Adele, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry lead American Music Awards nods
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Who runs the American Music Awards? Girls. Those aren’t the exact lyrics to Beyoncé single ‘Run the World (Girls),’ but it’s a fitting way to summarize the top nominees for the popularity contest that is the annual award show.
Adele, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Taylor Swift dominate the nominees, with the chart-topping Brit racking up four nods and the other pop divas each landing three. The ladies, minus Rihanna, will compete in the big race -- artist of the year -- against the lone male nominee in the field: Lil Wayne.
Ladies also took charge of the favorite pop/rock album category with Adele’s ‘21,’ Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ and Rihanna’s ‘Loud’ going up against one another.
Other races worth watching include former Destiny’s Child bandmates Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland squaring off against Rihanna for favorite soul/R&B female artist; the rap/hip-hop album battle of Nicki Minaj’s ‘Pink Friday,’ Lil Wayne’s ‘Tha Carter IV’ and the heavyweight Kanye West/Jay-Z duo of ‘Watch the Throne’; Justin Bieber, who took the new artist award last year, is now up for favorite pop/rock male against Bruno Mars and Pitbull.
Miguel, Wiz Khalifa, the Band Perry, Marsha Ambrosius, Foster the People, Hot Chelle Rae, LMFAO and Thompson Square are all up for best new artist. The AMAs, much like the MTV Video Music Awards, places a heavy emphasis on performers. Although only Perry and Pitbull have been announced to take the stage, last year’s three-hour show featured a whopping 18 performances.
For the fifth year, winners will be determined by online voting. Unlike the Grammy Awards, in which nominees are selected by peer voting, the AMAs use data from BigChampagne and Mediabase, which places a heavier emphasis on popular artists.
The 2011 American Music Awards will air live from the Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live on Nov. 20 at 8 p.m.
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-- Gerrick D. Kennedy
twitter.com/GerrickKennedy
Photos, from left: Lady Gaga. Credit: Christopher Polk / Getty Images for Clear Channel; Katy Perry. Credit: Victor R. Caivano / Associated Press; Adele. Credit: Kevin Winter / Getty Images.
