Drake has huge night at Billboard Awards, wins top artist

Mother's Day is in a couple weeks, but rap star Drake gave his mom an early gift with a heartfelt speech when he won the night's top honor at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards.

Drake picked up Top Artist - besting Cardi B, Ariana Grande and Travis Scott - in Las Vegas.

"I just want to thank my mom for her relentless effort in my life," he said. "I want to thank my mom for all the times you drove me to piano. All the times you drove me to basketball and hockey. That clearly didn't work out. No matter how long it took me to figure out what I wanted to do, you were always there to give me a ride, and now we're on one hell of ride".

Drake appears backstage after winning Top Artist, Top Male Artist and Top Billboard 200 Album for "Scorpion" during the 2019 Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 1, 2019. [Photo: IC]

Mariah Carey's twins cheered her on as she sang a medley of her hits and accepted the Icon award.

"Icon? I really don't think of myself that way. I started making music out of a necessity to survive and to express myself and I just wanted to create something so I could feel worthy of existing. I guess I always felt like an outsider, someone who doesn't quite belong anywhere, and I still feel like that lost interracial child who had a lot of nerve to believe I could succeed at anything at all in this world. But, and this is the truth, I did believe because I had to," Carey said.

Mariah Carey at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 1, 2019. [Photo: IC]

Kelly Clarkson hosted the show for a second time.

(Story includes material sourced from AP)