American Music Awards LogoLive from the Los Angeles Microsoft Theater the 44th Annual American Music Awards kicked off with the interesting mix of hosts, Gigi Hadid and Jay Pharoah who introduced Bruno Mars’ rockin performance of 24k Magic opened the broadcast.

Gigi tried to do an impression of Melanie trump and Jay tried to rap the names of the stars in the programs line up. Jay also tried an impersonation of Trump. ‘Tried’ is the operative word.
The category of the 44th Annual American Music Awards was for Pop Rock and the AMA went Twenty One Pilots.

The top nominees for this year’s awards were Drake with 12 nominations and Rihanna with seven.

The next performance was by Niall Horan who sang This Town  followed by Fifth Harmony who took over the stage with their performance of That’s My Girl.

The Rap Hip Hop Album Award went to Drake for his album Views. He thanked all the producers and his parents and was happy to mention that his father was there in the audience.

The Chainsmokers were up next and performed Closer with Halsey. The audience was on their feet dancing to that catchy hit.

James Bay followed with a performance of Let It Go and Shawn Mendes performed his hit Treat You Better.

Electronic Dance Music was the next category and The Chainsmokers took it, but not without being censored during their acceptance speech.

The Weeknd killed it performing his hit Starboy and the audience loved it.

The Collaboration of the Year Award was next and the American Music Award went to Fifth Harmony for Work from Home and what a surprise win it was with Rihanna and Drake’s Work in the same category.

Favorite Country Singer was next and the AMA went to Tim McGraw for Humble and Kind
followed by Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj who performed Side To Side.

The rolled out the video where Taylor Swift crashed face down on a treadmill. Well, Jay copied that treadmill disaster in his own video, then AMA Man of the Night Drake did his own. He danced in a gym to Taylor Swifts Bad Blood and ended with a weight lifting disaster. It was funny and Drake showed he can poke fun at himself with confidence.

The New Artist of the Year Award went to Zayn.

Chrissy Teigen introduced her husband and baby daddy John Legend who sang Love Me Now, but not before getting censored big time. I wonder what she said.

Twenty One Pilots performed Heathens.

The Favorite Rap Hip Hop Artist American Music Award went to Drake and it was well deserved.

Justin Bieber was the next performer. He sang I Won’t Give Up as many of the audience cried and others sang along.

Top Sound Track was the next category and the AMA went to Purple Rain. Princes’ sister Tyka Nelson accepted the award in his honor. She fought back tears as she said, “We’ll keep this for you at Paisley Park. This is for you.”

The performances kept coming as Gaga took the stage to perform Million Reasons.

The next category was Favorite Country Duo or Group and the AMA went to Florida Georgia Line.

Alternative Rock category followed and the AMA went to Twenty One Pilots.

Jay introduced Green Day next. They performed Bang Bang.

Robert Downy Jr. introduced the segment to honor Sting. Downy spoke eloquently before introducing the video highlights of Sting’s career. He then introduced Stings live performance of I Can’t Stop Thinking About You, Message In A Bottle and Every Breath You Take. When he finished Sting received the Award of Merit from Downy.

DJ Khaled followed with this hit Do You Mind with Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown, August Alsina and Future. Rik Ross and Jeremih.

The next award category was Favorite Pop Rock Female Artist and the AMA went to Selena Gomez. She got very deep and very personal during her acceptance speech. She said at one point in he life she had everything, but she was absolutely broken inside. She ended by thanking her fans for their support.

The big Artist of the Year Award was next and the American Music Award sent to Ariana Grande. She did a lot of hugging in the audience before coming to the stage. She got played of the stage and censured at the end of her acceptance speech.

Maroon 5 and Kendrick Lamar closed the broadcast with Don’t Wanna Know.
The 44th Annual American Music Awards was filled with a string of great performances. It’s worth hunting down the rerun if you missed it.

Tanya Hart

Twitter @TanyaHollywood