User Reviews

Here we have 2018 Billboard Music Awards, an annual music awards ceremony and this one is the most recent edition. If you take a look at who wrote, directed and produced this one, you will finf the names of people very experienced with awards ceremonies, or at least with projects from the entertainment industry that do not really include movies and series. This presentation we got here ran for a massive 130 minutes and was hosted by Kelly Clarkson. Well what can i say about her. I really loved her early in her career, now not so much anymore, which does not have to do with her change in size, but more with her career decisions. She has a tremendous voice, one of the best of her generation and there is at least one moment in these over 2 hours where we see (and hear) it, but it's sad to see her otherwise waste it on giving her rendition of recent Taylor Swift songs, even if that's what the audience wants. She has an obligation to her art in my opinion and she is far from achieving it. Another letdown in her presentation was the opening, a tear-filled tribute (no idea if those were real) to the victims of another school recent school shooting that happened 3 days or so before the awards. If it feels so devasttaing to you, say you can't host. or cancel the event altogether. But don't rush it in for another half-cooked statement against firearm possession. And said statement was recurring during the entire show unfortunately. In my opinion, it should have been left out entirely. You can mourn too without pushing it in everybody's faces, especially if moments later you are at your happiest and really in the mood to party which feels so dishonest that it's almost an insult and slap in the face of those who lost loved ones at Santa Fe. Okay, now for the show itself. There were moments I enjoyed. One would be the tribute performance in the middle of the show or so, which was well-handled and had a catchy song. Salt'n Pepa always elevate the material too, so it was good they put them at the very end where the show went out on a high note, or at least a higher note than pretty much everything before that. The Havana song, also towards the end, was one I enjoyed too for sure. But that's mostly it. The likes of Ed Sheeran did not do too much for me and given I kinda like Ariana Grande, I was a bit disappointed by her opening number. Seeing Taylor Swift go over the top in the audience at times and winning all these awards for what can certainly be called the weakest phase in her career (that has been going on for a long time) compared to how strong she was in her early years in the limelight is incredibly disappointing. But now to the core of it all, the awards. Well, there is a reason it takes me this long to talk about these and this reason is that they felt rushed in and almost for the sake of it that they had such an unimportant note attached to them that it was really disappointing.. A common problem for awards shows these days is that they just neglect irresponsably what should be in the center of it all and instead we get one mediocre (if lucky) performance after the next. This is NOT a concert. So all in all, a thumbs-down as this had definitely not enough quality moments for a running time of over 2 hours. Quite a pity what the BMAs have turned into now. The decision who wins feels also questionable to me. As a big awards shows fan I must say you should not watch this event and skip it instead. Go for something else, maybe a concert show of one of your favorite musicians.