From Silk Sonic to Maxwell Here Were the Best Billboard Music Awards 2022 Performances
Hosted by Diddy, the Billboard Music Awards 2022 on Sunday night featured performances from Megan the Stallion, Travis Scott and more.
Travis Scott is nearing his Utopia season. During the Billboard Music Awards 2022 hosted by Diddy, Scott made his first televised performance since the Astroworld Tragedy last November, where 10 attendees died and hundreds were injured. Prior to Scott performing new songs “Mafia” and “Lost Forever,” last Monday in an Instagram video, Diddy explained his decision in requesting the gig to Scott.
“For the Billboard Music Awards this Sunday I made a request; I made a demand,” Diddy shared. “I said, ‘My brother Travis Scott has to perform. I’m executive producing, he has to perform,’ and NBC said, ‘Yes.’ It’s going down Sunday, Travis Scott will be performing … now that’s love.”
Scott did not reference the tragedy during his performance, but highlights throughout the night maintained high-energy, with Latto aptly performing her 777 single “Big Energy.”
Female rap dominated the night, as Megan Thee Stallion also took the stage to perform new single “Plan B” and “Sweetest Pie,” although her collaborator Dua Lipa was not present.
Having extended their Las Vegas residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM, Silk Sonic made their Billboard Music Awards debut with a glitzy performance of “Love’s Train” from their 2021 album An Evening With Silk Sonic.
After being the first Nigerian to sell-out Madison Square Garden last month, current Billboard cover star Burna Boy performed “Last Last” and “Kilometre,” with his sixth album Love, Damini arriving in July.
Paying homage to Michael Jackson – whose magnum opus Thriller turns 40 this year – Maxwell delivered a glowing rendition of “The Lady in My Life.”
Fresh off her Strength of a Woman Festival in Atlanta last weekend, Mary J. Blige was honored by Janet Jackson with the Billboard Icon Award, where she reflected self-love and being the “ghetto fabulous” blueprint.
“I was ghetto fabulous, and I still am,” she said, adding, “So ghetto, so fabulous, and people were threatened by that.”
“The message in my music has always been that we are not alone in our struggles. And I’m not alone now,” Blige added. “For so long, I was searching for a real love, but I finally found my real love. And that real love is me.”