The 2016 American Music Awards (AMA) brought in a lot of outstanding performances and of course, gave away trophies to the deserving winners in the music industry.
Drake, who has skipped his fair share of award shows in recent years, was by far the biggest winner for the night. The “Hotline Bling” hit maker made a record for having 13 nominations breaking Michael Jackson’s record and won his first ever AMA.
The “Controlla” singer won four awards and even debuted a new commercial for Apple Music with him singing to Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” while working out.
The rapper won favorite rap/hip-hop artists and favorite album for “Views.” He also took home the Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop song for “Hotline Bling” and Favorite Soul/R&B Song for “Work,” which he shared with Rihanna.
Rihanna also brought home two awards including the Favorite Soul/R&B for “Anti” and Favorite Soul and R&B Female Artist Award.
The awards ceremony held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles over the weekend was opened by Bruno Mars’ performance of “24K Magic” as part of his latest album. The singer dropped his third studio album two days before the awards ceremony.
Lady Gaga, Sting, Green Day, and The Weeknd also took the stage to perform and promote their respective new albums. Green Day even took the opportunity to air out their grievances on Donald Trump’s presidential win.
Former “Saturday Night Live” comic Jay Pharoah and model Gigi Hadid hosted the show with Pharoah getting nods for impersonating Drake, Jay Z, and Kanye West, while Hadid drew mixed reactions for impersonating Melania Trump.
One Direction’s Niall Horan slowed things down with his performance of his hit “This Town,” as well as James Bay with “Let it Go” and Shawn Mendes singing “Treat You Better” and “Mercy.”
Fifth Harmony, who won collaboration of the year for “Work From Home” with rapper Ty Dolla $sign performed their winning hit.
The girl group’s appearance comes after member Lauren Jarauegi came out as bisexual. The other members have expressed their support and love for Lauren after admitting her sexuality.
Other performers for the night included Maroon 5, DJ Khaled, Future, Rick Ross, August Alsina, and Justin Bieber who performed remotely in Italy as he is in the midst of the Europe leg of his Purpose World Tour.
Ariana Grande also had a big night as she had a steamy performance with Nicki Minaj of their duet “Side to Side.” The 23-year-old singer also bagged the most coveted award of the night, the Artist of the Year award.
The two first performed the song live during this year’s Video Music Awards and is part of Grande’s third album “Dangerous Woman.” The song is Ari and Nicki’s third collaboration following “Bang Bang” and “Get on your Knees.”
Ari competed with Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Carrie Underwood, and Selena Gomez for the last award given that night. On her speech, she thanked her fans, family and everyone involved in her album.
Speaking of Gomez, despite losing to Grande, she instead won the Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist award and gave a very emotional speech.
The former Disney channel star finally addressed the issue of her hiatus saying that she needed to stop despite having everything. She says that she wanted to be honest with her fans in order to be honest with herself as well.
The “Good For You” singer was in near tears when she admitted that she was broken and needed some time off to heal. She also encouraged everyone feeling the same way to speak out and do something about it.