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On The Table Read, the “Best Entertainment Celebrity Magazine in the UK“, experts at RantCasino analysed data from YouTube to find the greatest Billboard Music Awards performances of all time.
The 29th Annual Billboard Music Awards will be held on May 15th and this year will be the first with full attendance since 2019 due to the pandemic.
With a star-studded list of performers including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mary J. Blige and more, this year is set to be a big one with memorable performances to come.
This inspired the experts at RantCasino to uncover some of the most memorable past Billboard Awards performances, by scraping view count data from YouTube to find the most popular performances from the last thirty years.
Top 10 Most Popular Billboard Music Awards Performances
| Rank | Artist and Performance | Date | View Count |
| 1 | Bruno Mars – Treasure | 19th May 2013 | 19,148,106 |
| 2 | Whitney Houston – I Have Nothing | 8th December 1993 | 13,298,533 |
| 3 | Celine Dion – The Show Must Go On | 22nd May 2016 | 3,038,166 |
| 4 | Rihanna & Britney Spears – S&M Remix | 22nd May 2011 | 1,923,963 |
| 5 | Kesha – It Ain’t Me, Babe | 22nd May 2016 | 966,086 |
| 6 | NSYNC – Just Got Paid | 5th December 2000 | 655,704 |
| 7 | Beyonc̩ РMe, Myself and I | 10th December 2003 | 654,813 |
| 8 | Janet Jackson – The Pleasure Principle/So Excited | 6th December 2006 | 497,086 |
| 9 | Mariah Carey – I Still Believe | 7th December 1998 | 238,371 |
| 10 | Miguel – Adorn | 19th May 2013 | 133,627 |
The Results
Bruno Mars
Coming in first place with a staggering 19 million views is Bruno Mars’ performance of Treasure in 2013.
This performance featured Bruno and his band The Hooligans in full 70s fashion under a glistening disco ball. This performance featured a dance breakdown, very reminiscent of the 1970s and boy bands alike. This record reached #5 in the USA and may have received a high amount of views due to Mars and the disco genre’s popularity.
Whitney Houston
Ranking second with over 13 million views is Whitney Houston’s unforgettable performance of I Have Nothing in 1993. Coming from the back-to-back success of I Will Always Love You and I’m Every Woman off The Bodyguard soundtrack, this song peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. This performance is remembered as one of Houston’s greatest, as noted by Rolling Stone, owing to its high placement in this ranking.
Celine Dion
Trailing in third is fellow vocal trinity member Celine Dion, with her cover of Queen’s The Show Must Go On in 2016 which has received over 3 million views.
This was a poignant performance, having lost both her husband and brother in the same week that year, Celine chose a rather fitting tribute to them both, showing that while there are losses, the show really must go on.
Mariah Carey
In ninth is Mariah Carey’s cover of I Still Believe in 1998 with 238,000 views. This song was originally sung by Brenda K. Starr whom Mariah sang backup for before her career started. Mariah began the performance with her trademark whistle notes, and ended it by receiving the award for the most hits on the Billboard Hot 100, having had 13 under her belt since her career began eight years earlier.
Miguel
Just scraping into the top 10 on this list is Miguel’s performance of Adorn in 2013 earning over 113,000 views. This performance was memorable for Miguel attempting a stage jump, and accidentally hitting an audience member in the head with his foot, resulting in a lawsuit two years later.
Methodology
RantCasino were keen to discover which Billboard Music Awards performances were the most popular.
- The 15 Billboard Performances were extracted from Billboard’s 15 Greatest Performances Ever as a seed list.
- Each performance was entered into YouTube and view count data was scraped.
- Each performance was then ordered and ranked by view count to determine the most viewed, most popular was implied by most viewed.
- All data was obtained by RantCasino on 10/05/22 and is accurate as of then.
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