Bruno Mars to Open 2016 American Music Awards
Bruno Mars will open the 2016 American Music Awards show, marking his first performance on the AMA stage. Mars, who won the Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist award in 2011, has scored seven AMA nominations in the past. The singer/songwriter/producer has just scored his latest hit with "24K Magic," which debuted at NO. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, earning Mars his highest debut to date.
The 2015 American Music Awards will be broadcast live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, Nov. 20 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Drake broke a 32-year record for the most AMA nominations with 13 nods, beating Michael Jackson's previous high mark of 11 from 1984. The "Hotline Bling" rapper leads all 2016 American Music Awards nominees with nods in categories including Artist of the Year, Favorite Male Artist, Favorite Album, Favorite Rap Artist, Favorite Rap Song and Favorite R&B song, among others. If he wins in any of the categories it will make his first AMA win.
Rihanna is just behind Drizzy with seven nominations, with Adele and Justin Bieber picking up five nominations each, followed by four nods each for Beyoncé and The Chainsmokers and three for Bryson Tiller, Twenty One Pilots, Carrie Underwood, Fetty Wap and the Weeknd.
Drake will go up against Adele, Beyoncé, Bieber, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Twenty One Pilots, Underwood and The Weeknd for Artist of the Year; the 10 nominees will be narrowed to five based on the votes received through Monday, November 14 at 8:59 a.m. PT. Voting for Artist of the Year will close on Thursday, November 17 at 8:59 p.m. PT.
The winner will be determined by the total votes received throughout the entire voting period. If Bieber wins the award he will tie current record hold Taylor Swift for the most wins (3). With eight past wins and this year's five nominations, Bieber needs just one win to become one of the top 10 AMA winners of all time.
Fans can vote for all category once per day, per platform in one or both of the below ways. For New Artist of the Year Un-leashed by T-Mobile, fans can vote 100 times per day, per platform at AMAvote.com or by posting a tweet that includes the nominee's Twitter handle, the category name and #AMAs within the post(s). The 2016 American Music Awards is produced by dick clark productions. Allen Shapiro and Mike Mahan are executive producers. Larry Klein, Barry Adelman and Mark Bracco are producers.
