Taylor Swift, One Direction & Iggy Azalea Win Big at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards—Read the Full Recap Here!

Event was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas

By Lily Harrison May 18, 2015 2:58 AMTags
Taylor Swift, Calvin Harris, Billboard Music Awards 2015Kevin Winter/BMA2015/Getty Images for dcp

The 2015 Billboard Music Awards brought major star power to Sin City!

This year's event was hosted by none other than Ludacris and Chrissy Teigen—who were quite the dynamic duo, to say the least—and held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

One Direction, Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, Mariah Carey, Kanye West and many, many more brought the house to their feet with their unique performances throughout the night.

So if you happened to miss the big night on TV, sit back, relax, and read below for a play-by-play of what went down!

Things started off with a bang when Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" music video finally made its world debut!

The star-studded cast—which included Selena Gomez, Karlie Kloss, Ellen Pompeo, Mariska Hargitay, Cara Delevingne, Lena Dunham, and basically every other famous friend of the pop star—was action-packed and definitely didn't disappoint.

T.Swift had been slowly releasing the cast members for the Joseph Kahn-directed video on Twitter and finally gave fans what they'd been waiting for tonight!

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

While the major opener was a tough act to follow, next up for the night was the award for Top Duo/Group—which went to the boys of 1D!

The fearsome foursome accepted their honor on stage and paid tribute to their "brother" Zayn Malik.

T.Swift then walked away the winner for the Top Billboard 200 Award and turned heads when she hugged her new beau Calvin Harris on her way up to the stage.

Fall Out Boy and Wiz Khalifa followed by Meghan Trainor and John Legend gave two separate performances that perfectly highlighted their respective styles.

After a short commercial break, Mariah Carey took to the stage to serenade the crowd with a both "Vision of Love" and her new single "Infinity."

Best Rap Song at the BBMAs went to, drumroll, Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX for "Fancy" shortly before Khalifa sang his Paul Walker tribute track, "See You Again."

Celine Dion gave the award for Top Male Artist to the night's major winner: Sam Smith—who proudly accepted silently via video as he was resting from vocal surgery.

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Several familiar faces from the hit show Empire then got up and showed off their musical chops during an awesome performance presented by Cookie Taraji P. Henson.

Up next was Hozier, who belted out his major hit "Take Me to Church" as stars sang along in the audience.

1D presented the award to John Legend for Best Radio Song for "All of Me" just before the King of Blues, B.B. King, was honored.

But the mood swiftly changed when Faith Hill joined Little Big Town up on stage for the hit (and controversial) track "Girl Crush."

The Billboard Award for Top Female Artist was then handed to someone who appears to be the star of the show—T.Swift!

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And then, as luck would have it, One Direction won for Top Touring Artist.

Fellow Brit Ed Sheeran then gave a beautiful acoustic performance of "Bloodstream" just moments before "All About That Bass" won Billboard's Top Hot 100 Song.

Spears and Iggy Azalea performed their hit "Pretty Girls" for the very first time on stage—and it did not disappoint!

And as if she couldn't win another award, Swift took home the top prize for Billboard Chart Achievement. #CongratsTaylor quickly began trending around the world on Twitter—and understandably so!

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Nicki Minaj then brought her twerking skills to the stage when she sang "The Night Is Still Young" and "Hey Mama" with David Guetta!

Kelly Clarkson and Imagine Dragons shared their own moments in the spotlight when they each gave low-key, but soulful performances towards the end of the evening.

Meanwhile, Florida Georgia Line took home the award for Top Country Artist.

And as for arguably the biggest award of the night, Top Artist of the Year, the Billboard went to, who else, the unstoppable Ms. Swift!

Kylie and Kendall Jenner presented the final performance of the evening, to their brother-in-law Kanye West!

Oh, what a night!