Behind the scenes videos show truly lame reality of major award show

News.com.au

28-05-2025

Barely any A-listers, barely any awards, barely any musical performances by anyone who's had a hit this century … there's no denying yesterday's resurrected American Music Awards was a bit lame for viewers.
Turns out, it was even worse for those watching it live.
Once one of the biggest award shows on the American entertainment calendar, yesterday's awards – the first held since 2022 – were marred by no-shows and a bizarre decision not to air most of the major actual awards.
Almost all of the major nominees – Kendrick Lamar, Sabrina Carpenter, Post Malone, Chappell Roan, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and Morgan Wallen – were absent.
That led producers to take drastic action, skipping key awards like Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Artist, lest the night turn into a repetitive string of pre-recorded video messages (especially since Billie Eilish won all three).
What did we get instead? Performances from Gloria Estefan (performing a medley of hits from the mid-to-late 80s), Janet Jackson (singing two 2001-era bops) and an 80-year-old Sir Rod Stewart, closing the entire show with a performance of his 1988 single Forever Young. Uh … sure, why not?
Keeping with the retro theme, Gwen Stefani was one of the night's early performers, singing a mash-up of her early noughties hits The Sweet Escape and Hollaback Girl (with one of her new 'I heart Blake Shelton' country-lite tracks jammed in too, just to make you realise how far the mighty has fallen).
Weird, then, that she didn't walk the red carpet outside the show?
But a behind-the-scenes fan video from inside the arena has exposed why: Stefani's performance was actually pre-recorded, and was shown on a video screen above the darkened stage.
Other BTS videos show Stefani's husband Blake Shelton opted for the same prerecord for his performance (which begs the question, how did it still turn out so terribly?).
They were two of the night's biggest performers, but Mr and Mrs Shelton weren't actually there.
Where did it all go wrong? Only a few short years ago, the AMAs line-up looked very different: The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish were among the performers at the 2020 ceremony, while a year earlier, Taylor Swift bashed out a career-spanning medley of her biggest hits.
Speaking of: There was much buzz among Swifties early yesterday that Swift, who has been keeping an uncharacteristically low profile this year, would break cover and use an appearance at the awards to announce the next entry in her(Taylor's Version) re-record slog.
As the red carpet wore on, with Heidi Montag and Zac Efron's Brother amid the biggest names in attendance, it was clear Swifties' hopes were misplaced.
Seriously – not even Rita Ora was there.
But can we please raise a glass for the AMAs' social media team, vainly trying to drum up some hype in the absence of almost any actual musical A-listers?
'The stars are all here and ready for a night celebrating music!' the AMAs' official social media accounts trumpeted in the minutes before the show began, showing we truly do live in an era of fake news.
In the video they posted as evidence of said 'stars,' he camera panned across a front row filled with … influencers? TikTokers? Seat fillers? … until finally, a bored-looking Sir Rod Stewart came into view, slumped in his seat and visibly questioning his life choices.