Billboard Awards 2018: Taylor Swift is back and Ed Sheeran wins big

Yesterday saw one of the biggest music award ceremonies in the world return for another year. The Billboard Music Awards celebrated its 25th ceremony last night and all the major music stars turned out in force.

Of course, it will come as no surprise that after his recent foray back into music following some time away, Ed Sheeran took home the most awards - winning a whopping six gongs.

The awards show also marked the return of Taylor Swift, who released her first album in three years at the end of 2017.

Hosted by Kelly Clarkson, the show seemed to go off without a hitch.

Ariana Grande performed an emotional version of her new single 'No Tears Left To Cry', which was even more poignant given that it will be the anniversary of the Manchester attack tomorrow (22 May) - and also that the ceremony took place only hours after another mass shooting in America at a school.

Kelly understandably couldn't hold back the tears, and had to pause for a few moments when giving her speech.

She spoke out about the attack, emotionally pleading for change, "Once again we are grieving for more kids that have died for just absolutely no reason at all.

"And tonight they wanted me to say that, obviously we're going to pray for the victims and pray for their families, but they also wanted me to do a moment of silence.

"And I'm so sick of moments of silence. It's not working. So why don't we not do a moment of silence? Why don't we do a moment of action? A moment of change?"

Brave Kelly added that parents "should be able to send their kids to school."

Many artists also used the platform to pay tribute to the tragic death of DJ Avicii, who passed away last month.

What awards did Ed Sheeran win at the Billboards 2018?

Ed Sheeran won six awards at last night's show, taking home the following gongs:

However, he was also nominated for a further nine awards such as Top Billboard 200 Artist, Top Billboard 200 Album for ÷ (Divide) and Top Hot 100 Song for 'Shape Of You'.

A rather lucrative evening for our Ed!

What awards did Taylor Swift win at the Billboards 2018?

Taylor Swift won two awards at the Billboard Awards 2018, as well as a further three nominations.

She won the awards for Top Female Artist and Top Selling Album for her record 'reputation' which came out last November.

Taylor was also nominated for Top Artist, Top Billboard 200 Artist and Top Billboard 200 Album for 'reputation'.