Swift Wins Big, Bieber Booed at Billboard Awards

Pop diva Taylor Swift took home an armful of trophies, and Justin Bieber confronted a chorus of boos at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday.

Swift, 23, in a figure-hugging blue Zuhair Murad mini-dress, collected eight awards including top artist, top female artist and top Billboard 200 album for her latest release "Red," which has sold more than 5.4 million copies worldwide.

"You are the longest and best relationship I ever had," Swift told her fans, turning her tabloid reputation as a serial dater to her advantage.

Teen idol Bieber, sporting outsized aviator sunglasses, played stoic when boos echoed through the MGM Grand auditorium as he stepped up to collect the fan-voted Billboard Milestone Award.

"I'm 19 years old, I think I'm doing a pretty good job," he said. "I just want to say it should be about the music.... This is not a gimmick. I'm an artist and I should be taken seriously."

In recent weeks, Bieber has caught flak for saying teen Holocaust victim Anne Frank would have been a "belieber," a term used for his fans. He was late for concerts in London and Dubai, and in Germany his pet monkey was confiscated for lack of paperwork.

Bieber also won Billboard's honors for top male artist and top social artist -- the latter an acknowledgement of his overtaking Lady Gaga in January this year as the most-followed person on Twitter.

Other big winners Sunday included the Belgian-Australian musician Gotye, who won four awards to go with his best-song Grammy for "Somebody That I Used to Know," and Rihanna, who dominated the R&B categories with four laurels.