Entertainment

Streaming The Billboard Awards In The UK Might Be Harder Than It Sounds

by Emma Madden
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The Billboard Music Awards has had its fair share of iconic moments. There was that time Britney Spears and Kevin Federline showed up with their pooch in tow in 2004. Ah, memories. Oh, and who can froget Beyoncé's 2011 performance, when she appeared on stage with hundreds of computer-generated replicas of herself? Amazing. And 2019's ceremony is sure to bring more moments for the ages, so you won't want to miss them as they happen. So, here's how to watch the 2019 Billboard Awards in the UK.

According to TV Guide, there aren't any UK programmers set to broadcast the Billboard Music Awards (BBMA) in the coming week, but you can catch the red carpet action on Wednesday May 1 on E! (Sky Channel 123) at 11 p.m.

While I'm looking forward to checking out the outfits in live time, I was relying on 4Music to come through with the ceremony, since they aired 2016's event live, which had me tuning in from 1 a.m. and watching bleary eyed through to sunrise. I have reached out to a representative at 4Music to ask if there's any chance of them live-streaming the event. I'll let you know if I hear anything back. Fingers crossed!

Rob Latour/Shutterstock

The 2019 ceremony's set to take place on Thursday, May 2 at Las Vegas' ridiculously extravagant Grand Garden Arena, with Kelly Clarkson on hosting duties, as Billboard reported on Feb. 29. And some usual suspects are waiting to scoop up some awards.

The ceremony will be airing on NBC, which is still currently unavailable to anyone outside of the U.S. I know. I'm real mad about it, too. While that option's out, I'm hoping that there'll at least be a live stream of all the red carpet shenanigans on YouTube, as there has often been in previous years. Billboard have also been known to stream certain segments of the ceremony live, so keep an eye on their YouTube channel for moments from this year's event.

The 2018 BBMAs were huge, with performances from Janet Jackson, Dua Lipa, John Legend, Macklemore, Shawn Mendes, Kesha, Khalid, Normani, BTS, and more. Ed Sheeran and Kendrick Lamar were the biggest winners of the night, each walking away with a total of six awards (Sheeran won awards for Top Artist, Top Male Artist, Top Hot 100 Artist, Top Song Sales Artist, Top Radio Songs Artist, Top Radio Song, Lamar for Top Streaming Songs Artist, Top Rap Artist, Top Rap Male Artist, Top Billboard 200 Album, Top Rap Album, Top Streaming Song (Audio)). And, as Billboard reports, "[Kelly] Clarkson cold-opened the show with a call to action following the recent school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, and then performed a stunning medley of other artists' songs, including Kendrick Lamar, Ed Sheeran, [Taylor] Swift, [Shawn] Mendes and more."

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This year's event is set to be another epic night, and there are rumours that some records could be broken. Billboard is predicting that Drake, Imagine Dragons, and The Chainsmokers could make history by becoming the first three-time winner of Top Rap Artist, the first three-time winner of Top Duo/Group, and the first three-time winner of Top Dance/Electronic Artist, respectively. I for one can't wait to see who comes out on top.