On the American Music Awards

On 22nd Los Angeles witnessed the American Music Awards aka the AMAs. There was a score of performances; some were just brilliant, other were watchable and then there were some which were a complete mess from the moment they started. 

The night opened with Janet Jackson performing a medley of her hits, including the newly released single 'Make Me'.

For her age, she did a remarkable job. I won't be saying it was the best of the night, but for a show-starter it was good enough. The choreography was on the part of her friend and the ex-American Idol judge, Paula Abdul.

Next one to take the stage was on of my all time favorite bands, Daughtry. Yup! That's right!

Frontman Chris Daughtry never fails to impress me. They sang one of my favorites, 'Life After You' from their sophomore effort Leave This Town. It is also their second single. I have featured the video on the side-bar, do check it out!

It was a rock solid performance and definitely one of the better ones of the night. I'm liking their sophomore effort alot more than their debut, the songs are more hard-hitting on a comparatively and lyrically pretty darn good.

After Daughtry, we have the Latin Diva Shakira shake her stuff on stage. I have never been a fan of Shakira, expect for the time she collaborated with Beyonce on 'Beautiful Liars'. I'm sure you must have seen the video, the song made history by jumping from #98 to #1 within a week. Coming back to Shakira, she released her new album She Wolf last month and so far she's put out two singles. Both of them are doing really good on the charts. Here she performed the joint effort of Lil Wayne, without him though(Thank God!). Plus she was looking smoking hot! :D

I'm still not a fan of the song, but the choreography is simply mind-blowing. That is one thing you can definitely count on Shakira for. The only one who could out-shake her is Beyonce, who unfortunately wasn't present on the night. But on a side-note, she did win the award for Favorite female R&B artist and announced that she will be releasing her new album sometime in 2010.

Next one up was the Country heart-throb, Keith Urban. He performed his chart-topping hit, 'Kiss A Girl'. To all the guys reading this, you need to check out this song. It's one of the most catchy country songs I've ever heard. And the fact that Urban is one of the best live performers ever just sweetens the deal alot more.

And I'm totally grooving to his finger-work! If only I could play a guitar that well! 

Keith Urban took the award for Favorite Country Male Artist. That has got to count for something. Enjoy!

Next one up is my all-time favorite pop rock female artist. Any guesses?

If any of you thought Kelly Clarkson, you are SO right! 10 points for knowing me so well!

Clarkson performed one of the best songs to be released in 2009, 'Already Gone'. I have been a fan of this song ever since I heard it for the first time back in March 2009, and it is still going strong on my personal play list. I've read quite a few comments on the complete mess she's looking like and I have to say, if you can sing like that you don't need to be all glammed up. I'm loving her completely!

How can anybody care about how she looks when she sings like that?! Uh-mazing!

Next up were two immensely talented African-American artists of the present time, Alicia Keys and Jay-Z. I have never been a fan of rapping. The only rapper I listen to is my cousin back in States, but that's cause I enjoy his funny take on rapping. 

Anyhow coming back to the AMAs, Jay-Z collaborations are pretty darn good. Pair him up with the vocal greatness of Alicia Keys, how can you not have a crowd-pleasing performance?!

The two presented 'Empire State of Mind' from Jay-Z's new album, Blue Print 3. Enjoy!

Next up was the winner of Best Pop/Rock Band, Group or Duo. Yup, I'm talking about none other than the Black Eyed Peas. I love how they came from underground. I know it's an age-old trick, but this entrance always sends chill down my spine. I've been a long time fan of Fergie! And any red-blooded male would also be!

This latin spice is just too hot and ever since she went brunette all over the world, she's just doubled her fierceness. People say Megan Fox is a hottie. I tell them to take a good look at Fergie and then say the same! The BEP start off with their new single, 'Meet Me Halfway' and about half-way into the performance they break out into their world-wide hit, 'Boom Boom Pow'.

I love Taboo working the crowd! I love Fergie shaking her stuff! On a side not, the BEP did not lip-sync. There is something wrong with the youtube video and I can't find a better one! Sorry!

Next up is the first disaster of the night and a very un-expected one at that. I'm talking about Rihanna! But given everything she has decided to do lately, it wasn't a big surprise that she fell through! The awful blonde hair, the new singles, the video direction! She's is totally off her game!

What was even worse was that the starting video had me expecting so much. But that was the only good part of the whole performance. Fortunately the next performance saved the momento of the show. 

Carrie Underwood took the stage next and performed the Country Chart-topper 'Cowboy Casanova' from her third album Play On. Awesome album, by the way!

Carrie appeared a bit more skimpier than I would have liked her to dress. She's a great singer and really doesn't need to sell herself with her skin. But then I agree that this song isn't a typical country number. Nevertheless, she delivers a very solid performance. Completely knocks Rihanna out of the park!

Now the performance I'm going to putting up is the best of the lot! This performance should have been the one to end the night. It's creative! It's dramatic! It's original! It's crazy! It's the one and the only! It's GaGa!

There is a reason she's the talk every where! And this is exactly why! No performance up till now was fused with this much soul! It's absolutely brilliant! The head-dress, the exo-skeleton, the dancing, the paino placed on a podium and let's not forget the flaming piano!

I loved it when she broke the glass bottles! She's simply amazing! Even before I had seen the video, I knew Gaga would be having the best of the night! And she did! She's out-pazzed everyone! And I mean, everyone! In case your wondering, the song are 'Bad Romance'' and 'Speechless' from her new album Fame Monster which was released just yesterday, that is November 23rd.

Next up we have the vocal powerhouse I have loved alot, Mary J. Blige.

This was a nice performance. She performed 'I Am' from her new album which is out sometime in December. I am no fan of this song but for some reason I liked it when she performed it. Not one of the great ones but definitely one of the good ones. Do check her out!

Next up is the another latin diva, any guesses?

C'mon, guys! This one is so easy! There are just three after all! Shakira, Fergie and J. Lo! And she did a great job with her very fresh single Louboutins, it's from her new album which will be released sometime in January 2010. It's a great song and I loved her performance. Her energy is remarkable and here's something really remarkable that happened during the performance. Let's see if you can spot it in the video.

Yup! She fell during the performance! But even then look at how composed she stayed! It was like that fall was meant to be! She kept going on strong! Go J. Lo! Oh and I'm totally crazy about this song! I can't wait for it's video to premiere.

Then we had Whitney Houston take the stage. She also won the International Artist of the Year. Ho hum!

Nothing really amazing happened here! I'm sorry but Whitney doesn't seem to have it in her anymore! After the number of stunning performances she gave, this one embarrasses her! But I won't be surprised if she wins a Grammy for her album the coming year!

C'mon, it's Whitney we're talking about here!

Alicia Keys comes on the stage again, this time she's got dancers! And she's singing her latest single 'Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart' from her new album out in December Element of Freedom. A truly awesome song! And it's Alicia Keys! Hullo?!

You can literally count on her to give the right stuff! And she does!

I loved this performance, especially how she ended it! Being a really quiet person in general, she usually doesn't put on much of a show! But this time she took a risk and it paid off extremely well. Great going!

No Award Night in complete without a performance filled with censor mutes! This time around we have Eminem along with Dr. Dre and Slim Shady.

They performed 'Crack A Bottle' and 'Forever'. It's actually enjoyable for about the first two minutes after which it just breaks down into insane swearing, which means insane censoring and hence a completely waste of a performance. Where is Kanye when you need him?!

I so needed something to cheer me up after the huge waste Eminem ft. Censor Squad made us watch on the night. Timbaland was just the thing, the doctor advised. He was accompanied by his very recent discovery, the french artist SoShy and the very gorgeous mama, Nelly Furtado!

Loved it! And you have an actual french woman in there! How can you not love this?! A catchy song! Beautiful ladies! This is just perfect! Do check this on out!

The night was seriously lacking on the part of rockers. The only rock artist to make an appearance for till now was Daughtry. And he too appeared sometime in the beginning of the show!

The night was majorly littered with pop and R&B performances, with the occasional country twangs. But Green Day gave the rock enthusiasts something to be happy about. Performing their latest single, '21 Guns' Green Day converted me once again to give another of their album a hearings. You can check out their performance here.

Green Day also took the award for the Best Alternative Rock Artist. Other contenders were Kings of Leon and Shinedown. I have no idea about the latter but Kings of Leon are pretty darn good. Do check out their track 'Use Somebody'. It's really awesome!

Lastly we have the most anticipated performance of the night. For those keeping track of the event and having memorized the names of all the performers (Like me) knew that the only remaining name one of the roster was of Adam Lambert.

Now this decision completely shocked me! The last performance is usually given to someone who's really big! Adam is no doubt a star but there were far bigger and better names to end the night with. Whatever happened to Lady GaGa, J. Lo, Green Day, BEP?!

There are so many that could have done this job and done it so much better!

I don't know where to begin in pointing the wrong-doings and mishaps that happened. Let me start with the crotch rubbing, crotch-punching, the tumble, the dry humping, the horrible high-notes, in-appropriate feeling-up and the very force-ful kiss!

Don't get me wrong! I know I'm no Glambert! But I really wanted him to have a good if not great performance because I really like this song and it was the closing act! But this was just a mess! Everything was so ridiculous and so over-done! 

But then it wasn't entirely his fault! Giving a new emerging artist the pimp-spot is just plain stupid! But then again I think that this way people would sit through the entire show and they would get more air-time! Aah, the drama of media and markey continues. And poor Adam was caught darn smack in the middle! 

I really hope his future LIVE! performances are alot better! 

 And yeah, one more thing that had me wondering. How in the world did Taylor Swift take home 5, that's right 5; F-I-V-E, AMAs! How in the world did she beat artist like Lady Gaga, Carrie Underwood, Beyonce, Jason Mraz, Eminem and Michael Jackson?!

Once again, she's not that great! She is not that great! Lord, this is so frustrating! But at least she didn't perform. She did everyone a huge perform by being in London on the night of the AMAs. Yup, she did! 

Hope you liked my take on the AMAs. See you on Grammys! 
All the videos have been removed by some company titled 'Dick Clark Production' and in my opinion, the first name says it all! There is not a single video left of ANY of last night's performances?! 
Sorry guys, you would just be able to read all the happenings! 

Copyright © Saad Khan 2009 (Karachi, Pakistan; saadkhalidkhan@gmail.com)