LAS VEGAS (December 5, 2006) — Paris and Britney may not have turned up to host the Billboard Awards, but the show went on anyway featuring hot acts, cool awards and hilarious sketches.
Among the winners for the evening were the queen of hip hop soul, Mary J. Blige who picked up nine awards including R&B/Hip Hop Artist of the Year, Chris Brown who won Artist of the Year and two other trophies, Carrie Underwood who nabbed five statues including Album of the Year for Some Hearts and The Fray who took home three digital awards. T.I. took five trophies, Kenny Chesney two and Rihanna won three while Three Days Grace, High School Musical and Nelly Furtado each nabbed one award a piece.
For Furtado, winning Pop Single of the Year for “Promiscuous” nearly brought her to tears. “I walked up there and I didn?t know I was gonna be so emotional. I almost cried,” she said backstage. “Awards, they remind you to reflect because the music business is so fast paced. You don?t have time to sit and go, wow this amazing and be grateful and thankful. This year has been amazing in so many ways and I?ve grown a lot. [It? been] like a second chance.”
Highlights of the broadcast included a fit and muscular Janet Jackson opening the show and a closing performance by Kid Rock with ZZ Top?s Billy Gibbons and Nickelback?s Chad Kroeger. Kid may have been in fine form on stage, but according to Chesney, the two stayed out late the night before seeing one of Kid?s associates.
“I went to Uncle Kracker?s show at the hard rock,” he said backstage. “Kid Rock and I went to see that and stayed a little too late as you always do and had a great time. I left at 2 a.m. I can only handle him like once a month.”
While several parodies of Geico Insurance ads made the broadcast, another, unrelated skit didn?t make it to screens. Sources tell Access Hollywood that former Saturday Night Live regular Chris Kattan apparently recorded a sketch parodying Britney Spears and her recent knicker-free outings in Los Angeles. The clip was pulled from the air apparently due to it?s content being too edgy for a family show.
Kattan may have lost his skit, but he did get in a verbal parody of one time host of the Awards, Paris Hilton, who pulled out earlier this week. Presenting with Carmen Electra, he emulated the heiress’ “that?s hot” catchphrase to big laughs.
Though there were no gift bags to rival the Academy Awards, some presenters managed to walk away with pink Hello Kitty Fender stratocaster guitars and rolling duffle bags of swag.
Following the show, the celebrities dumped their goods and headed out to a host of Vegas clubs. Courtney Love, Def Leppard, The Girls Next Door and Kattan turned up at the MGM?s Studio 54. Across the strip at The Venetian?s club Tao, Pharrell Williams hosted a shindig that Kid Rock and Nickelback headed to while Nelly Furtado performed over at Pure at Caesars Palace. Others though opted to skip out on the post-show festivities entirely, including mom of two Denise Richards who hopped a chartered plane back to Los Angeles just after 10 PM.
Copyright © 2024 by NBC Universal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be republished, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.