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Utah’s Post Malone leads the nominations for the Billboard Music Awards

Utah resident Post Malone leads the field with 16 Billboard Music Award nominations — including Top Artist.

The rapper is also nominated for Top Male Artist, Top Billboard 200 Artist, Top Hot 100 Artist, Top Streaming Songs Artist, Top Song Sales Artist, Top Radio Songs Artist, Top Rap Artist, Top Rap Male Artist, Top Rap Tour, Top Billboard 200 Album, Top Rap Album, Top Streaming Song, Top Collaboration (fan voted), and two nominations for Top Rap Song.

That’s actually one fewer nomination than the rapper received in 2019, although Malone (real name: Austin Richard Post) didn’t win any of the 17 awards for which he was nominated last year.

The rapper’s album “Hollywood Bleeding” — recorded primarily in Utah and released in September 2019 — debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and never left the weekly top 20 in its first year of release. According to Nielsen Music/MRC Data, it has generated more than 3 billion on-demand streams for its songs and featured five top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, including two chart toppers: “Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse)” and “Circles.”

The Billboard Music Awards honor the year’s most successful artists in 55 categories. Other top nominees include Lil Nas X with 13; Billie Eilish and Khalid (12 each); Lizzo (11); Kanye West (nine); Taylor Swift (six); and Justin Bieber (four).

The 2020 Billboard Music Awards are scheduled to air Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m. on NBC/Ch. 5. Originally set for April, they were postponed because of the pandemic. Kelly Clarkson will host.