2020 American Music Awards: Must-See Viral Moments

It was a show unlike any other “American Music Awards” in history, but even a worldwide pandemic couldn’t stop the stars from coming together to celebrate the year’s most memorable music.

Taraji P. Henson took the reins of the socially-distant show with a sparse live audience and winners and performances coming in from all around the world, including a show-stopping medley of hits to kick off the show by Justin Bieber, with special guest Shawn Mendes.

Other artists who took the stage included Katy Perry & Darius Rucker, The Weeknd & Kenny G, Megan Thee Stallion, Billie Eilish, Nelly, Jennifer Lopez & Maluma, Bebe Rexha & Doja Cat, Dua Lipa, Lewis Capaldi, Machine Gun Kelly & Travis Barker, Dan + Shay, BTS and Bell Biv DeVoe.

It was a three-hour extravagance packed with memorable moments, musical and otherwise, and we’ve got all the ones that took social media by storm right here!

And you can check out all the best fashion moments in the gallery at the bottom.

Just days after dropping their highly-anticipated duet video, “Monster,” Shawn Mendes joined Justin Bieber live on stage as part of a medley of Justin’s new reflective music. The pair sounded incredible as they again took to a makeshift pedestal to make a statement about how young fame can turn.

Fans were eating up the whole performance, and got Shawn trending again later in the broadcast when he came back for a raw, stripped-down performance of “Wonder.”

These pop stars are getting introspective and their fans are definitely here for it. It helps that they both sounded amazing, with Shawn soaring to new heights when he got his own chance to shine solo with a performance cleverly staged like a music video inside the theater.

Circumventing the traditional monologue (at least for a bit), host Taraji P. Henson brought the dance party instead. On a stage filled with dancers of all shapes and sizes, the former “Empire” star took on the likes of Megan Thee Stallion, Prince and Cardi B for a family-friendly–

Well, actually, that was the problem. And the reason she finally stopped the fun. As “WAP” brought out the raunch in her dancers, Taraji suddenly started shutting the whole thing down, hilariously shouting and shooing her dancers.

“Get up, put that away!” she shouted at one dancer who’d found herselves in a twerk-friendly, but otherwise compromised position. As they ran, she continued. “Y’all about to make me lose my job. This is family TV!”

“I’m happy to be here,” she said after settling down, and getting somewhat redressed.

“I’m just happy to be off the couch and in some real fashion,” she continued. “And deodorant, which expired.”

Fans were divided by Taraji’s unexpected dance party with some poking fun at her amateur moves, while others absolutely had her back and were here for it. After all, couldn’t we all use a dance party these days?

While fans have gotten used to seeing The Weeknd’s battered face throughout his various public performances this year, he took his visual presentation to the next level.

First coming out to accept an award with his face bandaged up like he’d just been in a head-on collision, the R&B star kept the look as he hit the streets of Los Angeles for a powerful performance with Kenny G and fans were eating it up — and cracking up.

He kept the look going throughout the show as the evening’s most nominated artist returned to the stage again and again to pick up different awards. While his face may not have showed it, he had a very good night.

Our favorite, though, were those speculating just how far he was going to take this injured motif if it continues into 2021 It’s certainly representative of how this year has many of us feeling.

As Latin music continues to explode in a major way, the American Music Awards responded by expanding their categories to acknowledge its growing influence and presence in popular music.

As such, Becky G had the honor of being the first-ever recipient of the AMA for Favorite Female Artist – Latin, and it was not an honor she took lightly, thanking the “immigrant workers in this pandemic, the students, and immigrant families.”

She also gave a shout-out to her own immigrant grandparents and touted that she “proudly waves both flags, Mexican and American,” celebrating her dual heritage.

Taylor Swift had a double treat as she became an AMAs triple threat after winning Artist of the Year for the third year in a row, along with two other trophies. She is the first to have secured the top honor six times, and most-awarded career winner with 32 total trophies. So far.

But it’s what she said while accepting that award that really got fans excited, even as they knew it was happening.

“The reason I’m not there tonight is I’m actually re-recording all my old music in the studio where we originally recorded it,” she said during her acceptance speech. “So it’s been amazing and I can’t wait for you to hear it.”

Fans have been waiting with anticipation for Taylor to re-release her earliest albums ever since her masters were sold, starting a very public feud with Scooter Braun, who initially acquired them and then subsequently sold them.

Regardless of who owns them, Swift has determined she will own all of her own music simply by re-recording those albums, promising some new treats for her fans along the way. Finding out that she is diligently hard at that work created an eruption of cheers from the audience, as well as online excitement.

Taraji P. Henson cut her own lines during a live broadcast when she started joking that BTS could “get it,” before worrying that they may not be old enough and it was awkwardly hilarious.

“Can we cut that,” she said, looking off to the side as if she’d forgotten this was a live broadcast. If she didn’t realize this was going out live, perhaps we should all be grateful she didn’t say anything even more shocking throughout the night.

Also, for the record, they’re all plenty old enough, ranging in age from 23 to 27 years old, so the line was ridiculous regardless … especially if it was scripted. If not, then maybe Henson just didn’t know and decided to back out before she dug a hole to big to climb out of.

Considering she pronounced Lewis Capaldi’s name “Lewis Cabaldi” earlier in the broadcast, would just chalk this up to Henson not being familiar with some of these artists. But it didn’t stop Twitter from cracking up over the faux pas.

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