5 moments from the American Music Awards

Los Angeles County broke its daily record for Covid-19 cases last week, but preparations for a live broadcast of the 2020 American Music Awards have progressed at the Microsoft Theater. The event, which aired on ABC on Sunday night, was the latest in a handful of music awards shows that have mounted in-person theatrical productions over the past two weeks, including the Country Music Association Awards ( which hardly mentioned the pandemic) and the Latin Grammys (who fully recognized it).

AMAs took the Latin Grammys route: dancers and musicians who weren’t singing wore masks, winners collected their trophies on a table instead of receiving them from the presenters, and the limited audience was relegated to the upper balcony of the theater (while the cardboard cutouts of Beyoncé and Jay-Z had a front row view). But despite all the visible reminders of the pandemic, the winners and presenters had little to say about it or other topical issues. The evening’s sharpest remark was about as sharp as a butter knife: Host Taraji P. Henson berated President Trump, saying, “We’re not doing any recounts,” in reference to votes for the artist of the year.

As the ceremony leaned toward the tame, a handful of performers managed to make a good impression. Here are five of the night’s highlights.

She may be destined to perform in arenas for the rest of her career, but Billie Eilish’s music tends to feel more claustrophobic than expansive. Performing her new single, “Therefore I Am”, Eilish packed her live-wire energy into the narrow halls of an empty but color-lit ensemble reminiscent of a James Turrell installation. His brother and collaborator Finneas was there, dutifully masked and playing bass.

The video for “Therefore I Am” – in which Eilish gallops through an abandoned mall, digging her claws into assorted snacks – smacks of mischief. She brought a similar vibe to AMAs, recklessly taunting the camera following her on stage and demonstrating the deserved confidence of someone whose ways of bending the rules have been rewarded. And after two moderate awards shows – at the Grammys and the Oscars – it was a pleasure to see her redouble her energy.

As last year’s AMAs approached, Taylor Swift’s performance celebrating her Artist of the Decade was clouded by whether she would be allowed to play the hits that won her the title. According to Swift, Scooter Braun, the manager who had just acquired the master recordings of his first six albums, was trying to prevent him from doing so. In the end, Swift performed the songs, but the drama continued, making headlines last week when Braun sold its catalog to investment firm Shamrock Capital.

By accepting this year’s award for artist of the year in a pre-recorded music video, Swift made a point of making reference to the ongoing saga. “The reason I’m not here tonight is that I’m actually re-recording all of my old music in the studio where we originally recorded it,” she says, pointing to her surroundings, apparently a vocal booth with a wall hanging. in zodiac.

In one of the few prerecorded segments that completed the live show, Dua Lipa joined the party from the Royal Albert Hall in London. Typically more comfortable strutting and burning than dancing outright, she brought him a game for a performance of “Levitation”, attempting a more rigorous choreography with the help of a phalanx of reinforcement dancers in leotards. . When the camera moved away from Lipa in the bridge, it seemed like the setup for a change of wardrobe. Instead, it led to the most theatrical moment of the evening: Lipa, now harnessed, ascended into the theatre’s flight space, resulting in a delightfully literal delivery of the song’s final lyrics: “I Levite.

With its flashback performances, the R&B Bell Biv DeVoe outfit had the most fun with the fewest fuss. The trio, which first appeared at the AMAs in 1991, performed in front of a retro slapdash set with jewel-colored blazers and fedoras, weaving their way through renditions of “Do Me!” and “Poison,” from their 1990 debut album. The general vagueness of the performance set the band apart from the other boy group on the night’s lineup, the ever-perfected BTS. But with their unmistakably live vocals, BBD scored points in the authenticity department; their efforts were made all the more endearing by their commitment to thrill a non-existent crowd.

Hip-hop has taken up space.

In recognition of the “undeniable crossover success” of Latin and hip-hop artists, AMAs this year introduced a handful of new categories – a step towards correcting some historical blind spots. The rappers also had significant airtime throughout the night, especially compared to last year when rap’s presence on the AMAs stage began and ended with a Travis Scott cameo. . Megan Thee Stallion made her debut “Body,” from her new album, “Good News” (though the song’s spiciness has been watered down somewhat by network censors). Lil Baby delivered a message on mental health with a performance of “Emotionally Scarred”. And 24kGoldn has teamed up with Iann Dior for a dynamic “mood”.