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Justin Bieber Wins Top Social Artist Award At Billboard Music Awards 2014

By Page Mackinley
Published on: 06:57 PST, May 19, 2014

Justin Bieber wins Top Social Artist award again at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards.

Justin Bieber won the Top Social Artist Award for the fourth consecutive year at Sunday’s 2014 Billboard Music Awards.

The singer wasn’t at the star-studded music event. The 20-year-old was in Cannes mingling on the Film Festival party circuit after arriving in the French Riviera at the weekend.

Bieber beat out Miley Cyrus, One Direction, Rihanna and Taylor Swift to win the Top Social Artist award and it’s not hard to see why.

He regularly tops Billboard’s Social 50 Chart, which ranks the most active artists across all social media platforms and is currently No.1.

Although Bieber no longer enjoys the highest Twitter following on the network — Katy Perry has 53.1 million – the Canadian has 51 million plus to his name and updates frequently.

The singer has over 54 million Facebook devotees, over 16 million on Instagram, two million and counting on Viddy and recently opened SoundCloud, Vine and his (invested in) Shots of Me accounts.

Justin was congratulated on his Top Social Artist win by manager Scooter Braun, but at the time of press hasn’t yet responded.

This may be due to a slow start after he was seen at Participation Media’s 10th anniversary superyacht bash on Sunday. Justin partied at the Gotha Club Cannes with The Expendables cast later in the evening.

Other winners at Billboard’s three-hour extravaganza held at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena, included Justin Timberlake, who took home seven awards. They included Top Artist, Top Billboard 200 Artist and Top Billboard 200 Album for (“The 20/20 Experience“).

Snapping hard at Timberlake’s heels, Imagine Dragons bit off five awards. Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” co-written with T.I. and Pharrell Williams claimed four. Thicke performed a new song “Get Her Back” during ABC’s broadcast to court estranged wife Paula Patton.

Jennifer Lopez became the first woman to win the Billboard Icon Award later delivering a sizzling performance, while the Milestone award won by Bieber last year to a chorus of boos went to Country star Carrie Underwood.

In addition to her two performances, Jennifer Lopez delivered a passionate and emotional speech in accepting the Icon Award. A dozen awards were handed out on air in between 19 musical performances.

Katy Perry won Top Female Artists and performed a transmitted version of “Birthday” from London, England. New Zealand singer, Lorde romped the Top New Artist trophy, while her cult hit “Royals” picked up Top Rock Song.

Luke Bryan won Top Country Artist, Eminem nabbed Top Rap Artist, Marc Anthony bagged Top Latin Artist and Chris Tomlin was named Top Christian Music artist.

Recently recovered Twerking queen Miley Cyrus won Top Streaming Artist and performed a psychedelic homage of The Beatles “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” with the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd, remotely from Manchester, England.

Other performances included John Legend with “All of Me“; Iggy Azalea with Ariana Grande on “Problem” — Azalea also hit the stage with two of her songs. Jason Derulo punched out a medley and Lorde sang “Tennis Court, to name a few.

But the night belonged to the late Michael Jackson, who stole the show with a compelling, if unsettling hologram performance of “Slave to the Rhythm,” a cut off the second posthumous album Xscape. It earned a standing ovation.

For a full listing of winners at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards click the highlight.

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