Billboard Music Awards says thank you for the music

Energetic performances and heartfelt tributes took centre stage at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday, as Adele, LMFAO, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift came away with the top awards.

British Grammy-winning singer Adele won 12 awards from 18 nominations for her juggernaut album 21, including top artist, top female artist and top album. Her awards were not presented during the live show and the singer was not present.

But LMFAO, the uncle-nephew duo Redfoo and SkyBlu, showed in trademark outrageous fashion and picked up two awards, song of the year for Party Rock Anthem and the top duo/group, along with four more honours.

Rappers Wiz Khalifa, Lil Wayne and R&B singer Chris Brown took honours for top new artist, male artist of the year and R&B artist of the year, respectively.

Other performers included Kelly Clarkson, The Wanted, Carly Rae Jepsen, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Linkin Park, Nelly Furtado and Billboard Battle of the Bands winner, Patent Pending.

Tributes to those who have passed

With some big losses in the music world already this year, the awards show featured numerous tributes to late artists.

Early in the show, hosts Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell paused to remember late Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb, who died on Sunday after a long battle with cancer, with a moment of silence.

New Zealand artist Natasha Bedingfield paid tribute to late Disco Queen Donna Summer, who died earlier this week after fighting lung cancer, saying "if we can remember her through her music, this will never really be her last dance", before kicking off into Summer's hit, Last Dance.

Wiz Khalifa paid tribute to late Beastie Boy Adam "MCA" Yauch, who passed away earlier this month after battling cancer, while Cee Lo Green joined his hip-hop band Goodie Mob to perform Fight For Your Right in Yauch's memory. The biggest tribute of the night was for Whitney Houston, who died suddenly aged 48 in February this year. The late singer was posthumously given the Millennium award, while singers John Legend and Jordin Sparks led heartfelt renditions of The Greatest Love of All and I Will Always Love You against a backdrop of photographs of Houston.

Houston's sister-in-law Patricia Houston and teenage daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown accepted the award, with the late singer's emotional daughter saying: "I'm just blessed to have been in such an incredible woman's life, there will never be another one ever."

It also appeared to be the night that Bobbi went public with her rumoured romance with her adopted brother Nick, with the two sharing an intimate embrace onstage (above).