Billboard Music Awards 2015 Nominees

The finalists for the 2015 Billboard Music Awards were announced this morning (April 7), with five major categories announced on Good Morning America.  Taylor Swift took home the most nominations with 14  entries in 13 categories, followed by Sam Smith who is nominated 13 times, Iggy Azalea with 12 and Meghan Trainor with 9.  

The nominees in some of the major categories are as follows:

Top Artist
Ariana Grande
One Direction
Katy Perry
Sam Smith
Taylor Swift

Top New Artist
5 Seconds of Summer
Iggy Azalea
Hozier
Sam Smith
Meghan Trainor

Top Male Artist
Drake
Pharell Williams
Ed Sheeran
Sam Smith
Justin Timberlake

Top Female Artist
Iggy Azalea
Ariana Grande
Katy Perry
Taylor Swift
Meghan Trainor

Top Duo/Group
5 Seconds of Summer
Florida Georgia Line
MAGIC!
Maroon 5
One Direction

You can find a full list of nominees here.

How does Billboard decide their nominees? "Billboard Music Awards finalists are based on album and digital song sales, radio airplay, streaming, touring and social-media interactions -- measurements that are tracked year-round by Billboard and its data partners... The awards are based on the reporting period of March 10, 2014 to March 8, 2015."

The 2015 Billboard Music Awards will air live from Las Vegas on Sunday, May 17 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.

American Music Awards 2014

November 23, live from the Nokia Theatre in LA, the American Music Awards showcased and awarded the biggest names in music today.  Pitbull hosted the awards for the second year in a row, following the ratings success of last year's show. His opening monologue left a lot to be desired in the way of humor and wit.

Opening the show was Taylor Swift with the television premiere of her latest single "Blank Space". The performance, complete with set pieces and an ensemble of dancers, felt like it was straight out of the music video and was exactly what her fans and the audience wanted to see. Imagine Dragons thrilled the audience with "I Bet My Life".  Other performance highlights included Selena Gomez premiering her emotional new single "The Heart Wants What the Heart Wants", One Direction performing "Night Changes", Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Iggy Azalea singing "Bang Bang" and Iggy Azalea and J.Lo premiering "Booty".

The night's big winners were One Direction who took home three awards for Artist of the Year, Favorite Band, Duo or Group and Pop/Rock album honors for Midnight Memories.  Despite being halfway across the world and the heat from both Iggy Azalea and Lorde, Katy Perry took home a total three awards for Pop/Rock Female, Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist, and Single of the Year for "Dark Horse".  While Iggy Azalea had the largest number of nominations, six, going into the awards, she took home only two for Favorite Hip Hop/Rap Artist and Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Album.  Taylor Swift was the first ever recipient of the Dick Clark Award of Excellence presented to her by Diana Ross.

Swift accepting the Dick Clark Award for Excellence from Diana Ross

A full list of winners can be found here.

Full Red carpet coverage can be found here.