Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X, Lizzo relish Apple Music Awards
Billie Eilish has won the Apple Music Award for Artist of the Year while the Song of the Year trophy went to Lil Nas X for “Old Town Road”.
The Apple Music Awards honour achievements across five distinct categories and winners are chosen through a process that reflects editorial perspective, combined with the interest of customers around the world.
“The winners for global artist of the year, songwriter of the year and breakthrough artist of the year were hand-selected by Apple Music’s global editorial team of experts and given to artists who have true passion for their craft, who boldly defy conventions in the category and who embody a sense of humanity, where listeners are drawn as much to who they are as to their music,” a press statement from the company said.
Eilish’s blunt relatability helped turn her full-length debut album “When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” co-written and produced by her brother Finneas, into an instant worldwide sensation, and the most played album on Apple Music this year. She won the award for the most-streamed album of 2019, with more than a billion streams on Apple Music.
Meanwhile, Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” was the biggest single of 2019 and the most-streamed song on Apple Music this year.
“I went into the realm of a loner cowboy, needing to run away from everything,” Lil Nas X told Apple Music. “But I also wanted to put it with what was on the rise, which is the whole meme culture, plus actually making it a listenable, catchy song.”
The other winner is Lizzo, who bagged the Breakthrough Artist of the Year award.
“This is what a breakthrough is all about, babies,” Lizzo told Apple Music.
There’s no point in being humble: it doesn’t get much bigger than “Cuz I Love You” and its chin-up single “Truth Hurts”, which dared to ask what pop stars should look and sound like – and whether they should play flute while twerking.
Apple designed the awards to celebrate the extraordinary craftsmanship integral to creating music. Each award features Apple’s custom silicon wafer suspended between a polished sheet of glass and a machined and anodised aluminium body.
