Whitney Houston gets posthumous Billboard 2020 nomination

Billboard Music Awards recently presented its 2020 nominees, which included the late multi-awarded singer and pop icon Whitney Houston for her song Higher Love that was reworked into a tropical house track by Norwegian DJ Kygo.

The remix version of Higher Love, which is nominated for top dance/electronic song, hit No. 1 on two Billboard dance charts after its worldwide release in July 2019.

Higher Love is a bonus track on the Japanese edition of Houston’s third studio album “I’m Your Baby Tonight” released in 1990. The song is a cover of British singer Steve Winwood’s 1986 hit.

Two other artists were nominated posthumously in this year’s BBMAs: Juice WRLD, who died in 2019, for Top Rap Album; and Swedish DJ Avicii, who died in 2018, for Top Dance/Electronic Album.

Houston, who continues to inspire many singers across the globe even after her tragic death in 2012, currently holds the record for being the only artist to chart seven consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits. Throughout her career, she has received 16 wins and 22 nominations from Billboard and was honored posthumously with the Billboard Millennium Award three months after her death.

Post Malone, a frontrunner with 16 nominations

The awards show, initially set to air live from Las Vegas in April but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be broadcast live from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Oct. 14 with Kelly Clarkson as a returning host.

With the awards’ chart period between March 23, 2019 and March 14, 2020, Post Malone received the most nominations with 16 nods in 15 categories including Top Artist, Top Male Artist, Top Billboard 200 Album and Top Rap Album for “Hollywood’s Bleeding,” and Top Streaming Song for Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) collaboration with Swae Lee.

The artists with most nominations include Lil Nas X with 13 nods, Khalid with 12, and Billie Eilish and Lizzo, who could become the first female artist to win in the Top New Artist category since Lorde in 2014, with 12 and 11 nominations respectively.

This year’s Top 100 Song nominees are five singles that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (and spent 31 weeks in the top spot collectively) are Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi, bad guy by Billie Eilish, Old Town Road by Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus, Truth Hurts by Lizzo, and Señorita by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello.

Pop superstar Taylor Swift, which was nominated for her “Lover” album (not “Folklore,” which she dropped in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic), received six nods.

Meanwhile, K-pop powerhouse group BTS (who recently dropped four new remixes of its explosive hit Dynamite) received nominations for Top Duo/Group category, which they also won in the last year’s BBMAs; and the fan-voted Top Social Artist, which, thanks to their solid ARMY fan base, they have bagged since 2017.

Country Music legend Garth Brooks will be honored with the much-coveted Icon Award. He is a 19-time BBMA winner, who has domestically sold more than 156 million albums, making him the best-selling solo albums artist in the in the US today.

Click here for the complete list of the 2020 Billboard Music Awards nominees.

Banner photo from whitneyhouston.com