Billboard Music Awards: Drake breaks record number of awards

Drake broke the record number of Billboard Music Awards received by an artist, after recording 12 more at Wednesday's event.

This means that the rapper now has a total of 27 Billboard Awards in his name.

He won the biggest prize of the evening – the Best Artist Award – beating personalities such as Cardi B, Ariana Grande, Post Malone and Travis Scott.

Drake thanked his mother for her "incessant effort" in her life during her acceptance speech.

He said, "No matter how long it took me to understand what I wanted to do, you were always there to lead me and now we are all on a hell."

Drake also won the award for best male artist, best streaming music artist, best rap artist and best Scorpion Billboard 200 album, as well as seven others.

Other winners of the evening were Ariana Grande, who won the Best Female Artist Award, BTS, which won the Duo / Group Award, and Luke Combs, who won the Best Country Artist Award.

Cardi B has won 12 awards, including the award for the 100 best songs from Girls Like You – which stars Maroon 5.

Ed Sheeran and Ella Mai were among the UK winners. Ed won the Best Artist on Tour Award while Ella Mai won the Best R & B Artist Award.

Retaking her prize, Ella, born in London, thanked God and his fans, as well as his family.

She said: "My mother, my brother and my grandmother, for always being my main supporters."

Imagine Dragons won the best rock group award and lead singer Dan Reynolds used his thank you speech to denounce the use of homobadual conversion therapy in the United States.

"I just want to take this moment to say that 34 states do not have laws prohibiting conversion therapy.

"And on top of that, 58% of our LGBTQ population lives in these states.

"It may change, but we will all need to discuss our state's legislation, advancing laws to protect our LGBTQ youth."

The event saw the performances of many artists, including Taylor Swift, Jonas Brothers, Madonna and Mariah Carey, winner of the Icon Award,

In her acceptance speech, Mariah stated that she "always felt like a stranger" and "someone who belongs to nothing".

She added, "Icon? I really do not think of myself that way. I started making music to survive and express myself."

Click here for the full list of winners.

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