P!nk has been selected to receive the Icon Award at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards, which will broadcast live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, May 23. Nick Jonas is hosting the show for the first time.
P!nk, 41, is the 10th artist to receive the Icon Award and the youngest recipient to date. The previous recipients are Neil Diamond, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Jennifer Lopez, Celine Dion, Cher, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey and Garth Brooks.
In a statement, P!nk made note of that impressive roster of icons. “As a little girl, I always dreamed about being a singer and sharing my love of music with the world,” she said. “Years later, to receive the Billboard Music Awards Icon Award is hard to fathom! I feel so honored to join the ranks of music idols like Cher, Garth Brooks, Janet Jackson and Stevie Wonder. It’s a true ‘pinch me’ moment and I feel humbled and blessed.”
As all of the previous Icon Award recipients have, P!nk will perform at the show. This will mark her first performance on the BBMA stage in five years.
The Icon Award “recognizes outstanding artists who have achieved excellence on the Billboard charts and have made an indelible mark on music itself.”
P!nk’s last three studio albums — The Truth About Love (2012), Beautiful Trauma (2017) and Hurts 2B Human (2019) — have entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1. In addition, she has amassed four No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100: “Lady Marmalade” with Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim and Mýa (2001), “So What” (2008), “Raise Your Glass” (2010) and “Just Give Me a Reason,” featuring Nate Ruess (2013).
The versatile singer also reached No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts with “Setting the World on Fire,” a 2016 collab with Kenny Chesney.
P!nk’s “Beautiful Trauma” world tour (2018-19) became the highest-grossing tour by a woman in the 2010s and the second highest-grossing tour by a woman in Boxscore history. It received Billboard’s legend of live and tour of the year awards in 2019.
P!nk was Billboard’s Woman of the Year in 2013. She has received several other major career honors in recent years, including the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2017 and the outstanding contribution to music award at the Brit Awards in 2019.
The Weeknd is this year’s leading BBMA finalist with 16 nods, followed by DaBaby (11), Pop Smoke (10) and Gabby Barrett (nine).
BBMA finalists and winners are based on key fan interactions with music, including album and digital song sales, streaming, radio airplay, and social engagement, tracked by Billboard and its data partners, including MRC Data. This year’s awards are based on the chart period of March 21, 2020, through April 3, 2021.
The 2021 Billboard Music Awards are produced by dick clark productions, which is owned by MRC; MRC and Penske Media are co-parent companies of Billboard. Barry Adelman and Robert Deaton are executive producers.
The show will air live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, May 23, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on NBC.
