Simply accepting an award wouldn’t be Garth Brooks’s style: He turned his moment at Wednesday’s “2020 Billboard Music Awards” into an event. Brooks performed a full-band greatest-hits medley of “The Thunder Rolls,” “Callin’ Baton Rouge,” “The River” “Standing Outside the Fire,” “That Summer,” “Dive Bar,” “Friends in Low Places” and “The Dance.” The screens behind him showed tens of thousands of fans, their screams mixed into the audio: At one point Brooks responded to them as though they were actually in the venue, yelling, “I want to hear you sing it!”
Cher presented Garth the Billboard Icon Award, an honor she received in 2017, and referred to the top-selling solo artist in U.S. history as “a true music legend and my friend.”
“Getting to hold the award that you got make me feel cool,” Garth said following his performance, “and ‘cool’ is never a word I would use to describe me.” After thanking the almighty God, members of his team and family, Brooks ended his acceptance speech by saying, “Country radio — you gave me this! And To all those people that fill those stands, — thank you. Thank you for my life.”
Brooks, of course, wasn’t Wednesday’s only winner. Luke Combs followed Jane Lynch’s announcement of his Top Country Artist award with a piano-and-vocal rendition of his new single “Better Together.” Combs’ was the only country award handed out on-air (he won a total of three), though Billy Ray Cyrus and Lil Nas X shared Top Hot 100 Song for “Old Town Road.” Additionally, Kane Brown performed “Be Like That” with Swae Lee and Khalid.
The awards initially were scheduled to air April 29, but we delayed until Wednesday, airing live from Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre.
Here are the 2020 Billboard Music Award winners with country ties:
- Icon: Garth Brooks
- Top Hot 100 Song: “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus
- Top Streaming Song: “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus
- Top Selling Song: “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus
- Top Country Artist: Luke Combs
- Top Country Male Artist: Luke Combs
- Top Country Female Artist: Maren Morris
- Top Country Duo/Group: Dan + Shay
- Top Country Tour: George Strait
- Top Country Album: “What You See Is What You Get,” Luke Combs
- Top Country Song: “10,000 Hours,” Dan + Shay with Justin Bieber