Iggy Azalea bagged the 2015 Billboard Music Award for "Top Rap Song" just a few weeks ago. Iggy's award was with Charli XCX for their hit single, "Fancy."
However, many are now petitioning for Iggy to give the award to Nicki Minaj. Minaj's fans started protesting and created a Change.org petition for Iggy's "ineligible" win just ten days after she won the award.
The people behind the petition claim that "The eligibility time period for nominations is March 10th, 2014 through March 2015. 'Fancy' was released on February 17th, 2014, nearly a month before the eligibility starting."
Furthermore, the petition stated, "Billboard did not follow their own guidelines and should have to recalculate these nominations without 'Fancy' as a nominee."
The February 17 release date applies to the track's UK release. In fact, a spokesperson for the 2015 Billboard Music Awards' production company, Dick Clark Productions, said that the release date is irrelevant.
Pointing out that the only thing that matters is when it was hot on the charts. The first week of "Fancy" on the Billboard Hot 100 chart was on March 22, 2014.
Reports further conclude that regardless of the petition, the 2015 Billboard Music Award for "Top Rap Song" is still held by Iggy Azalea. As ET Online puts it, "So everyone calm down. It's legit."
A Nicki Minaj fan, Christian Ferguson, wrote, "To everyone who signed the petition to retract Iggy's Billboard Music Award, thank you first and foremost; however, a spokesperson for Dick Clark Productions, who produces the award show, has said that the award is still Iggy's unfortunately."
NME reports that the petition garnered 21,661 signatures upon closing. The petition received 5,000 signatures within the first 24 hours, as stated by ET Online.
Nicki Minaj was nominated for the "Top Rap Song" category for her "The Pinkprint" track, "Anaconda." Iggy Azalea also received a second nomination for the same category with Rita Ora for "Black Widow."
