If the 40th edition of the American Music Awards, broadcast live on ABC from the Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles, came down to a battle between Justin Bieber and Psy, then it was the South Korean pop sensation who had the last word.
His performance of the chart breaking “Gangnam Style,” featuring MC Hammer, topped off the three-hour kudocast that was originally created by the late Dick Clark and nominally hosted by his protégé, Ryan Seacrest.
But the AMAs are all about the music – radio-friendly and pop-friendly– so hence the lack of any real hosting or much other than announcing of the nominees from a star-studded list of presenters, who clearly were instructed to get right to it.
It was only Bieber’s interplay with presenter Jenny McCarthy, who grabbed him and kissed him as he took home one of his three statuettes for the night– including artist of the year, that broke the all business mode, which allows time for plentiful performances and makes the 180 minutes somehow whiz by.
Some of the sets were even back-to-back, with each performer or band set up using up only half the stage in order to enable that. It was only the monster hit makers, like Taylor Swift performing her new single “I Knew You Were Trouble” and Psy’s perf of “Gangnam” who got the whole stage.
Among the most noteworthy, Linkin Park, No Doubt, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Bieber, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Pink and Carly Rae Jepsen.
And there was the legendary Stevie Wonder with a tribute to Clark as photos of him through the years with other music industry luminaries appeared as the backdrop.
It being the 40th anniversary, the program also utilized vintage clips of performers and winners from past editions like Will Smith and Whitney Houston.
