It turns out that there are people who actually take the Billboard Music Awards seriously and they don’t like the fact that Australian rapper Iggy Azalea won Top Rap Song for “Fancy.”
Christian Ferguson of Tennessee got over 21,000 signatures for his petition, called “Retract Iggy Azalea’s Ineligible Award for ‘Fancy.’” He wrote that the song was first released on Feb. 17, 2014, a month before the eligibility period for the 2015 awards, which started on March 10, 2014.
(It is worth noting that the video of “Fancy” was posted on YouTube on March 4, 2014, which is also before the eligibility period.)
Even though thousands signed the petition - either because they believe that the song was ineligible on a technicality or because they don’t like the song - Ferguson has already given up the fight. That’s because a spokesperson for Dick Clark Productions, which produces the show, told The International Business Times that the song was eligible.
The Billboard Music Awards are actually based on Nielsen Music sales data, not what a body of voters think. So it’s possible that Azalea won the award because of the song’s sales performance and radio play during that eligibility period.
The other nominees for Top Rap Song were Azalea’s “Black Widow,” Big Sean’s “I Don’t F**k With You,” Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” and Bobby Shmurda's “Hot Boy.”
image of Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX at Billboard Music Awards courtesy of INFphoto.com