The Billboard Music Awards nominees have been revealed, with rapper Kanye West amongst this year’s top nominees. The controversial hip-hop star is joined by singers Justin Bieber and Olivia Rodrigo, as they’ve each received 13 nominations.
However, one artist stands above the rest, and that is The Weeknd, who has 17 nominations heading into this year’s Billboard Music Awards show.
News of Kanye’s nominations arrived not long after the rapper won several Grammy awards and dropped out as a headline act for the upcoming Coachella Music Festival soon after.
The Weeknd, Kanye West among leading nominees for BBMAs
Canadian singer, Abel Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd, is this year’s most-nominated artist for the 2022 BBMAs. Per Variety, he has 17 nominations, including Top Artist, Top Male Artist, Top Streaming Songs Artist, and Top R&B Album. He’s also nominated alongside singer Ariana Grande for Save Your Tears in multiple categories and with Doja Cat for her song You Right.
The Weeknd was one of a few artists to recuse himself for consideration to win awards at this year’s Grammys, along with Drake. The Canadian rapper has 11 nominations for the BBMAs, including Top Artist.
Doja Cat is second overall with 14 nominations. Her nominations include Top Female Artist, Top Hot 100 Artist, Top Streaming Songs Artist, and Top Billboard Global 200 Artist. She’s also vying for Top Artist with The Weeknd at this year’s awards show.
Justin Bieber, Olivia Rodrigo, and Kanye West are each up for 13 awards in various categories.
West’s 13 nominations may surprise some, as he had just five nominations at the recent Grammy Awards show. However, most of Ye’s nominations for Donda are due to the album and its songs being eligible in the gospel music genre.
Donda is up for Top Christian Album and Top Gospel Album. Ye has a strong chance to win Top Christian Song or Top Gospel Song, as four of his songs- Hurricane, Moon, Off the Grid, and Praise God, are nominated in each category.
Kanye’s sole award outside of that genre comes in the Top Rap Album category, where he is up against Drake for Certified Lover Boy, Moneybagg Yo for A Gangsta’s Pain, Rod Wave for SoulFly, and The Kid Laroi for F**k Love.
Donda is up for Top Christian Album and Top Gospel Album. Ye has a strong chance to win Top Christian Song or Top Gospel Song, where he has four songs- Hurricane, Moon, Off the Grid, and Praise God, nominated in each category.
He won two Grammy Awards last weekend after it’d been revealed earlier in March that he was removed as a performer from the ceremony due to concerning online behavior. That includes his Instagram posts attacking comedians D.L. Hughley and Trevor Noah, as well as Kim Kardashian’s boyfriend, Pete Davidson.
West didn’t claim Best Rap Album, which had many of Ye’s supporters fired up after Tyler, the Creator’s Call Me If You Get Lost, won instead.
Kanye replaced by The Weeknd at Coachella
Reports arrived earlier this week that Kanye West dropped out of Coachella, where he’d been a headline performer for two dates at the music festival in Indio, California. A Change.org petition against Kanye headlining at the festival was gaining steam online as it neared 50,000 signatures.
An individual started the petition out of frustration that West was still allowed to headline the show despite his threats of bodily harm and harassment towards others, including Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson.
West’s perceived threats included Instagram posts mocking or attacking Davidson and a line saying he’d “beat Pete Dadivdson’s a**” in the song, Eazy. A suggestive music video arrived for the song in which an animated version of Kanye kidnapped and buried Davidson alive up to his head. The video also suggests that Davidson is decapitated as Ye holds a head in several scenes.
Soon after the news Ye dropped out of Coachella, West’s replacements were revealed for those two dates, as The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia are now the headline artists for April 17 and 24.
West has been silent online following a 24-hour Instagram suspension he was hit with last month ahead of the Grammy Awards show. That ban came as a result of an Instagram post in which he directed a slur towards Daily Show host Trevor Noah. Once the ban officially ended, West or someone from his social media team deleted all of his IG posts from his profile, and there haven’t been any posts shared since.
The Billboard Music Awards air Sunday, May 15, at 8/7c on NBC.