Drake to be named artist of the decade at 2021 Billboard Music Awards; The Weeknd to perform

NEW YORK — Drake will be honored as the artist of the decade at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards.

The 27-time Billboard Music Award-winner, who is a finalist for another seven this year, will receive the honor based on a number of accolades including nine No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart (the most for any artist of the decade), 33 songs in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 (also the most for any artist of the decade) and six No. 1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, dick clark productions and NBC announced Tuesday.

Nick Jonas will host the May 23 event, airing live on NBC from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, when The Weeknd will celebrate his whopping 16 nods with a performance at the show.

The Weeknd is the leading finalist in categories including top artist, top male artist, top R&B artist, top Billboard 200 album for "After Hours" and top Hot 100 song for "Blinding Lights," the No. 1 song of last year.

Pink will also perform at the show, where she will receive the Icon Award.

Drake will compete with The Weeknd for top artist. Other finalists include Taylor Swift and deceased rappers Juice WRLD and Pop Smoke. Excluding Drake, all of the top artist finalists are up for top Billboard 200 album. Lil Baby rounds out the five finalists.

Songs battling The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" for top Hot 100 song include DaBaby and Roddy Ricch's "Rockstar," Chris Brown and Young Thug's "Go Crazy," Gabby Barrett and Charlie Puth's "I Hope" and "Mood" by 24kGoldn and iann dior.

The Weeknd: Singer will continue to boycott Grammys despite academy changes to nominations process

Billboard Music Awards: Pink to receive Icon award, Nick Jonas to host

While The Weeknd will perform at the Billboards, he is boycotting another major awards show, the Grammys.

The artist announced earlier this month that he still plans on boycotting the Grammys, despite the Recording Academy's recent attempts to improve its nominations process.

The singer, who was snubbed at this year's awards show, told Variety in May he will continue to withhold his music from consideration for the awards, explaining that he remains "uninterested in being a part of the Grammys, especially with their own admission of corruption for all these decades."

"I will not be submitting in the future," he added.

Contributing: Hannah Yasharoff and Jenna Ryu, USA TODAY; Mesfin Fekadu, The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Drake is Billboard Music Awards' artist of decade; The Weeknd to sing