Silk Sonic kicks off American Music Awards on a funky note

NEW YORK – Silk Sonic’s Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak kicked off the American Music Awards on Sunday on a funky R&B pre-recorded note with their “Smokin Out the Window” and host Cardi B in a headdress. fur got the crowd going, admitting she was sweating.

“I’m a little nervous,” the host said after listing all the performances scheduled. “We’re going to celebrate everyone. Billy Porter presented the top live award, favorite Latin album, which went to Bad Bunny’s “El Último Tour Del Mundo”.

All eyes were on Olivia Rodrigo’s ability to turn her album “Sour” into something very sweet. She entered the evening as the main nominee with nods for Artist of the Year and New Artist of the Year.

The Disney actor and singer-songwriter has seven nominations, beating five-time winner The Weeknd with six. He will also face Rodrigo in the Artist of the Year category with BTS, Ariana Grande, Drake and Taylor Swift.

The fan-voted awards show was broadcast live from Los Angeles on ABC. The nominees were based on streaming, album and digital sales, radio broadcast and social activity, and reflect the period September 25, 2020 to September 23, 2021.

Earlier Sunday, in pre-show awards announced, Taylor Swift was named Favorite Female Pop Artist, Ed Sheeran received Favorite Male Award and Doja Cat with SZA on “Kiss Me More” was named Collaboration of the Year. Kanye West has been named Favorite Gospel Artist.

Carrie Underwood won the award for Favorite Inspirational Artist and Favorite Female Country Artist, Megan Thee Stallion was named Favorite Female Hip-Hop Artist and her “Good News” won the Hip-Hop Album Award prefer. Doja Cat also won two other awards: Favorite Female R&B Artist and her “Planet Her” was named Favorite R&B Album.

Luke Bryan was named Favorite Country Artist, Bad Bunny was Favorite Male Latin Artist, The Weeknd was Favorite R&B Male Artist, and Drake won the Favorite Male Hip-Hop Artist Award. Gabby Barrett won Favorite Country Album for “Goldmine” and Favorite Country Song for “The Good Ones”.

The telecast highlights will include Underwood and Jason Aldean singing their duet “If I Didn’t Love You”, Kane Brown performing “One Mississippi” from Tennessee State University and New Edition and New Kids on the Block will perform together for the first time .

A previous scheduled performance of “Butter” by the joint forces of BTS and Megan Thee Stallion was dropped after the rapper cited personal reasons for dropping out on Saturday; Coldplay and BTS will sing their hit “My Universe” instead.

Other performers include Jennifer Lopez, Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak. joining forces as Silk Sonic, Bad Bunny, Diplo, Mickey Guyton and Tyler, The Creator. Eurovision-winning Italian rock band Måneskin will make their debut at an awards ceremony in the United States.

Reggaeton star Bad Bunny, R&B newcomer Giveon and Doja Cat each have five nominations each. In the New Artist of the Year category, Rodrigo joins Giveon, 24KGoldn, Masked Wolf and The Kid LAROI.

Swift, who currently holds the record for most awarded artist in AMA history at 33, could extend her streak even further. She is nominated for two other awards – artist of the year and favorite pop album for “evermore”.

AMAs have added new categories this year including Favorite Trending Song, Favorite Gospel Artist, and Favorite Latin Duo or Group.

Rapper Pop Smoke, who was killed in 2020, is nominated in three categories, including Favorite Hip-Hop Album and Favorite Hip-Hop Artist, and could take his first prize posthumously.

If Rodrigo wins the majority of the awards she’s nominated for, that would put her in good company. Olivia Newton-John and Justin Bieber are tied for four awards won in their first year of nomination.

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Mark Kennedy is on http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits