Beyonce, R. Kelly pass ‘boards

Spencer Patterson

Thursday, Dec. 11, 2003 | 8:29 a.m.

An arena brimming with Beyonce fans stood poised, itching to dance, as the breakout pop star took the stage at Wednesday's "Billboard Music Awards."

Which of her two 2003 megahits would the 22-year-old vocalist perform to cap a year that saw her spend 17 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart?

Would it be the infectious "Crazy in Love," which spent eight weeks at No. 1, or its follow-up, "Baby Boy," which stayed there for nine?

To the obvious disappointment of many in the MGM Grand Garden Arena crowd of 10,872, Beyonce opted for neither. Instead, she sang "Me, Myself & I," a down-tempo number that quickly put most of the audience back into its seats.

That would prove to be the night's only misstep for the former Ms. Knowles, however. The one-time Destiny's Child star went home with four awards, including Hot 100 Female Artist of the Year and New Female Artist of the Year.

Beyonce was also named New R&B Artist of the Year and received a trophy for achieving the most weeks at No. 1 on the singles chart.

"This is amazing," she said during a humble acceptance speech. "This has been an incredible year."

R&B vocalist R. Kelly also left with four awards -- two for production and two for songwriting -- and closed out the two-hour, made-for-TV event with a live rendition of "Step in the Name of Love."

Rapper 50 Cent received the night's top honor, Artist of the Year, but was not on hand to accept the trophy or to perform anything off his chart-busting 2003 debut album, "Get Rich or Die Tryin'."

Canadian-born singer Shania Twain represented the country music charts, winning Country Artist of the Year and two other awards and performing "Not Just a Pretty Face."

Billboard winners are determined by sales and radio play from December 2002 through November 2003. The results of several award categories, including Album of the Year and Hot 100 Male Artist of the Year, will be announced in the Dec. 20 issue of Billboard Magazine.

Hip-hop's "it" duo of the moment, OutKast, earned Billboard's first Digital Track of the Year award for current chart-topper "Hey Ya!" The song was judged to have sold the most legitimate Internet downloads in 2003.

Amazingly, that song has been available online for just nine weeks; some of its competitors for the digital award have been available for more than twice that time.

"We want to thank you all because it costs money to make this music, and if you illegally download it that is straight stealing," said OutKast member Andre 3000. "So thank you for having honor."

The broadcast that aired live on the East Coast differed greatly from the one shown locally at 8 p.m., an hour after the show's conclusion.

Edited out on the latter: two stretches in Pink's live performance of "God Is a DJ" that were apparently judged to be too risque, several off-color jokes by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and a string of obscenities from Nicole Richie of Fox's "The Simple Life."

Triumph's comedy bit with Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl drew a mixture of laughter and groans for its digs at Michael Jackson, Enrique Iglesias and Paris Hilton, among others.

"Enrique lost the mole, yes. I guess after all these years it got embarrassing ... so the mole asked to be cut off," the canine hand puppet kidded.

Clay Aiken, the runner-up on the second season of "American Idol," picked up his first Billboard Award, winning for the Best Selling Single of the Year ("This is the Night"/"Bridge Over Troubled Water").

Sting became the 12th winner of Billboard's Century Award for artistic and creative achievements, though the crowd welcomed the former Police man with far less gusto than the man who introduced him: Stevie Wonder.

"If I've learned anything at all in the quarter-century I've spent in the music business, it's this," Sting announced after performing "Send Your Love" off new album "Sacred Heart." "Music is it's own reward."

"American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest served as the show's emcee, but actually said less than Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, unofficial "color commentators" who attempted to provide occasional comic relief.

"This is a live show, so don't do anything ditsy or stupid," Simpson warned her husband, poking fun at her own reputation.

Other multiple award winners were: Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, 3 Doors Down, Evanescence, Audioslave, Trapt and Chingy.