Billboard Awards 2013 Winners and Highlights: Justin Bieber Booed, Taylor Swift Shows Class

Culture

Is it just me, or were Sunday night's Billboard Awards all about Justin and Taylor? I get that Bieber is a megastar and Taylor writes great breakup songs, but there are other stars in the music industry universe.

Pop icons Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift took home the most coveted prizes between them last night. Bieber won Best Male Artist and the Milestone Award, while Swift bagged Artist of the Year and Album of the Year for her latest album, Red.

Not everyone was happy that Bieber was so loved by Billboard, though. As he took the stage for the Milestone award, more than half of the audience booed him. This appeared to rattle Bieber during his acceptance speech.

"I'm 19 years old," he stammered into the microphone. "I think I'm doing a good job." He continued, "This is not a gimmick. I'm an artist, and I need to be respected for that."

Taylor, however, stole the show with a lot more class. Partly in reaction to the overdone joke that she'll write a song about you if you date her, she called her adoring fans "the longest and best relationship I ever had," during her acceptance speech for Billboard Artist of the Year.

In one pundit's opinion, there best performances of the evening were "Thriftshop" by Macklemore (which won Best Rap Song), "Lego House" by English singer songwriter Ed Sheeran (who sounded great but desperately needed a comb) and, of course, Prince.

While I wish host Tracy Morgan's jokes were funnier, and that Madonna hadn't made a rambling acceptance speech and that Nicki Minaj handn't shaken her rear end quite so much at me, it was overall a decent evening.