The 50th American Music Awards were handed out on the night of Sunday, at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles. The world’s largest fan-voted ceremony featured a starstudded line-up of celebrated names from the music world and beyond — many of whom took home awards for their outstanding work.
Pink debuted her first live performance of Never Gonna Not Dance Again to kick off the night’s proceedings. She later performed Hopelessly Devoted To You, a tribute to the late singer Olivia Newton-John.
Ex-lovers Harry Styles and Taylor Swift took home the Male and Female Favourite Pop Artiste honours. The duo also competed in three major categories, including Favourite Pop Album with Styles getting nominated for Harry’s House and Taylor for Taylor Swift: Red (Taylor’s Version), which was won by the latter. After bagging all other major award show honours this year, Swift turned out to be the big winner in the Best Music Video category as well, for her 10-minute track All Too Well's short film starring Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien. Taylor also beat Harry to win the Artiste of the Year prize though the latter took home the award for Best Pop/Rock Song for his single As It Was.
Beyonce and Taylor Swift were the year’s most-nominated female artistes. Beyonce was awarded Favourite Female R&B Artiste as well as Favourite R&B album for Renaissance. Nicki Minaj and Kendrick Lamar turned out to be the big winners in the Hip Hop category. K-pop group BTS created AMA history when it bagged Favorite Pop Duo or Group, becoming the first group to win the award four consecutive times. BTS was competing against the likes of Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Maneskin and OneRepublic in the category. BTS was also declared the first winner of the Favorite K-Pop Artiste award, a new category added to this year’s AMAs.
Dove Cameron, a former Disney Channel actress who reached the Billboard charts this year with the pop single Boyfriend, earned the first trophy of the night for Best New Artiste. Favourite Touring Artist award was taken home by Coldplay. Machine Gun Kelly was named Favorite Rock Artiste. Dan + Shay took home the prize for Country Duo or Group while Elton John and Dua Lipa won Collaboration of the Year for their Cold Heart — PNAU Remix.
The film Elvis which was competing alongside Encanto, Sing 2, Stranger Things: Soundtrack from the Netflix Series, Season 4 and Top Gun: Maverick, won the Favourite Soundtrack.
Hosted by actor, musician and entertainer Wayne Brady, the glittering ceremony also featured performances from Stevie Wonder, Charlie Puth, Ari Lennox, GloRilla, David Guetta, Bebe Rexha, Dove Cameron, Anitta, Lil Baby, Carrie Underwood, Imagine Dragons with J.I.D., Yola, Tems and Wizkid. DNice served as the house DJ.
Legendary singer-songwriter Lionel Richie took home his 18th trophy from the annual ceremony when he received this year’s Icon Award.
Glimpses
Cardi B (right) made a surprise appearance during GloRilla’s Tomorrow 2 performance
Stevie Wonder (sitting) and Charlie Puth (extreme right) shared their favourite Lionel Richie songs on stage to honour the Icon Award recipient
Machine Gun Kelly delivers his acceptance speech after he won the award for Favourite Rock Artiste
Pink performed Never Gonna Not Dance Again to kick off the show at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles as only she could
Dove Cameron paid tribute to the queer community in the aftermath of Colorado Springs shooting at a LGBTQ nightclub when she went on stage to accept the New Artist of the Year. She also performed Boyfriend at the awards show in a sultry, wildly sexy remix of her hit song.
Host for the night, comedian Wayne Brady, not only kept the audience entertained with his quips but also delivered a rousing music performance
TXT lit up the red carpet at the 2022 American Music Awards
Veteran singer Smokey Robinson (right) presented Lionel Richie the Icon award
Country queen Carrie Underwood floated down to the AMAs stage in aerial hoops, looking divine in a pink, blue and white jumpsuit to sing Crazy Angels from her recent record Denim & Rhinestones.