[ot-caption title=” The official logo of the American Music Awards. (via, abc.com)”][spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

Amidst the divisiveness following the 2016 election, America needed a celebration of our music and culture to help bring us back together. Every year, the American Music Awards has done just that, honoring prolific artists old and new with performances ranging from today’s high-energy pop hits to touching tributes for musical legends. The 2016 American Music Awards took place on Sunday, November 20th at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. [spacer height=”20px”]

Hosted by model Gigi Hadid and SNL comedian Jay Pharoah, the AMAs featured a prime example of a high energy performance towards the beginning of the show. Ariana Grande had all eyes- and ears- on her as she performed “Side to Side” from her most recent album, Dangerous Woman. The song, which featured self-proclaimed “Queen of Rap” Nicki Minaj, was very reminiscent of Minaj’s memorable performance of “Anaconda” at the 2014 MTV Music Video Awards. The jungle-themed costumes and props set the stage for a wild, tropical take on their reggae-infused dance hit. The provocative choreography and equally suggestive lyrics turned up the heat on stage Sunday night, which the crowd went crazy for. Grande ended up claiming the biggest award that night, Artist of the Year.[spacer height=”20px”]

The AMAs, however, were not only dominated by pop music. Country artists including Tim McGraw and Florida Georgia Line also received awards that night, but it was actually Lady Gaga who stole the show in this genre with her striking performance of “Million Reasons” from her critically acclaimed new album Joanne. Gaga traded in her infamous meat dress from her earlier days and donned a chic white cowgirl hat instead to showcase her incredible versatility and growth as a singer at her first AMAs performance in three years. She then took to the stage barefoot and sat herself on a wooden stool, guitar in hand, to sing in front of a starry backdrop. Her raw, emotional rendition of the folk ballad left the audience in tears, and in awe.[spacer height=”20px”]

For the most part, the Awards went as planned and focused on their purpose: music. This was, of course, with the exception of some brief impressions of our President-elect and First Lady-to-be, but nothing too unexpected until Green Day showed up. The punk rock band has never been one to shy away from getting political, but they shocked the audience on Sunday night when they broke script to denounce Trump on live national television. After performing “Bang Bang” from their twelfth studio album, Revolution Radio, they broke into a cover of Austin punk group MDC’s “Born to Die,” during which they replaced the final lines with chants of “No Trump/No KKK/ No fascist USA.” The audience gave the group a standing ovation and Green Day became a trending topic on Twitter within seconds. Tweeter and president-elect himself Donald Trump did not immediately comment on the show, however. Either way, the 2016 American Music Awards were definitely one to remember.[spacer height=”20px”]

Image source: Wikipedia Commons, ABC.com