It was a night: highlights from Swift to Eilish
Taylor Swift, who dominated headlines before the 2019 American Music Awards, also dominated the show. Coincidence? Probably not! Either way, the AMAs belonged to Swift on Sunday night, as she won a whopping six trophies — including artist of the decade — and subsequently broke the record for the most AMAs of all time. (Michael Jackson was the previous record-holder with 24; Swift now has 29.)
There was no mention of Swift’s highly publicized battle with Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, the owner and president, respectively, of her former record label, Big Machine Label Group.
Last week, the pop superstar alleged that the executives were trying to block her from performing her older songs on the AMAs (for a medley of her decade of hits), which subsequently led to days of online chaos.
1. Taylor Swift’s speech and medley.
Swift loves a good coded message or veiled reference or symbol. Sometimes they’re more obvious, such as when she won pop/rock album for “Lover,” and told everyone how happy she is at her new home that is not Big Machine. “This album felt like a new beginning. And I also really love my record label, Universal and Republic,” Swift said. “Monte Lipman, Lucien Grainge, thank you for being so generous to me and allowing me to make whatever music I want to make.”
In her note to fans about Braun and Borchetta last week, Swift referred to the pair as “men who are exercising tyrannical control” and said she felt they were telling her to “be a good little girl and shut up.” It was no surprise she pointedly started her artist of the decade medley with “The Man,” a track from her new album that takes aim at gender double standards.
2. Billie Eilish’s message.
“Earlier this year my album ‘Igor’ was the No. 1 album in the country. And then this 17-yearold girl who dressed like a quarterback decided to change that,” Tyler, the Creator, said by way of introducing Billie Eilish, who won new artist and alternative rock artist.
Cut to: Eilish’s literally fiery performance of “All the Good Girls Go to Hell,” which looked like the everything was going up in flames — and made even more sense once you saw the message on her T-shirt, which read “NO MUSIC ON A DEAD PLANET.” No surprise she’s already one of the highest-profile Gen Z voices sounding the alarm about climate change.
3. Lizzo’s performance.
For most televised performances so far, Lizzo has gone with the surefire audience favourites, “Truth Hurts” or “Good As Hell” or “Juice.” But she changed things up for the AMAs, as she belted out the ballad “Jerome.”
4. Halsey’s (possible) Grammys shade.
Did Halsey take a dig at her lack of Grammy nominations last week?! We may never really know — but that was the assumption on social media after the pop star won for pop/rock song for “Without Me,” and gave a long speech about how she used to care so much about award show trophies, until she grew up and realized they aren’t true validation. “I am so thankful to the AMAs, because they’re the world’s largest fanvoted awards show ...”
5. Post Malone’s dancing.
Post Malone won rap album and had quite the performance with Ozzy Osbourne, Travis
Scott and Watt for the televised debut of their new collaboration, “Take What You Want.” What made the rounds online? His extremely enthusiastic reaction to Shania Twain’s medley.
6. Shania Twain’s medley.
Speaking of the country-pop legend, she has a new Las Vegas residency to promote, so she closed out the AMAs with her greatest hits: “You’re Still the One,” “Every Man of Mine,” “That Don’t Impress Me Much” and “Man! I Feel Like a Woman.” The audience went crazy, even as she opened with an acoustic guitar medley of popular tunes from Swift, Post
Malone, Twenty-One Pilots and Drake. Random? Absolutely. But it was Shania, so she made it work.
7. Camila Cabello’s big night.
The only artist to get more screentime than Swift? It certainly felt like Cabello, who got two performance slots: one for her new song, “Living Proof,” and another to duet with her boyfriend, Shawn Mendes, on their hit “Señorita,” which also won collaboration of the year.
8. Green Day’s anniversary.
Green Day’s smash album “Dookie” turns 25 this year, and to celebrate, they got to play “Basket Case” and their new single, “Father of All,” at the AMAs. Billie Eilish, born years after that album was released, was psyched to introduce the group before their performance: “Growing up, there was no band more important to me or my brother,” she explained.
9. Ciara’s multi-tasking.
After a high-energy rendition of “Melanin,” Ciara, who hosted the show, asked her adorable small children in the audience for their thoughts.
“How did I do?” she asked her son, age 5.
“YOU DID GOOD!” he yelled. Ciara turned to her daughter, age 2. “How did Mommy do?” “GOOD!” she declared.
“Aww, thank you so much, my babies,” Ciara exclaimed, and turned to the audience: “I’m here to tell you that women can do it all.”
10. Lil Nas X’s big year continues.
After a win at the Country Music Association Awards and six Grammy Award nominations this month, Lil Nas X continued his victory lap with a win for rap/hip-hop song for “Old Town Road,” the game-changing TikTok meme turned gigantic hit. He accepted the prize while wearing an excellent green suit with a very earnest speech.
“I don’t want to get too deep,” he said. “But I want to say whether you’re 15, 30, 55, or whatever, and you feel like your moment has passed — know that it’s waiting for you, you know?”