American Music Award

American Music Awards

Martina McBride receiving an American Music Award in 2003 for Favorite Country Female Artist
Awarded for Outstanding achievements for American artists in the record industry.
Country United States
Official website http://www.americanmusicawards.com/

The American Music Awards is an annual American music awards show, created in 1972 by Dick Clark in 1973 to compete with the Grammy Awards. Unlike the Grammys, which are awarded on the basis of votes by members of the entertainment industry, the AMAs are determined by a poll of music buyers.

Contents

History and overview

Conception

The AMAs were 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 picking up the Grammy telecasts after its first two in 1971 and 1972 were broadcast on ABC. Michael Jackson and Donny Osmond co-hosted the first award show with Rodney Allen Rippy and Ricky Segall in 1974.

Differences between the AMAs and Grammy Awards

While the Grammy Awards are awarded based on votes by members of the entertainment industry, the AMAs are determined by a poll of music buyers. The American Music Awards have nominations based on sales, airplay, activity on social networks, and video viewing and can nominate only the works released between 1 December of the previous year and 1 September of the current year. 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.[1][2][3]

Favorite Artist of the Year

In 1996, the AMAs instituted a new award, Favorite Artist of the Year, which was awarded to Garth Brooks. Brooks left the award on the podium because he didn't believe in the concept of picking an artist of the year.[4] The category was discontinued.

In 2004,[5][6] the AMAs brought in a new category entitled "T-Mobile Text-In Award", which resembled the Favorite Artist of the Year. The academy chose one artist each from five genres of music (rap, rock, pop, R&B, country) to compete in one category, with the public texting its votes.

Hosts

The first hosts for the first telecast of the AMAs were Helen Reddy, Roger Miller, and Smokey Robinson. Helen Reddy not only hosted the show but also became the first female artist to win an AMA for Favorite Pop/Rock Female artist. For the first decade or so, the AMAs had multiple hosts, each representing a genre of music. For instance, Glen Campbell would host the country portion (Campbell, in fact, has co-hosted the AMAs more times than any other host or co-host), while other artists would co-host to represent his/her genre. In recent years, however, there has been one single host. For the 2008 awards, Jimmy Kimmel hosted for the fourth consecutive year. In 2009, there was no host for the first time in history. Instead, the AMAs followed the Grammys' lead in having various celebrities give introductions.

From its inception in 1973 until 2003, the AMAs have been held in mid- to late-January, but were moved to November beginning in 2003 so as not 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.

Artists that won most awards

The record for most American Music Awards won is held by Michael Jackson, who has amassed twenty-six awards (twenty-four as solo artist), including one for "Artist of the Century," but not the poll of "Artist of the '80s". The most American Music Awards for a group belongs to Alabama who have collected twenty-three awards and for a female artist belongs to Whitney Houston with twenty-two awards.[1][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]

Artists that won the most in a single year

The record for the most American Music Awards won in a single year is held by both 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).

Artist of the Decade (special poll)

In 2000 the AMAs held a poll to elect the Artist of the Decade for each previous decade of the Rock & Roll era. The results were:

According to some sources, the result of this poll is not counted in the total of AMAs won by these artists.[10][11][12]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Taylor Swift, Michael Jackson dominate American Music Awards nominations [UPDATED"]. Los Angeles Times. (October 13, 2009). http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/10/taylor-swift-michael-jackson-dominate-american-music-awards-nominations.html. Retrieved October 14, 2009. 
  2. ^ "Eminem, Bieber outscore Lady Gaga in AMA nods". Reuters. (October 12, 2010). http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69B4TI20101012. Retrieved October 12, 2010. 
  3. ^ Johnson Jr., Billy ((October 12, 2010)). "Lady Gaga Snubbed At American Music Awards Nominations". http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/awards/55159/lady-gaga-snubbed-at-american-music-awards-nominations/. Retrieved October 14, 2010. 
  4. ^ "Brooks ropes 3 American Music Awards". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. (January 30, 1996). http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=edcgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DmsFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1709,2503213&dq=garth+brooks+american+music+awards+artist+of+the+year&hl=en. Retrieved September 22, 2011. 
  5. ^ American Music Awards listing on Fact Monster, retrieved 2009-09-25
  6. ^ Winners at the 32nd annual American Music Awards at USATODAY, retrieved 2009-09-25
  7. ^ "Alabama Wins 23rd AMA Award". CMT. (November 17, 2003). http://www.cmt.com/news/news-in-brief/1480444/alabama-wins-23rd-ama-award.jhtml. Retrieved May 12, 2010. 
  8. ^ "2009 American Music Awards: Scorecard". Los Angeles Times. (November 22, 2009). http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/11/2009-american-music-awards-scorecard.html. Retrieved November 23, 2009. 
  9. ^ "Keys, Destiny's Child, McGraw win at American Music Awards". Lodi News-Sentinel. (January 10, 2002). http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=Oc40AAAAIBAJ&sjid=GyEGAAAAIBAJ&pg=5669,889435&dq=american+music+awards+michael+jackson&hl=en. Retrieved June 16, 2010. 
  10. ^ a b "Lauryn Hill, Backstreet Boys, DMX Honored With American Music Awards". MTV. (January 18, 2000). http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1425174/20000118/backstreet_boys.jhtml. Retrieved June 16, 2010. 
  11. ^ a b "List of American Music Awards winners". Sun Journal. (January 18, 2000). http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=ZMwgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=tmoFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3529,2860414&dq=american+music+awards&hl=en. Retrieved June 16, 2010. 
  12. ^ a b "Santana wins top album honors at American Music Awards". Times Daily. (January 18, 2000). http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=essyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bskEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3817,2301247&dq=american+music+awards&hl=en. Retrieved June 16, 2010. 
  13. ^ Jay Lustig (November 13, 2009). "Whitney Houston to appear live at the American Music Awards". nj.com. http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2009/11/post_39.html. Retrieved November 16, 2009. 

External links