BTS, AND TAYLOR SWIFT ARE BIG WINNERS AMERICAIN MUSIC AWARDS

Editor Steve Hart - 22-11- 2021

South Korean K-pop group  BTS were crowned artist of the year at the American Music Awards on Sunday, brushing aside challenges from Taylor Swift, Drake and The Weekend as they took home a total of three awards and teamed up with Coldplay for a raucous "My Universe" and closed the show with "Butter.

BTS  also won artist of the year, becoming the first group to win in that top category since One Direction won back-to-back awards in 2014-15. 

The K-pop group also beat Taylor Swift, who has won six times in the category, more than anyone another act. 

This is only the second time Swift’s has lost  in the category. She previously lost

 to 1D in 2015. BTS also won favorite pop song for “Butter,” which logged 10 weeks

 at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, longer than any other single so far this year. 

That gave BTS three awards on the night, which put them in tie with Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion as the night’s numerical leaders.

Taylor Swift  did win  favorite pop album for a record-setting fourth time, for evermore. She previously won for 1989 (2015), reputation (2018) and Lover (2019). Michael Jackson won three times in the category, as has Justin Bieber.

Taylor Swift also won favorite female pop artist for a record-extending sixth time. Moreover, this is her fourth consecutive win in the category, making her the first woman to win four years in a row in this category. Olivia Newton-John and Whitney Houston each won four times, but not in a row.

These two awards bring Swift’s career tally of AMAs to 34, extending her lead as the artist with the most wins. Jackson is in second place with 26 wins.

Olivia Rodrigo came into the night with a leading seven nominations but only took home the crown for favorite new artist of the year. "Writing songs is my favorite thing in the whole world and I am so grateful for everyone who has embraced my music," she said.

Among live performances, Italian band Måneskin made their U.S. awards show debut with their viral hit "Beggin.'" Chlöe of Chloe x Halle floated down onto the stage to perform her hit debut single as a soloist "Have Mercy," swinging her hair and twerking. Mickey Guyton got loud cheers while singing her patriotic song "All American" in a silvery dress, periodically screaming out "How y'all doing "?".

Becky G won for favorite female Latin artists and thanked the Latinx community. "You are not                       alone," she said. "We are the American dream.

Machine Gun Kelly grabbed the favorite rock artist award. "I want to accept this for all the aspiring musicians, the one who desires to play an instrument, wants to rap, wants to sing - not just the rock artists, but all the artists," he said.

Earlier Sunday, in awards announced before the show, Swift was named favorite female pop artist, Ed Sheeran got the favorite male award and Doja Cat featuring SZA on "Kiss Me More" was named collaboration of the year. Kanye West was named favorite gospel artist.

Underwood won for favorite inspirational artist and favorite female country artist and Doja Cat also won two other awards: favorite female R&B artist and her "Planet Her" was named favorite R&B album.

Luke Bryan was named favorite country artist and Bad Bunny was the favorite male Latin artist. The Weeknd was crowned favorite male R&B artist and Drake won the favorite male hip-hop artist. Gabby Barrett took home the favorite country album for "Goldmine" and favorite country song for "The Good Ones."