The 2022 Annual American Music Awards, held on November 20, 2022, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, celebrated the 50th edition of the prominent annual music awards recognising and honouring the most distinguished artists and notable music releases by the fans, for the fans.
A vibrant night of non-stop music, the AMAs featured a powerful lineup featuring first-time collaborations and exclusive world premiere performances from music’s biggest names – from Pop to Rap, R&B to Country, Latin to K-Pop – and more, as well as memorable moments that live on in the pop culture.
Every music aficionado, like us, eagerly awaited the big night after the announcement of nominations on October 13, 2022, holding their breath, hoping their favourite musicians would snag the top categories and take home the awards. After all, they all sacrificed their blood, sweat, and tears to vote recklessly for their favourite contenders to boost their winning odds. No matter who won this year at the biggest fan-voted awards event in the world, we congratulate and honour your vibrant spirits, support and affection for every artist in the play.
Let’s check out what all happened at the biggest musical extravaganza.
American Music Awards 2022: Award Highlights
The 2022 American Music Awards, which were hosted by Wayne Brady, featured a few not-so-surprising wins and a couple of standout performances. However, before we dive in, we have a question. Whose awards show is this, anyway? We bet you already know the answer: It’s Taylor Swift; the 2022’s reigning anti-hero.
The American Music Awards officially became the American Music Awards (Taylor’s Version) when the pop powerhouse Taylor Swift became the top-awarded artist in AMA’s history with her six phenomenal wins this year, sweeping top prizes at almost every award ceremony in 2022. This included: Artist of the Year, Favourite Female Pop Artist, Favourite Pop Album, Favourite Female Country Artist, Favourite Country Album, and Favourite Music Video.
Taylor has won at the AMAs 40 times to date, so it’s no surprise that she is the ultimate queen of modern pop.
Taking to the stage, she showed her gratitude towards her band, fans and friends, the stars of All Too Well: The Short Film, Sadie Sink (Stranger Things) and Dylan O’Brien (Teen Wolf), who portrayed a troubled couple in it, given that the video took home the award for Favorite Music Video.
“In the past few years, I have released more music than I did in the entire decade preceding that, and I really feel like that’s down to the fact you, the fans, made it clear that you wanted to hear lots of music that I would make,” Swift said while accepting artist of the year. “You encouraged me.”
Anitta relished in her magnificence and splendour as she snagged the award for Favorite Female Latin Artist. The fun continued with Dove Cameron winning the New Artist of the Year award, which they dedicated to the queer community. Machine Gun Kelly accepted his trophy for Favorite Rock Artist, and BTS lifted the trophy for Favourite Pop Duo or Group and Favourite K-pop artist.
Moving to Harry Styles who took home his well-deserved win as Favorite Pop Song for “As It Was” — no surprise considering the single was a commercial blockbuster and an immediate success upon its release. It earned the Guinness World Records title for the most streamed track on Spotify within 24 hours by a male artist and broke the Apple Music streaming record for most first-day streams for a 2022 release.
The song also opened atop the Billboard Global 200 with the greatest global streaming week of 2022; spent 15 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 becoming the longest-running US number-one by a UK act; and the fourth longest-running number-one in the charts’ history.
However, the highlight of the evening was Lionel Richie, who received the honour of the Icon Award at the 2022 American Music Awards, which is the most prestigious award at the music gala. The 23-year-old legendary singer, who is already a Rock and roll Hall of Fame Class of 2022 inductee, accepted the AMA Icon Award with great enthusiasm, presented by Smokey Robinson, who joked that he first knew the “Easy” singer as “the guy with the biggest afro in the Commodores.”
“He’s had a solo career second to none… Simply put, there have been few careers that have had as much diversity as Lionel Richie,” said Robinson, 82, who joked that fans often confused the two, and they’d each got used to signing autographs as the other person. With this, Lionel also became the only artist to take the AMAs stage every decade since the show began.
In his beautiful acceptance speech, Richie thanked his family and colleagues and directed straight to the “young superstars” gathered under the roof, saying,
“What I want to say and take this time to do is to talk to the young superstars. God has given you a light. That light is special, that light is only given to a few. When you hear the word ‘hip,’ it means today. When you hear the word ‘inspiring,’ it means forever. If you get a chance to have that light on you, understand what God has in store.”
The fun just didn’t end there as Lionel received a heartfelt and enthralling, musical tribute by the legend Stevie Wonder and Charlie Puth, as they played some of his biggest hits, including “Hello,” “Say You, Say Me,” “All Night Long,” and “Easy,” with such splendour and ease, turning up the fun that made us want to put our dancing shoes on.
American Music Awards 2022: Winners
Check out the complete list of American Music Awards 2022 winners below:
ARTIST OF THE YEAR
- Adele
- Bad Bunny
- Beyoncé
- Drake
- Harry Styles
- WINNER: Taylor Swift
- The Weeknd
NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR
- WINNER: Dove Cameron
- Gayle
- Latto
- Måneskin
- Steve Lacy
COLLABORATION OF THE YEAR
- Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz & Encanto cast, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”
- WINNER: Elton John & Dua Lipa, “Cold Heart — PNAU Remix”
- Future ft. Drake & Tems, “Wait for U”
- Lil Nas X ft. Jack Harlow, “Industry Baby”
- The Kid Laroi & Justin Bieber, “Stay”
FAVORITE TOURING ARTIST
- Bad Bunny
- WINNER: Coldplay
- Ed Sheeran
- Elton John
- The Rolling Stones
FAVORITE MUSIC VIDEO
- Adele, “Easy On Me”
- Bad Bunny ft. Chencho Corleone, “Me Porto Bonito”
- Harry Styles, “As It Was”
- Lil Nas X ft. Jack Harlow, “Industry Baby”
- WINNER: Taylor Swift, “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)”
FAVORITE MALE POP ARTIST
- Bad Bunny
- Drake
- Ed Sheeran
- WINNER: Harry Styles
- The Weeknd
FAVORITE FEMALE POP ARTIST
- Adele
- Beyoncé
- Doja Cat
- Lizzo
- WINNER: Taylor Swift
FAVORITE POP DUO OR GROUP
- WINNER: BTS
- Coldplay
- Imagine Dragons
- Måneskin
- OneRepublic
FAVORITE POP ALBUM
- Adele, 30
- Bad Bunny, Un Verano Sin Ti
- Beyoncé, Renaissance
- Harry Styles, Harry’s House
- WINNER: Taylor Swift, Red (Taylor’s Version)
- The Weeknd, Dawn FM
FAVORITE POP SONG
- Adele, “Easy On Me”
- Carolina Gaitán, Mauro Castillo, Adassa, Rhenzy Feliz, Diane Guerrero, Stephanie Beatriz & Encanto cast, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”
- WINNER: Harry Styles, “As It Was”
- Lizzo, “About Damn Time”
- The Kid Laroi & Justin Bieber, “Stay”
FAVORITE MALE COUNTRY ARTIST
- Chris Stapleton
- Cody Johnson
- Luke Combs
- WINNER: Morgan Wallen
- Walker Hayes
FAVORITE FEMALE COUNTRY ARTIST
- Carrie Underwood
- Lainey Wilson
- Maren Morris
- Miranda Lambert
- WINNER: Taylor Swift
FAVORITE COUNTRY DUO OR GROUP
- WINNER: Dan + Shay
- Lady A
- Old Dominion
- Parmalee
- Zac Brown Band
FAVORITE COUNTRY ALBUM
- Carrie Underwood, Denim & Rhinestones
- Luke Combs, Growin’ Up
- Cody Johnson, Human: The Double Album
- WINNER: Taylor Swift: Red (Taylor’s Version)
- Walker Hayes, Country Stuff: The Album
FAVORITE COUNTRY SONG
- Chris Stapleton, “You Should Probably Leave”
- Cody Johnson, “‘Til You Can’t”
- Dustin Lynch ft. MacKenzie Porter, “Thinking ‘Bout You”
- Jordan Davis ft. Luke Bryan, “Buy Dirt”
- WINNER: Morgan Wallen, “Wasted on You”
FAVORITE MALE HIP-HOP ARTIST
- Drake
- Future
- WINNER: Kendrick Lamar
- Lil Baby
- Lil Durk
FAVORITE FEMALE HIP-HOP ARTIST
- Cardi B
- GloRilla
- Latto
- Megan Thee Stallion
- WINNER: Nicki Minaj
FAVORITE HIP-HOP ALBUM
- Future, I Never Liked You
- Gunna, DS4EVER
- WINNER: Kendrick Lamar, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers
- Lil Durk, 7220
- Polo G, Hall of Fame 2.0
FAVORITE HIP-HOP SONG
- WINNER: Future ft. Drake & Tems, “Wait for U”
- Jack Harlow, “First Class”
- Kodak Black, “Super Gremlin”
- Latto, “Big Energy”
- Lil Nas X ft. Jack Harlow, “Industry Baby”
FAVORITE MALE R&B ARTIST
- Brent Faiyaz
- WINNER: Chris Brown
- GIV?ON
- Lucky Daye
- The Weeknd
FAVORITE FEMALE R&B ARTIST
- WINNER: Beyoncé
- Doja Cat
- Muni Long
- Summer Walker
- SZA
FAVORITE R&B ALBUM
- WINNER: Beyoncé, Renaissance
- Drake, Honestly, Nevermind
- Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars & Anderson .Paak), An Evening With Silk Sonic
- Summer Walker, Still Over It
- The Weeknd, Dawn FM
FAVORITE R&B SONG
- WINNER: Beyoncé, “Break My Soul”
- Muni Long, “Hrs And Hrs”
- Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars & Anderson .Paak), “Smokin Out the Window”
- SZA, “I Hate U”
- Wizkid ft. Tems, “Essence”
FAVORITE MALE LATIN ARTIST
- WINNER: Bad Bunny
- Farruko
- J Balvin
- Jhayco
- Rauw Alejandro
FAVORITE FEMALE LATIN ARTIST
- WINNER: Anitta
- Becky G
- Kali Uchis
- Karol G
- ROSALÍA
FAVORITE LATIN DUO OR GROUP
- Banda MS de Sergio Lizárraga
- Calibre 50
- Eslabon Armado
- Grupo Firme
- WINNER: Yahritza Y Su Esencia
FAVORITE LATIN ALBUM
- WINNER: Bad Bunny, Un Verano Sin Ti
- Farruko, La 167
- J Balvin, Jose
- Rauw Alejandro, Vice Versa
- ROSALÍA, Motomami
FAVORITE LATIN SONG
- Bad Bunny ft. Chencho Corleone, “Me Porto Bonito”
- Becky G x Karol G, “Mamii”
- Karol G, “Provenza”
- Rauw Alejandro, “Todo de Ti”
- WINNER: Sebastián Yatra, “Dos Oruguitas”
FAVORITE ROCK ARTIST
- Imagine Dragons
- WINNER: Machine Gun Kelly
- Måneskin
- Red Hot Chili Peppers
- The Lumineers
FAVORITE ROCK SONG
- Foo Fighters, “Love Dies Young”
- Imagine Dragons x JID, “Enemy”
- Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”
- WINNER: Måneskin, “Beggin'”
- Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Black Summer”
FAVORITE ROCK ALBUM
- Coldplay, Music of the Spheres
- WINNER: Ghost, Impera
- Imagine Dragons, Mercury – Act 1
- Machine Gun Kelly, Mainstream Sellout
- Red Hot Chili Peppers, Unlimited Love
FAVORITE INSPIRATIONAL ARTIST
- Anne Wilson
- WINNER: For King & Country
- Katy Nichole
- Matthew West
- Phil Wickham
FAVORITE GOSPEL ARTIST
- CeCe Winans
- Doe
- E. Dewey Smith
- Maverick City Music
- WINNER: Tamela Mann
FAVORITE DANCE/ELECTRONIC ARTIST
- Diplo
- WINNER: Marshmello
- Swedish House Mafia
- The Chainsmokers
- Tiësto
FAVORITE SOUNDTRACK
- WINNER: Elvis
- Encanto
- Sing 2
- Stranger Things season 4
- Top Gun: Maverick
FAVORITE AFROBEATS ARTIST
- Burna Boy
- CKay
- Fireboy DML
- Tems
- WINNER: Wizkid
FAVORITE K-POP ARTIST
- Blackpink
- WINNER: BTS
- Seventeen
- Tomorrow x Together
- Twice
Did your favourite artists win this year?! Share your thoughts with us on Twitter at @CelebMix!
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