'WAP' hitmaker Megan Thee Stallion, in the meantime, is named Breakthrough Artist of the Year, and Taylor Swift takes home Songwriter of the Year for 'Folklore'.
- Nov 19, 2020
AceShowbiz - Rapper Lil Baby has been honored with the Artist of the Year prize at the second annual Apple Music Awards.
The honors, which were founded in 2019 by bosses at the streaming service, recognize "the best and boldest musicians of 2020 and their enormous impact on global culture," according to a press release.
He was awarded the prize after the star "cemented his place as the indisputable, authentic voice of youth culture" with his 2020 single "The Bigger Picture".
Of the win, he says, "This year has changed me a lot. Now that I'm an artist, I feel like my voice can get heard through my music and I needed to say something. And my fans listened. So thank you to my fans and thank you to Apple Music for giving me a special way to connect to my fans."
Meanwhile, "WAP" star Megan Thee Stallion was "so excited" to be named Breakthrough Artist of the Year, with her Cardi B collaboration and "Savage" remix with Beyonce Knowles racking more than 300 million streams globally on the site.
"This is a really big accomplishment for me," reflects the hitmaker. "Apple Music has been rocking with me for so long, even before making me an Up Next artist, and I am just very appreciative and very grateful. I will forever love ya'll as much as ya'll love me."
Elsewhere in the prizegiving, which has a limited five awards, Taylor Swift took home Songwriter of the Year for her "lyrical masterpiece" "Folklore", and admits the honor is "really special this particular year because songwriting was the one thing that kept me connected to my fans," amid the pandemic.
And the final two prizes - Top Song of the Year and Top Album of the Year - went to Roddy Ricch for his track "The Box" and its parent LP Please "Excuse Me for Being Antisocial".
"It's crazy making music could get me to the point where a platform like Apple could honor me or put me on a pedestal," he confesses. "Winning this award motivates me to work even harder. This is confirmation that I am on the right track and doing what I gotta do to be the greatest in my own right."
The winners for global Artist, Songwriter and Breakthrough are hand-selected by Apple Music's global editorial team, while Top Song and Top Album are based on streaming data from Apple Music subscribers.
All four honorees will be celebrated during "an exciting week of music" in December, teases Oliver Schusser, Apple's vice president of Apple Music and Beats.
