American Music Awards | |
---|---|
Current: American Music Awards of 2022 | |
Awarded for | Outstanding achievements in the music industry |
Country | United States |
First awarded | February 19, 1974 |
Website | theamas.com |
Television/radio coverage | |
Network | ABC (1974–2022) CBS (2025) |
Produced by | Dick Clark Productions |
The American Music Awards (AMAs) is an annual American music awards show produced by Dick Clark Productions since 1974. [1] Nominees are selected on commercial performance, such as sales and airplay. Winners are determined by a poll of the public and fans, who can vote through the AMAs website. [2]
The event originally aired on ABC, after the network's contract to air the Grammy Awards expired; its contract expired after the 2022 ceremony, putting the American Music Awards on hiatus. In March 2024, it was announced that the AMAs would move to CBS as part of a package with its rights to broadcast the now DCP-owned Golden Globe Awards. The ceremony remained on hiatus for 2024 (with CBS airing an ABAs 50th anniversary special in October of that year), ahead of a planned return in 2025 with a new May scheduling.
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The AMAs was created by Dick Clark in 1973 to compete with the Grammy Awards after the move of that year's show to Nashville, Tennessee led to CBS (which has broadcast all Grammy Award shows since then) picking up the Grammy telecasts after its first two in 1971 and 1972 were broadcast on ABC. In 2014, American network Telemundo acquired the rights to produce a Spanish-language version of the American Music Awards and launched the Latin American Music Awards in 2015. [3] [4]
Nominations are selected based on commercial performance, such as sales and airplay. Winners have been determined by a poll of the public and fans, who can vote through the AMAs website, while nominations have remained based on sales, airplay, now including activity on social networks, and video viewing. Before 2010, had nominations based only on sales and airplay and nominated every work, even if old. The Grammys have nominations based on vote of the Academy and only nominate a work from their eligibility period that changes often. [5] [6] [7]
The award statuette is manufactured by New York firm Society Awards. [8]
The hosts for the first AMAs were Helen Reddy, Roger Miller, and Smokey Robinson. Reddy not only hosted the show but also became the first artist to win an AMA for Favorite Pop/Rock Female artist. For the first two decades, the AMAs had multiple hosts, each representing a genre of music. For instance, Glen Campbell, who co-hosted the AMAs five times, would host the country portion, while other artists would co-host to represent their genre. In recent years, however, there has been a single host.
In 1991, Keenen Ivory Wayans became the first Hollywood actor to host the AMAs.
From its inception in 1974 through 2003, the AMAs were held in mid- to late-January, but were moved to November (usually the Sunday before Thanksgiving) beginning in late 2003 so it would prevent the ceremony to further compete with other major awards shows (such as the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards) and allows for ABC to have a well-rated awards show during November sweeps.
For the 2008 awards, Jimmy Kimmel hosted for his fifth year, tying with Glen Campbell for the most AMAs hosted or co-hosted. From 2009–2012, there was no host. Instead, the AMAs followed the Grammys' lead in having various celebrities give introductions. However, rapper Pitbull hosted the 2013 ceremony and 2014 ceremony. Jennifer Lopez hosted the 2015 show. [9] Gigi Hadid and Jay Pharoah hosted the 2016 show. Tracee Ellis Ross hosted the show in 2017 and 2018. Ciara hosted the 2019 show. [10]
Between 2012 and 2014, the American Music Awards used the lock screen wallpaper of Samsung Galaxy smartphones rather than envelopes to reveal winners, as part of a sponsorship by Samsung Electronics. A magnetic screen cover on each phone kept the wallpaper image with the winner's name secret until opened. [11]
In August 2018, Dick Clark Productions announced a two-year sponsorship and content partnership with YouTube Music. However, this partnership seemed to have lasted only for the 2018 ceremony, as there was no mention of the YouTube Music partnership in the 2019 show. [12]
In March 2023, it was announced that the Billboard Music Awards, which are also produced by DCP via co-owned Billboard , had been moved from May to the November scheduling that was typically occupied by the American Music Awards, leading to speculation that the AMAs would be discontinued in order to focus on the Billboard Music Awards, or at the very least cancelled for 2023 so it could move to May in its place. It was reported that the broadcast rights for both events (which had been held by NBC and ABC respectively) would also be shopped; the Billboard Music Awards moved to an online only event in November 2023. [13]
In March 2024, it was announced that CBS had acquired the rights to broadcast the AMAs under a multi-year deal of unspecified length. The rights were bundled with CBS's five-year agreement to televise the Golden Globe Awards, whose telecast has historically been produced by DCP, and whose assets had been acquired by DCP in 2023. [14] It was not stated whether the contract is for the same period as the Golden Globes agreement. [15]
The AMAs continued to be on hiatus for 2024, with a return scheduled for May 2025. In lieu of a 2024 ceremony, a televised special honoring the AMAs' 50th anniversary was aired by CBS on October 6, 2024, including performances and retrospectives paying tribute to the ceremony's history and memorable moments. [16] [17]
The record for most American Music Awards won is held by Taylor Swift with 40 awards. [19] The record for most American Music Awards won by a male artist belongs to Michael Jackson, who has collected 26 awards. [20] The record for most American Music Awards won by a group belongs to Alabama, who have collected 18 awards. [21]
Rank | Artist | Number of awards |
---|---|---|
1 | Taylor Swift | 40 |
2 | Michael Jackson | 26 |
3 | Whitney Houston | 22 |
4 | Kenny Rogers | 19 |
5 | Alabama | 18 |
Justin Bieber | ||
6 | Carrie Underwood | 17 |
Garth Brooks | ||
7 | Reba McEntire | 14 |
8 | Rihanna | 13 |
9 | BTS | 12 |
10 | Beyoncé | 11 |
Bruno Mars | ||
Janet Jackson | ||
Stevie Wonder | ||
The record for the most American Music Awards won in a single year is held by Michael Jackson (in 1984) and Whitney Houston (in 1994), each with 8 awards to their credit (including the Award of Merit, with which both artists were honored in the respective years).
The following list shows the artists with most wins in each category, adapted from the AMAs official website. [22]
The American Music Award of Merit has been awarded to thirty two artists, the latest being Sting (2016). [23]
The International Artist Award of Excellence is described as "an award which recognizes artists whose popularity and impact cross national boundaries and is only given when there is a deserving recipient who is worthy of recognition for their accomplishments" and has been awarded to seven artists: [24]
The AMAs' producer Larry Klein stated: "The first-ever Icon Award was created to honor an artist whose body of work has made a profound influence over pop music on a global level." [25]
At the 2014 award ceremony, the Dick Clark Award for Excellence was given for the first time. [26] It was created to recognize "an artist who achieves a groundbreaking feat or creates a landmark work. It is to be bestowed upon someone whose spirit and excellence capture the visionary passion that Dick Clark himself incorporated into everything he did." [27]
In 2000, the year Brooks won the award, the AMAs held a poll to elect the Artist of the Decade for each previous decade of the Rock & Roll era. According to some sources, the result of this poll is not counted in the total of AMAs won by these artists. [31] [32] [33] The results were Elvis Presley (1950s), The Beatles (1960s), Stevie Wonder (1970s), and Michael Jackson (1980s).
Michael Jackson won the Artist of the Century award in the 29th American Music Awards held on January 9, 2002. [34]
Year | Day | Date | Household rating | 18–49 rating | Viewers (in millions) | Ref. | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rating | Share | Rating | Share | |||||
1974 | Tuesday | February 19 | 26.0 | 38 | [35] | |||
1975 | February 18 | 21.3 | 32 | [36] | ||||
1976 | Saturday | January 31 | 20.5 | 39 | [37] | |||
1977 | Monday | January 31 | 24.1 | 36 | [38] | |||
1978 | January 16 | 25.9 | 38 | [39] | ||||
1979 | Friday | January 12 | 22.8 | 35 | [40] | |||
1980 | January 18 | 17.3 | 28 | [41] | ||||
1981 | January 30 | 14.4 | 32 | [42] | ||||
1982 | Monday | January 25 | 21.5 | 32 | [43] | |||
1983 | January 17 | 24.4 | 36 | [44] | ||||
1984 | January 16 | 27.4 | 41 | [45] | ||||
1985 | January 28 | 25.8 | 37 | [46] | ||||
1986 | January 27 | 20.4 | 30 | [47] | ||||
1987 | January 26 | 22.2 | 32 | [47] | ||||
1988 | January 25 | 18.1 | 35 | [47] | ||||
1989 | January 30 | 21.0 | 32 | 33.10 | [48] | |||
1990 | January 22 | 20.0 | 30 | 32.40 | [49] | |||
1991 | January 28 | 20.4 | 31 | 34.40 | [50] | |||
1992 | January 27 | 18.3 | 28 | 29.90 | [51] | |||
1993 | January 25 | 21.6 | 33 | [52] | ||||
1994 | February 7 | 16.0 | 24 | 24.50 | [53] | |||
1995 | January 30 | 15.4 | 23 | 24.50 | [54] | |||
1996 | January 29 | 13.8 | 21 | 21.60 | [55] | |||
1997 | January 27 | 13.2 | 21 | 19.72 | [35] [56] | |||
1998 | January 26 | 12.1 | 19 | 8.1 | 20 | 18.36 | [57] [58] | |
1999 | January 11 | 10.3 | 16 | 15.60 | [59] [60] | |||
2000 | January 17 | 10.4 | 16 | 7.2 | 17 | 16.68 | [61] [62] | |
2001 | January 8 | 10.4 | 16 | 7.3 | 17 | 16.20 | [63] [64] | |
2002 | Wednesday | January 9 | 9.9 | 16 | 7.3 | 18 | 16.02 | [65] [66] |
2003 | Monday | January 13 | 8.4 | 12 | 5.7 | 13 | 12.90 | [66] [67] |
2003 | Sunday | November 16 | 8.1 | 12 | 5.5 | 13 | 12.77 | [61] [66] |
2004 | November 14 | 7.9 | 12 | 5.7 | 13 | 12.90 | [61] [66] | |
2005 | Tuesday | November 22 | 7.4 | 11 | 4.4 | 11 | 11.68 | [61] [66] |
2006 | November 21 | 7.0 | 11 | 4.7 | 13 | 10.85 | [61] [66] | |
2007 | Sunday | November 18 | 7.4 | 11 | 4.8 | 12 | 11.81 | [61] [66] |
2008 | November 23 | 7.3 | 11 | 5.1 | 12 | 12.20 | [61] [66] | |
2009 | November 22 | 8.6 | 14 | 5.5 | 14 | 14.24 | [61] [66] | |
2010 | November 21 | 6.7 | 11 | 4.3 | 10 | 11.72 | [61] [66] | |
2011 | November 20 | 6.8 | 10 | 4.3 | 10 | 12.07 | [61] [66] | |
2012 | November 18 | 5.5 | 8 | 3.4 | 8 | 9.52 | [61] [66] | |
2013 | November 24 | 7.6 | 11 | 4.5 | 11 | 13.14 | [61] [66] | |
2014 | November 23 | 6.6 | 11 | 3.8 | 10 | 11.61 | [61] [66] | |
2015 | November 22 | 6.3 | 10 | 3.5 | 10 | 11.01 | [61] [66] | |
2016 | November 20 | 4.7 | 8 | 2.4 | 7 | 8.18 | [68] | |
2017 | November 19 | 5.2 | 9 | 2.4 | 8 | 9.15 | [69] | |
2018 | Tuesday | October 9 | 4.1 | 8 | 1.8 | 8 | 6.59 | [70] |
2019 | Sunday | November 24 | 3.9 | 8 | 1.7 | 7 | 6.68 | [71] |
2020 | November 22 | 2.4 | 5 | 1.0 | 6 | 4.01 | [72] | |
2021 | November 21 | 1.0 | 7 | 4.01 | [73] | |||
2022 | November 20 | 2.0 | 5 | 0.6 | 5 | 3.53 | [74] [75] |
The Billboard Music Awards are honors given out annually by Billboard, a publication covering the music business and a music popularity chart. The Billboard Music Awards show has been held annually since 1990, with the exception of the years 2007 through 2010. The event was previously staged in December, but has been held in May since returning in 2011. On October 19, 2023, it was announced that the award ceremony will be reformatted as a digital-only show and move from broadcast television to its website and Billboard's social media pages, starting with the 2023 edition on November 19.
The American Music Awards for Favorite Female Artist – Pop/Rock has been awarded since 1974. Years reflect the year in which the awards were presented, for works released in the previous year. The all-time winner in this category is Taylor Swift with seven wins. Mariah Carey is the most nominated female artist with 10 nominations.
The American Music Award for Favorite Duo or Group – Pop/Rock has been awarded since 1974. Years reflect the year in which the awards were presented, for works released in the previous year. The most-awarded artist in this category is BTS. The group claimed the all-time record when they won the award for a fourth consecutive year at the 2022 ceremony. No other act has earned as many consecutive wins.
The American Music Award for Favorite Duo or Group – Country has been awarded since 1974. Years reflect the year in which the awards were presented, for works released in the previous year. The all-time winner in this category is Alabama with 17 wins.
The American Music Award for Favorite Artist – Latin has been awarded since 1998. On the list below, the year reflects the year in which the awards were presented for works released in the previous year. The all-time winner in this category is Enrique Iglesias with 8 wins. He is also the most nominated artist with 12 nominations. For the 48th American Music Awards in 2020, the category was split into Favorite Male Artist – Latin and Favorite Female Artist – Latin in recognition of the increasing popularity of the Latin genre in the US.
The 37th Annual American Music Awards took place on November 22, 2009 at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles, California. The nominees were announced on October 13, 2009. For the first time in history, there was no host for the year's ceremony. Instead, various celebrities introduced the performers similar to the procedure at the Grammy Awards. Taylor Swift won five of six categories she was nominated for. Jay-Z and The Black Eyed Peas both won two awards. Michael Jackson's brother Jermaine Jackson accepted his awards on his behalf.
The American Music Award for Favorite Album – Pop/Rock has been awarded since 1974. Years reflect the year in which the awards were presented, for works released in the previous year. The all-time winner in this category is Taylor Swift with 5 wins. Swift has also received the most number of nominations in this category than any other artist. Justin Bieber and Michael Jackson are tied for the most wins among male artists, with 3 wins each.
The American Music Award for New Artist of the Year has been awarded since 2004. Years reflect the year during which the awards were presented, for works released in the previous year. Previous names of the award include Favorite Breakthrough Artist (2004) and Breakthrough Artist (2005–2010).
The 41st Annual American Music Awards was held on November 24, 2013, at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles. The awards recognized the most popular artists and albums of 2013. It was broadcast live on ABC and CTV with Simultaneous substitution. The nominations were announced on October 10, 2013, by Kelly Clarkson and will.i.am. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis led the nominations with six, followed by Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake with five. The show was hosted by Pitbull.
The American Music Award for Favorite Album – Soul/R&B has been awarded since 1974. Years reflect the year in which the awards were presented, for works released in the previous year. The all-time winner in this category is Michael Jackson with 4 wins. Beyoncé has the most nominations with 7. While the start and end dates for the usage of the category Favorite Black Album are unclear, in 1985 the name was used for the award Prince was given for his album Purple Rain.
The American Music Award for Favorite Artist – Electronic Dance Music has been awarded since 2012. Years reflect the year during which the awards were presented, for works released in the previous year. The all-time winner in this category is Marshmello, Calvin Harris with 3 wins. Harris is the most nominated artist with 6 nominations. In 2020, Lady Gaga became the first woman to be nominated and to win this category.
The Latin American Music Awards is an annual American music awards show produced by TelevisaUnivision. It is the Spanish-language counterpart of the American Music Awards (AMAs). As with AMAs, the Latin AMAs are determined by a poll of the public and music buyers and is produced by SOMOS Productions. The first Latin AMAs debuted on October 8, 2015, on Telemundo and was hosted by Lucero. The awards were not held in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, they resumed a year later.
The 44th Annual American Music Awards took place on November 20, 2016, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. It was broadcast on ABC and was hosted by Gigi Hadid and Jay Pharoah. The 2016 AMAs fell 31% from 2015 among adults 18-49 and 26% among viewers, to 8.2 million watching the show, which was an all-time low in the show's history.
The 45th Annual American Music Awards took place on November 19, 2017, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. It was broadcast on ABC and was hosted by Tracee Ellis Ross.
The American Music Awards for Video of the Year has been awarded since 2016. Years reflect the year in which the awards were presented, for works released in the previous year. In 2019, the award's name became Favorite Music Video.
The 46th Annual American Music Awards were held on October 9, 2018, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. It aired live on ABC and was hosted by Tracee Ellis Ross. Cardi B and Drake led the list of nominations with eight mentions each. Taylor Swift and Camila Cabello were the big winners, with four awards each. The late rapper and singer XXXTentacion won Favorite Soul/R&B album nearly four months after his death. His mother, Cleopatra Bernard, accepted the award.
The 47th Annual American Music Awards were held on November 24, 2019 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, recognizing the most popular artists and albums of 2019. It was broadcast live on ABC, and hosted by Ciara. Taylor Swift received the Artist of the Decade award, and was also the most awarded artist of the night with six wins, becoming the most awarded artist in the award's history with 29 wins and extending her record in the categories of Artist of the Year, Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist and Favorite Pop/Rock Album. Post Malone received the most nominations of any artist with seven nominations, followed by Ariana Grande and first-time nominee Billie Eilish with six nominations each.
The 48th Annual American Music Awards were held on November 22, 2020, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, recognizing the most popular artists and albums of 2020. Nominees were officially announced live on October 26, 2020, on Good Morning America by Dua Lipa. Taylor Swift, the Weeknd, Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber were the most awarded artists with three awards each. Roddy Ricch and the Weeknd were the most nominated artists with eight nominations each, followed by Megan Thee Stallion with five. Taraji P. Henson hosted the ceremony.
The 49th Annual American Music Awards were held on November 21, 2021, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, recognizing the most popular artists, singles and albums of 2021. Cardi B hosted the ceremony, following Queen Latifah (1995) as the only female rappers in history to do so. Cardi B became the first artist to win Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Song three times. BTS, Doja Cat, and Megan Thee Stallion won three awards each.
The 50th Annual American Music Awards were held on November 20, 2022, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, in recognition of the most popular artists, songs, and albums of 2022. Wayne Brady hosted the ceremony, which aired live on ABC and was streamed the next day on Hulu.