The Who, What and How at the American Music Awards 2016!

The American Music Awards celebrated its 44th year on November 20th at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater. The AMA’s stand apart from other award ceremonies through the fact that the winners are decided entirely by fans voting for their favourites.

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image courtesy of usatoday

The evening was a neat mix of passionate live performances, heartfelt acceptance speeches and poor puns politely laughed at. There was also an underlying political flavour doing the rounds, with a generous spicing of Trump jokes, by hosts and presenters alike.
American Punk Rock band Green Day, known to be vocal with their political music, added a passionate verse of “No Trump! No KKK! No fascist U.S.A.!” during their on stage performance of “Bang Bang.”

 

Pop and R&B singer Ariana Grande turned the heat up with her performance of Side To Side with Nicki Minaj, and then walked away with the night’s biggest honor, the Artist of The Year award.

https://youtu.be/8m4UMm8a6ms

 

Drake broke a 32-year record for the most American Music Awards nominations with 13 nods, dethroning Michael Jackson’s previous record of 11 from 1984. Though he did not perform live, Drake did debuted a new Apple commercial during the show, which featured him working out and lip syncing to Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9RNGyZRs6c

 

Robert Downey, Jr., made a guest appearance to give Sting the honor of the American Music Award of Merit.

Emotions ran particularly high when Prince’s sister, Tyka Nelson, took the stage to accept the award for “Best Soundtrack” for “Purple Rain” on behalf of her brother.

Selena Gomez returned from her career hiatus to win favourite pop/rock female artist.

 

The evening closed with a power packed collaboration between Maroon 5 and Kendrick Lamar performing “Don’t Wanna Know.”

 

A list of the winners

American Music Award of Merit

Sting

Artist of the Year

Ariana Grande

New Artist of the Year

Zayn

Collaboration of the Year

Fifth Harmony Featuring Ty Dolla $ign “Work From Home”

Tour of the Year

Beyonce

Video of the Year

Justin Bieber “Sorry”

Favourite Male Artist – Pop/ Rock

Justin Bieber

Favourite Female Artist – Pop/ Rock

Selena Gomez

Favourite Duo or Group – Pop/Rock

Twenty One Pilots

Favourite Album – Pop/Rock

Justin Bieber, Purpose

Favourite Pop/Rock Song:

Justin Bieber, “Love Yourself”

Favourite Artist Rap/Hip—Hop

Drake

Favourite Rap/Hip-Hop Album:

Drake, Views

Favourite Rap/Hip-Hop Song:

Drake, “Hotline Bling”

Favourite Soul/R&B Male Artist:

Chris Brown

Favourite Soul/R&B Female Artist:

Rihanna

Soul/R&B Album:

Rihanna, Anti

Favourite Soul/R&B Song:

Rihanna ft. Drake, “Work”

Favourite Country Male Artist:

Blake Shelton

Favourite Country Duo/Group:

Florida Georgia Line

Favourite Country Album:

Carrie Underwood, Storyteller

Favourite Country Song:

Tim McGraw, “Humble and Kind”

Favourite Country Female Artist:

Carrie Underwood

Favourite Artist – Latin

Enrique Iglesias

Favourite Artist Alternative Rock

Twenty One Pilots

Favourite Artist Adult Contemporary Artist:

Adele

Favourite Artist – Contemporary Inspirational

Hillsong UNITED

Favourite Artist – EDM

The Chainsmokers

Top Soundtrack

Purple Rain