Madonna pays tribute to Prince and Celine Dion honours her husband at 24th Billboard Music Awards, where singers The Weeknd and Adele lead the night.

The Weeknd poses backstage with his awards at the 2016 Billboard Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, May 22, 2016.
The Weeknd poses backstage with his awards at the 2016 Billboard Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, May 22, 2016. (TRT World and Agencies)

The Canadian singer The Weeknd and British singer Adele won big at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards (BBMA) on Sunday in Las Vegas, US.

The Weeknd (whose original name is Abel Makkonen Tesfaye) won awards for best R&B; song (The Hills), best album and best artist – dedicating the first award to Prince.

He also won awards for Top Hot 100, Song Sales, and Streaming Songs Artist – winning eight awards in total.

Adele won four awards: Best Top Artist, Top Billboard 200 Album, Top Female Artist and the Top Billboard 200 Artist.

Singer Steven Tyler presents the award for Top Artist to Adele at the 2016 Billboard Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, May 22, 2016.
Singer Steven Tyler presents the award for Top Artist to Adele at the 2016 Billboard Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, May 22, 2016. (TRT World and Agencies)

Madonna paid tribute to Prince, while Kesha earned a standing ovation for her stirring rendition of "It Ain't Me, Babe" honouring Bob Dylan.

Madonna performs
Madonna performs "Nothing Compares 2 U" during her tribute to Prince at the 2016 Billboard Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, May 22, 2016. (Reuters)

Celine Dion dedicated her Icon award to her late husband at Sunday night's emotion-packed Billboard Music Awards.

Britney Spears kicked off the BBMA 2016 with a medley of her hits such as "Toxic," "Womanizer" and "I'm A Slave 4 U.

This award & this night meant the world to me... Thank you Billboard Music Awards, my amazing crew, dancers & of course my fans 󾬐

Posted by Britney Spears on Sunday, May 22, 2016

Popular young singer Justin Bieber won the Top Male Artist and the Top Social Media Artist awards.

I look like a baby

A post shared by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) on

Musician and DJ David Guetta won the award for Top Dance/Electronic Artist on the same night.

Rihanna was honoured with the Chart Achievement award.

Love On the Brain #BBMAs

A post shared by badgalriri (@badgalriri) on

English-Irish pop boy band One Direction won the award for the Top Group at BBMA.

The song "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth was honoured with Top Rap Song at BBMA.

Source: TRTWorld and agencies