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It’s the 2011 American Exists For Promotion Purposes Only Music Awards live blog!! Featuring performances by Kelly Clarkson and Chris Daughtry with televised appearances by Jennifer Hudson and Adam Lambert and bonus red carpet appearances by James Durbin and Stefano Langone! Check out pictures from the red carpet and show plus live commentary here.

Although no Idols are nominated this year, reality show judges are represented in the nominations. Idol judge Jennifer Lopez (also performing tonight) is nominated for Favorite Latin Artist and Voice judges Adam Levine (as the lead singer of Maroon 5 (also performing) and Blake Shelton are nominated for Favorite Band/Group/Duo -Pop/Rock and Favorite Male Artist-Country respectively. Matthew Morrison of Glee will also present. For a full list of performers and presenters, check out this post.

So, come on in and join the discussion!

Disclaimer: The opinions in this live blog reflect those of the author only and not of management/ownership. And, the views expressed may be snarky. Like, “it’s all in good fun” snarky and not “my fave is superior to your fave” snarky. Unless your fave happens to be Luke Bryan singing “Country Girl Shake It For Me”. That’s not scheduled to happen tonight, but if it does then I will not be held responsible for what I do or say. Just so you know.

Update 32: That does it for the show! We survived!! The next big US musical event will be the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade which will have about as much live singing as tonight’s AMAs did.

Update 31: Long drawn out introduction for the last performance of the night (mercy!): LMFAO They start with “Party Rock Anthem” and that 1 guy to the left of the lead singer looks like Weird Al Yankovic. That’s really who this performance needs. But no, we get the Biebs dancing instead. And then these people are stripping which is an even bigger pile of DNW than them performing this song. And just when you thought it was safe, David Hasselhoff joins the performance. And Will.i.am, because that poor thing just doesn’t get enough time on TV. And…..the credits are rolling.

Update 30: Lionel Richie and Vanessa Lachey present AMA Artist Of The Year to Taylor Swift. But not before Lionel Richie has to beg people to stay in their seats? Taylor should’ve just kept her mouth hanging from the last time she walked up there. No really, this is a completely fresh and spontaneous reaction. She doesn’t want her fans to change. I think she should want her fans to “never grow up” (see what I did there?) ;) She thanks the fans over and over again, and also Selena Gomez.

Update 29: Adele wins Favorite Pop/Rock Album for 21.! Jenny McCarthy threatens to sing her whole song. OK, that was actually funny. Get well soon Adele!!

Update 28: Jenny McCarthy pimps Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin Eve show. Will.i.am will be there. Oh good because you just never see him anywhere anymore. He debuts his new single featuring Jennifer Lopez and a digital version of Mick Jagger. So far this isn’t as bad as anything the Black Eyed Peas have put out lately. JLo, still not singing live.

Update 27: Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley present Favorite Country Album to Taylor Swift. Where were these smiles and hugs when Miranda Lambert when Female Vocalist of the Year at the CMAs? She thanks the fans for caring about the lyrics. Give the girl this, she knows how to make her fans feel good about voting for her.

Update 26: Gavin Degraw introduces Daughtry singing “Crawling Back To You” on a post-Apocalyptic set. He’s fighting the volume of the band. You can’t hear the guys on background vocals at all but you can hear the lead switch during the chorus. Well, you can’t say the guys phoned in the performance. I’d also bet this is one of the few performances (the others being Kelly’s and The Band Perry’s) which involved a full live band and a full live vocal. Sometimes the sound mix doesn’t work out for you in that situation which is why a lot of times you have don’t have a live band sound on these awards shows.

Update 25: Julie Bowen and Sarah Hyland of Modern Family!!!! Are forced to do the awkward banter thing because they’re on a comedy series. I don’t think Julie Bowen could’ve sounded less sincere about being happy to be there if she’d tried. Oh noessssss, they announce Bruno Mars beat out the Biebs for Favorite Pop/Rock Male! Please be gentle Beliebers!! Awww, classy speech where he shares the award with Pitbull and the Biebs because they just want to do what they love which is make music.

Update 24: John Legend introduces Drake who’s performing “Headlines”. He’s a little off the beat tonight. I don’t think this is his best.

Update 23: Vanessa Lachey nee Minnillo recaps the show and teases the best finale ever with surprises? I guess I understand the desperation to keep us watching.

Update 22: Bruno Mars introduces Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera to perform “Moves Like Jagger”. See, Maroon 5 is smart because all those tough falsetto parts, Adam’s supported by background vocals to cover up his weakness. There’s also huge reverb to make his voice seem bigger. Christina comes in and she’s spilling out of her dress. Her vocal is fine, not excessive by her standards and she’s not allowed to take over the performance. She & Adam Levine don’t even acknowledge each other’s presence. LOLZ. Straight into Adam Levine with Gym Class Heroes on “Stereo Hearts”. What’s this? Collaborators who actually look at each other during their joint performance? Collaborators who hug each other after a joint performance?

Update 21: The best they could do for an Ellie Goulding introduction was to say she sang at William & Kate’s wedding?? Robin Thicke gives some props to his copresenter. They announce Beyonce is the AMA’s Favorite Female R&B/Soul Artist. She thanks fans via a pretaped message where she pimps her new live DVD and says that’s why she isn’t there even though Robin Thicke and Ellie Goulding said she’s not there because she’s expecting her 1st child.

Update 20: Alanis Morrissette introduces Mary J. Blige. She sings “Mr. Wrong” and actually keeps the melisma to a minimum. Sounds pretty good. She also pays tribute to Heavy D in a very heartfelt moment.

Update 19: Matthew Morrison and Jennifer Morrison who are neither married nor related present Favorite Latin Artist to Jennifer Lopez. She should thank American Idol! But she didn’t! She didn’t expect to win but she had a list. At least she didn’t totally read from it. She thanks her family (specifically her babies), says it’s been an amazing year of ups and downs, thanks her manager and “creative soulmate” Benny Medina. Thanks the label, RedOne, all the producers on her album, and then she thanks her fans in Spanish and tells them she loves them.

Update 18: CMA Country Christmas ad!! Featuring Kellie Pickler in the ad, we also know Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina will be there too.

Update 17: Joe Jonas presents Favorite New Artist to Hot Chelle Rae.

Update 16: Heidi Klum introduces Katy Perry with a little pimpage of the 5 hit singles from her album. Katy Perry sings “The One That Got Away”. She’s Pepto Bismol from head to toe and she’s strumming a guitar. I’m not sure if it’s plugged in but if she’s miming the chords, she’s miming the right ones as far as I can tell. So, I guess this is her try at proving she can sing? I don’t hate this so well played, Katy Perry! Enrique Iglesias looks sad to realize he probably does have the worst voice of anybody who sang live tonight. Heidi Klum gives Katy Perry a made up award to make up for how Taylor Swift and Gaga’s fanbases outvoted hers this year. It’s to recognize Katy as the 1st woman to score 5 #1 Billboard Hot 100 singles from 1 album. Katy Perry starts to do the Taylor Swift shock thing but quickly snaps out of it and thanks her label and fans.

Update 15: Marc Anthony performs. Man has an excellent voice. Hey, Pitbull performed with JLo and now he’s back to perform with Marc Anthony! I think there’s a tasteless custody joke that I could make here.

Update 14: Taylor Swift presents Nicki Minaj the award for Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Album. I’m 95% sure they’d already announced she’d won that when she won Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Artist.

Update 13: Adam Lambert sticks to the script and introduces OneRepublic performing “The Good Life”. So, is this synergy because he’ll have Tedder on his new album? Ryan Tedder is yelping the chorus.

Update 12: Nickelback has sold 50 million albums worldwide? They’re presenting Favorite Country Band/Duo/Group. Please don’t let this mean they’re going to try to go country please don’t let this mean they’re going to try to go country please don’t let this mean they’re going to try to go country. The award goes to Lady Antebellum. They thank their fans and pimp their tour.

Update 11: Jennifer Lopez performs “Until It Beats No More”/”Papi”/”On The Floor” featuring Pitbull, a backing track, and a car commercial. Scratch that. Jennifer Lopez dances to a backing track of those 3 songs. Gotta give her credit for rocking the stage with those moves though. She’s got charisma.

Update 10: Enrique Iglesias performs. Well, he’s singing live and you almost wish he weren’t.

Update 9: Rihanna wins Favorite R&B/Soul Album for Loud.

Update 8: KELLY!!!!! Easily the vocal performance of the night as predicted, with a swing/bigband arrangement of “Mr. Know It All”. It’s totally redundant to say she sounds great – right? But, she’s live and she sounds great. The band is too loud though. There’s more going on around her than she needs as far as the Newsies boys and all that. But, the concept is pretty cool and if she had to do MKIA it’s cool that this is a fresh take on it. Kelly’s styling is very classic 30s too.

Update 7: Looking gorgeous, Jennifer Hudson presents Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Artist to Nicki Minaj. That’s shocking considering she’s actually there!

Update 6: Chris Brown featuring A Crazy Amount Of Reverb take the stage. The live singing stops when he starts dancing.

Update 5: The Band Perry is performing “If I Die Young”, the song that will not die. Because they’re on a pop show now, the acoustic folky song gets an electric guitar solo. Meh to the solo. Kimberly Perry gives us what will probably be the best vocals of the night this side of Kelly Clarkson. And, the song really is great and the band looks sharp.

Update 4: Sean Kingston introduces Justin Bieber singing “Under the Mistetoe”. They’re not even pretending the Biebs is singing over a live band. It’s a pop-reggae song and the Biebs is basically wandering around the stage looking lost without anything to react to while he sings a really average song. Adam Lambert sighting! He’s part of the standing ovation for the Biebs’ performance and I’m going to tell myself that’s because he’s too smart to make the Biebs army mad. I hope that smile of his passed their scrutiny. Please don’t hurt the Glambert, Belieber army!

Update 3: Back from break. SHOCKER! Taylor Swift is SHOCKED when she wins the AMA for Favorite Country Artist-Female. Hot Chelle Rae presents to her.

Update 2: Maroon 5 wins the AMA for Favorite Band/Duo/Group-Pop/Rock. It’s their 1st AMA! Adam Levine says he knows you have to have loyal fans to win this so he’d like to thank….their management? Oh, now he’s thanking the fans. And they get played off.

Update 1: Nicki Minaj and David Guetta open the show with “Turn Me On” and “Where Them Girls At” before Nicki Minaj goes solo on “Super Bass”. Nicki Minaj is dressed in futuristic electric speaker gear. She plugs herself in because if she doesn’t, she won’t be able to lip sync properly. OK, there may be SOME live vocals here. Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift are front row and center for the 1st of what will surely be many shots of them singing and dancing along to everything tonight.

2011 American Music Awards Winners List

Artist of the Year – Taylor Swift
Sprint New Artist of the Year – Hot Chelle Rae
Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist – Bruno Mars
Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist – Adele
Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group – Maroon 5
Favorite Pop/Rock Album – Adele, 21
Favorite Country Female Artist – Taylor Swift
Favorite Country Band/Duo/Group – Lady Antebellum
Favorite Country Album – Taylor Swift, Speak Now
Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist – Nicki Minaj
Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album – Nicki Minaj, Pink Friday
Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist – Beyonce
Favorite Soul/R&B Album – Rihanna, Loud
Favorite Alternative Artist – Foo Fighters
Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist – Adele
Favorite Latin Artist – Jennifer Lopez
Special Award – Katy Perry

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