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2019 American Music Awards Diary

by Joshua Murray
November 25, 2019
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On Sunday night the 2019 American Music Awards celebrated fan favourites across genres and generations with award presentations, performances, and special moments.

A lot happened between Selena Gomez starting the show and Shania Twain ended it… and I did my best to keep up with a running diary of thoughts and takeaways as I watched the 2019 AMAs. Check them all out now and leave a comment telling us what your favourite moments were from the show.

2019 American Music Awards Running Diary

★ I’ve been a Selena Gomez fan since Wizards Of Waverly Place and Love You Like A Love Song. I wore her t-shirt to Boots & Hearts 2019. All this is to say I was very happy to see her and hear her killing it with talent and pop and truth and vulnerability and performative awesomeness in her opening performance of Lose You To Love Me and Look At Her Now to start the show.

★ I feel like I know all of the artists nominated for these awards and that will be singing on the show. But, I don’t know if I’m qualified to tell you who should have won any of the awards. So I’ll just go with my gut!

★ Ciara knows how to make an entrance!

★ That park scene in Ciara’s performance makes me a little sad that the weather keeps getting colder and I can’t go play on the teeter-totter.

★ The first award of the night is for Alternative Artist. Billie Eilish is the winner and I’ve got no beef with that. How can you have beef with that? Billie’s a bad-ass!

★ Favourite Pop/Rock Song goes to Halsey for Without Me. She’s uber-talented and it’s well deserved. But this speech – she effing killed it with this speech. There are a lot of posts and tweets and people talking about it and they should be. Awards are great, external validation always feels good, but having fans that love your music and loving making your music is the best. The best. Keep at it whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been doing it for years!

★ Oh hai Tyra!

★ LIZZO!!!!!

★ If Lizzo wants to perform theatre – we’ll watch. If she wants to make music for the next 20 years, we’ll listen. If she at some point wants to do both and write a musical and star in it, I’ll remember her performance of Jerome on the AMAs as the moment I thought it was a cool idea.

★ Thomas Rhett is a heck of a performer and Look What God Gave Her is his 13th #1 hit for a reason too. Country music is fortunate to have him.

Related: Thomas Rhett Official Video History

★ Shawn + Camila = STEAMY!!!

★ Dan Levy + Heidi Klum just makes me smile and feel happy!

★ Pop/Rock Album of the Year is… Taylor Swift’s Lover and yes yes yes! T.Swift is still at the top of the game.

Related: Taylor Swift, Lover Album Review

★ It’s no surprise that Taylor is shouting out her new label based on everything that is going on with her old label.

★ Kesha’s performance of Raising Hell and Tik Tok is fun. Just let your hair down and dance and have fun.

★ Kelsea Ballerini loves music. She loves to support artists. Loves being at awards shows. Loves her life. And we love all of it. More Kelsea Ballerini happy/excited reaction GIFs please!

★ How has it been 25 years since Toni Braxton won that 1st AMA? Where did those years go?!

★ Toni Braxton clearly still has it. And Un-Break My Heart is very very very clearly a timeless classic that will have people singing along in crowds and at home and in cars forever.

★ Favourite Country Album is… Carrie Underwood’s Cry Pretty. Her 6th Favourite Country Album award from the AMA.

★ OH AND SURPRISE! Carrie Underwood is also the Favourite Female Country Artist! And you know what, she deserves both of these awards!

★ BTS wins for Tour of the Year. It’s a bummer that they aren’t at the show because we bet LA would have gone BANANAS for them.

★ I said Billie was a bad-ass already, right? Well you can add fan favourite and fan of fire and that she gives no effs. And that we should all be ready for Billie Eilish to be in our lives for a long time!

★ Collaboration of the Year goes to Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello for Señorita and this category is stacked so any of the nominees could have won and I’d have been cool with that. These two are very cute tho!

★ New Artist of the Year could have gone to anyone in this group. Anyone. Like, I’m glad this is fan voted. Congratulations to Billie Eilish!

★ One Halsey is great. Two Halseys (Halsies?) and a great song (Graveyard) and dance and paint and fans singing along in the crowd is great x 10.

★ Please put that painted table up for auction and give the money to charity!!!!

★ Kelsea Ballerini is back!

★ Green Day is here!!! I’m gonna say this again – how has it been 25 years?!

★ Quite happy that Green Day has new music like Father For All… and is still pushing and has their NHL deal and more on the way.

★ The Nirvana tease and smile from Billie Joe is amazing and now here I am singing along to Basket Case, just like I have been for 25 years!

★ Favourite Rap/Hip-Hop goes to… Post Malone for Hollywood’s Bleeding. This dude has got it, everyone knows it, and he’s enjoying every minute of it.

Related: Post Malone at Toronto’s RBC Echo Beach

★ This is random maybe, but can we get Post Malone and Morgan Wallen together for a little something?

★ Billy Porter, you are amazing!

★ Camila performance #2 with Living Proof, here we go. This young woman can sing the hell out of a song.

★ Jonas Brothers, live from Boston to LA to your TV screen. Satellite performances at award shows can feel weird and disconnected sometimes. But if you’re going to do it, do it at a sold out concert and that doesn’t seem to be a problem.

★ I’m not sure we talk enough about how impressive it is that Jonas Brothers have been this good in their comeback. There was always going to be an audience for the hype behind new music, but the fact that it’s good and they’re dynamic and they grew up and aren’t just trying to be who they were in the past is impressive.

★ Carole King presenting Taylor Swift as Artist of the Decade is big. Some of the fans in the crowd may not get it, but it’s BIG when it comes to artistry and respect and real deal validation from a legend.

★ There was a lot of talk leading into this medley about which songs Taylor Swift could/would sing. I am 100% not disappointed with these choices: The Man / Love Story / I Knew You Were Trouble / Blank Space / Shake It Off (with Halsey and Camila Cabello) / Lover.

★ Crowd Thoughts: Watching Billie Eilish smile and clap along to Love Story made my heart happy. Selina Gomez looks like the proudest BFF during this medley. Kesha loves it too. Schitt’s Creek star Sarah Levy is a sing-along star.

★ Ending with piano and strings version of Lover and the amazing ballet talents of Misty Copland and Craig Hall was perfect for this moment and ending this decade of excellence from Taylor Swift.

★ Taylor Swift’s speech was lovely. She’s very good at this. Congratulations to her.

★ Rap/ Hip-Hop Song of the Year goes to Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus for Old Town Road. The positivity that bleeds out of this young man is wonderful.

★ This Christina Aguilera x A Great Big World singing Fall On Me is beautiful. Just a really pretty song and talented performance and I like that.

★ Post Malone is a giant star and him singing Circles and then being joined by Ozzy for Take What You Want is what award show collaborations are made of.

★ Dua Lipa and her dancers are doing this right and I’m into it. Don’t Start Now is a bop!

★ The award for Favourite Country Song goes to Dan + Shay for Speechless. These dudes are on fire and this is a HUGE song. Good for them.

★ And good for Dan + Shay for picking up the award for Favourite Country Duo or Group too.

★ The 2019 American Music Awards Artist of the Year is Taylor Swift. Artist of the Year. Artist of the Decade. Give ‘em all to T. Swift!

★ Once for with Kelsea Ballerini, one of the biggest Shania Twain fans on the planet introducing her Queen.

★ Okay, so here we are with Shania Twain. The Shania Twain. Are you ready? Let’s go girls!

Related: Shania Twain’s Now Tour Rolls Into Edmonton!

★ An acoustic cover medley with a sparkly guitar is the unexpected start that we didn’t know we wanted. But here we are with Post Malone, Taylor Swift, Twenty One Pilots, and Drake done by Shania and I’m into it!

★ Alright, time for the hits! You’re Still The One was a great transition on the acoustic guitar. Good start!

★ And now we’re all the way into the smashes with Any Man Of Mine and I’ve got goosebumps and love this woman and her songs and performances and the crowd singing and the whole dang thing.

★ Oh oh you think you’re special, you think you’re something else, That Don’t Impress Me Much! And friggin’ Post Malone is loving every second of it!

★ LET’S GO GIRLS!

★ More goosebumps. More dancers. More perfection from the Queen of pop country. The Canadian superstar that took over the world and is not ready to cede her thrown.

★ It’s been 16 years since Shania Twain was on stage at the AMAs. It’s been 20 years since Man! I Feel Like A Woman was #1. And all of it feels like yesterday and like it could be the same today.

★ What a way to end the show!!!

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Joshua Murray

creator of content, daddy blogger, writer, coffee drinker, fan of the Batman. proud mo bro. prouder dad.

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Joshua Murray

creator of content, daddy blogger, writer, coffee drinker, fan of the Batman. proud mo bro. prouder dad.

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