Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Billboard Artist of the Year Drake with Kelly Clarkson. (NBC Photo)

Carrie Underwood won the award for Best Female Country artist, topping Maren Morris and Kasey Musgraves.

Carrie’s “Cry Pretty” was nominated for County Album of the Year, but that honor went to Luke Combs for “This One’s for You.”

Maroon 5’s wins came as a result of the band’s “Girls Like You” collaboration with Female Rapper of the Year Cardi B.

The song won four awards, including Top 100 Song of the Year, Top Selling Song, Top Radio Song and Top Collaboration.

Among the other BMA awards with singing show connections: Former Voice standout Koryn Hawthorne won for Gospel Song of the Year and The Greatest Showman won for Soundtrack of the Year.

Former Voice contestant Loren Allred is the voice behind “Never Enough,” one of the most successful songs from that soundtrack.

Drake was named Artist of the Year at Wednesday’s show, which also featured performances by Kelly, Mariah Carey, Madonna and Paula Abdul. Yep, Paula Abdul, the former American Idol judge, quite impressive at age 56.

Here’s that performance and Kelly’s, followed by some photos from the show.

Halsey, Taylor Swift and Jennifer Hudson at the Billboard Music Awards. (NBC Photo)

Cardi B and Kelly Clarkson at the Billboard Music Awards. (NBC Photo)

Kelly Clarkson performs Bold and Beautiful at the Billboard Music Awards. (NBC Photo)

Paula Abdul during her performance at the Billboard Music Awards. (NBC Photo)