Which artist won the Icon Award at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards?

Garth Brooks won the Icon Award at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards. The honor recognized his enduring impact on popular music and his exceptional career as a country artist who repeatedly crossed into the mainstream.

The 2020 ceremony took place on October 14 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. It had originally been scheduled for April but was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kelly Clarkson hosted the event for the third consecutive year.

The Billboard Icon Award is a special honor separate from competitive chart categories such as Top Artist or Top Hot 100 Song. Previous recipients included Neil Diamond, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Jennifer Lopez, Celine Dion, Cher, Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey. Brooks joined that group in 2020 and also performed during the ceremony.

A common mix-up is confusing Brooks’s Icon Award with the Artist Achievement Award, another Billboard special honor. The 2020 show’s biggest competitive winner was Post Malone, who collected nine awards, but Brooks received the evening’s career-recognition honor.