drake billboard awards

Drake shouts out Arya Stark during Billboard Music Awards speech

Drake's reign as the most celebrated rapper on Earth continues this week with a record-breaking 12 wins at the Billboard Music Awards and another memorably memeable acceptance speech.

The Toronto-born rapper and global superstar was the undisputed champion of last night's glitzy, music industry event in Las Vegas, taking home awards in all of the following categories:

Top Artist, Top Male Artist, Top Billboard 200 Artist, Top Hot 100 Artist, Top Streaming Songs Artist, Top Song Sales Artist, Top Radio Songs Artist, Top Rap Artist, Top Rap Male Artist, Top Billboard 200 Album, Top Rap Album and Top Streaming Song for 'In My Feelings'.

Drake now has a whopping 27 Billboard Awards under his belt — the most of any artist ever — and he was sure to let the audience know that he didn't get there alone.

"I just want to thank my mom for her relentless effort in my life," said the rapper in his acceptance speech for the award of Top Artist.

"I want to thank my mom for all the times you drove me to piano. All the times you drove me to basketball and hockey — that clearly didn't work out. All the times you drove me to 'Degrassi.' No matter how long it took me to figure out what I wanted to do, you were always there to give me a ride, and now we're on one hell of ride."

Then, as if that weren't crowd-pleasing enough, Drake gave props to Game of Thrones character Arya Stark for... well, I can't really spoil that here without being flamed for the rest of my life.

All I can tell you is that Stark, played by British actress Maisie Williams, is very much deserving of Drake's praise, and for so many reasons, but especially for what happened in Season 8, Episode 3.

"Hey, shout out to Arya Stark for putting in that work last week!" said the artist at the end of his speech with a smile, inspiring an explosion of cheers from the audience and the now millions of GoT fans who've viewed the clip online.

Now let's all hope and pray that the "Drake Curse" doesn't apply to HBO characters. 

Lead photo by

Billboard Music Awards


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