer
Independent albums artist: Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz
Independent album: Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz - "Kings of Crunk"
Hot 100 Female artist:Beyonce
Hot 100 Dio/Group artist: 3 Doors Down
Hot 100 producer: R. Kelly
Hot 100 songwritter: R. Kelly
Mainstream Top 40 track: Black Eyed Peas - "Where is The Love?"
Top 40 Rhythmic track: Chingy - "Right Thurr"
Digital track of the year (legal downloads): Outkast - "Hey Ya!"
Soundtrack single: Evanescence - "Bring Me To Life"
Billboard Century Award (achievements): Sting
